________________________________________________________________________Richard S. Kem
Another experience just came to mind that I ought to recount, which really speaks to the
engineer's role in giving advice and counsel to the maneuver task force commander. I gave
the one example earlier where I was introduced by the task force commander who said,
"Meet my engineer." Later on, I was out on a field exercise with the 32d Tank Battalion,
again a reinforced task force. A mission had been given to seize an objective. The interesting
part of the objective was that two-thirds of it was on the right side of a river and one-third on
the left side, and this was not a little stream. I mean, we're talking about, you know, 8 to 10
floats of M4T6 to cross it.
We moved out to do our recons and then came back in to talk to the battalion task force S3
and commander so the commander could develop his commander's concept of the operation.
I was one of the first back, and I went up to the battalion commander and he said, "Hey, now,
that stream, that's no problem, is it? You can probably get across that in a matter of
minutes."
I thought, "Oh, my God, where's he coming from?" I mean, that's unrealistic in the sense of
here's the objective and you don't attempt a bridge crossing in the middle of assaulting your
final objective. So, I suggested to him that, obviously, his force could take the right two-
thirds part of the objective but he needed a force on the other side, much before reaching the
objective, to make that assault.
Because I'd been in the pre-briefs, the options available seemed to show that there were a
few companies from another battalion available on the other side of the river. Probably this
was the teaching point that brigade or division was trying to make. I suggested that he should
request them to be attached to him so they could assault the other side of the river and take
that one-third of the objective. The light bulb came on, they made that request to brigade,
they were given those assets, and they conducted the attack like this lowly lieutenant had
suggested was probably the right answer. He looked like a champ. [Laughter]
So, I think the engineer officer on the battlefield has an opportunity at the earliest point in his
career of anyone to get a perspective of combined arms in fighting the battle. To be
successful, he must do that. I mean, the engineer must be able to see things like the battalion
S3 that he is supporting because he is contributing to him and he is influencing across the
whole unit. When I would go out on the field exercises, my peer lieutenants of infantry were
sitting in their foxholes waiting for the company commander to come back from his recon
and tell them what their mission was for the next day. I, as an engineer platoon leader, was
out there with those company commanders surveying the terrain, trying to figure out what
was going on so we could make recommendations to the maneuver commander and his S3
that would contribute to the molding of that commander's concept for the operation. So, we
were contributing to his paragraph 3(a) "Concept of Operation" of the order. The others were
waiting to be told what they were going to do the next day so they could execute. So, the
engineer lieutenant has a higher level of experience and insight about combined arms than
his peers.
By the same token, you see, that's another ingredient of EForce because of that experience.
The problem is that the platoon leader or company commander can't be planning and also
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