scoutpilot
10-Year Member
- Joined
- Apr 29, 2010
- Messages
- 4,479
Weasel out of your quote all you want, but per the above, all the manly men from USMA are supposed to be about "closing and destroying the enemy" - hardly the job of the Corps of Engineers. Those guys help with the fluffy crap of nation building and aren't exactly tasked with "closing and destroying".
Weasel out? Please. Again, you quite clearly do not know what you're talking about with regard to the engineer branch. Allow me to help you. The engineer branch, while inextricably linked in name and structure to the US Army Corps of Engineers (USACE), is a warfighting branch of the US Army charged with the battlefield effect of using terrain as a weapon and denying its use to the enemy. The USACE is an Army Major Command (like FORSCOM or TRADOC) and is a public works entity which leverages the capabilities of the Army's engineers.
To be sure that you understand what that means, considering the following (from FM 3-34 Engineer Operations):
FM 3-34 said:3-63. As discussed in chapter 2, all engineer units must be prepared to conduct their mission while in close combat. This is referred to as fighting as engineers and is inherent to the primary mission of engineer units. Engineer units, particularly combat engineer units, also have the secondary mission to be prepared to fight as infantry. This section discusses both cases of engineers in close combat.
Fact.
And if you read my quote carefully, you would recognize that degrees weren't required for all Engineering slots.
Degrees in engineering are not required to branch into engineers. Some advanced engineer positions later in an officer's career may involve engineering degrees.
And of course, you didn't say anything about the EOD guys in Ordnance (who must be responsible for goat vaccination as a member of a support branch). Yeah, they aren't "closing and destroying the enemy", they just keep the other guys from "closing and destroying our team" - hardly a coward's job.
Yes, the small, small group of them in EOD do great work. It's also not a job you can branch into. Beyond that, they are from what the branch "does" as a whole. Not even close. Transportation has boats. That doesn't make them a navy.
You love to disparage folks who signed up for branches that you think aren't manly enough - hardly the type of leadership that builds a team. Oh, yeah those transportation guys who are easy targets for the Taliban aren't part of your team.
Your words, not mine.
Point here is that cadets should sign up for branches that fit their talents and interests. If you have a talent towards computer/networks/etc., keeping Signal Corps off your branch list because of some misguided sense of what a "real officer" does is not doing your country any favors.
Again, those are your words. No one called anyone a "real officer" but you. Cadets should desire to lead from the front, into combat, because someone else's kid is depending on that leadership, and that kid didn't get all the free education and fun trips and perks of being at USMA. You took all the perks. You can't be afraid to face the fire.
If USMA didn't feel that way too, they wouldn't require 85% of males to branch combat arms.
Last edited: