How is it being a 12B Combat Engineer on active duty?

2018-06-29T18:51:24-04:00

I am currently working on getting a conditional release from the Florida Army National Guard to go Active Duty. My current MOS is 12B. I'm curious as to how things are day to day for an active duty combat engineer. What are the main stateside bases 12bs get stationed at? Just trying to gain some more knowledge. Thanks.

Response by LTC Private RallyPoint Member made Jun 29 at 2018 7:56 PM

2018-06-29T19:56:10-04:00

The regular Army is just like the Guard and reserve, except every day.

Sometimes there is more discipline, but that depends on your unit.

Response by CPT(P) Private RallyPoint Member made Jun 29 at 2018 11:45 PM

2018-06-29T23:45:13-04:00

Best of luck to you. I was in the Iowa National Guard as a 12B, but Commissioning was the only option available that allowed me to transfer to Active Duty.
As far as Duty Stations, you can choose pretty much any installation.
Ft. Drum, NY; Ft. Bragg; Ft. Campbell, KY; Ft. Leonard Wood, MO; Ft. Riley, KS; Ft. Carson, CO; JBLM, WA; and many more. The only limiting factor is manning requirements and what you want.
My first duty station was Joint Base Lewis-McChord (JBLM), WA with the 1st Stryker Brigade. It was a fantastic location and the unit was great.
Active Duty life can be pretty busy, depending on the Unit. In the last 4 years my unit conducted 3x NTC rotations and a 6 month Pacific Theater Rotation (Thailand, South Korea, and Philippines.
Overall, I'm happy with my transition to Active Duty and will be glad to answer any other questions you have.

Response by SGT Mark McElwee Jr made Jun 29 at 2018 11:47 PM

2018-06-29T23:47:35-04:00

As the Major said. I was with 11th Eng. at Fort Stewart under the 24th ID. When we weren’t on standby or training to ramp up we were tasked with base projects. Everything from painting to mowing lawns etc.. it was just part of the rotation.. enjoyed it though. I went from Reserves to active in 92. Had my choices of Stewart, Korea, Germany, Polk and Carson.

Response by SSG Private RallyPoint Member made Jun 29 at 2018 11:51 PM

2018-06-29T23:51:31-04:00

Lewis, Irwin, Carson, Riley, Campbell, Bragg, Bliss, Hood, Drum, Stewart, Polk, Benning, Leonard Wood, Alaska, Hawaii, Germany, Korea, Italy... as an engineer you can pretty much go anywhere.
If you end up in a Bradley unit, you will live in the motor pool or be in the field OFTEN especially if you get stuck at Riley. If you Get to a light unit, you will get more tactical knowledge. Try to get yourself to a Stryker unit. In my opinion, That’s where it’s at, you get the best of both worlds. Also if you don’t know demo, I’d advise opening a book and figuring it out. Be pretty embarasing to show up to a unit as an nco and your Soldiers know more about your job then you do.
Good luck!

Response by SGT Chester Beedle made Jul 4 at 2018 1:34 AM

2018-07-04T01:34:20-04:00

I can't speak of being a 12B specifically as I was an 11B in the regular army as well as in the guard (with a few years in the middle as a 12B). BUT, I can say that in some ways they are the same and in some they are very, very different.
One thing I noticed, and this is very unit specific.... the 82nd or 101st is going to be a bit stricter than a unit at Ft. Lewis (from what I've been told it was a culture shock for some people). But it is a little stricter overall. Almost nobody on a first name basis. A little more separation between ranks. A little more petty stuff at times.
But one thing I found in the Guard a lot of times was trying to cram a full months worth of stupidity into a weekend drill.
A rifle qual that took all day, or all weekend for just a company in the guard would have been enough to cycle a complete infantry batallion (including the anti armor company in the 101st) through... with a day left over.
Actually standing at parade rest for NCOs senior to you.
A lot of time hiding out playing video games.
A lot of time cutting the grass, or picking up trash on the side of the road, or acting at gate guards, or other menial stuff.
More time for actual training. When I was a guard 12B we had just a couple days a year, usually just at AT when we even saw live demo. If you were screwed and had KP that day... well you were just screwed. I volunteered a couple times so a new private (or someone who reclassed and maybe hadn't been through MOSQ, or didn't have a lot of demo time or was still nervous about it) could have the experience. I'd handled live demo more as a 11B in the active army than I did in the Guard as a 12B until were were doing some trainup before deploying.
There is a good chance you will be treated more like an adult. Have you deployed? If so, remember the BS pre-mob training? Where you were locked down for a couple months, couldn't go off post without commander's permission, couldn't even go to the damn PX a lot of the time? Different units had different rules of course, but what we did for a couple months, regular army units here did for just the week before getting on the plane.

Response by PFC Private RallyPoint Member made Jul 28 at 2018 2:53 AM

2018-07-28T02:53:30-04:00

It all depends on what unit you get sent into in all honesty and you probably know that some units are better than others but if you get a good unit it’s a great job and I wouldn’t trade it for anything but then with a shit unit life sucks and you do nothing but hit pocket training and details and a unhealthy chain of command so it all depends on what unit you go to

Response by SGT Private RallyPoint Member made Jan 20 at 2019 8:01 PM

2019-01-20T20:01:23-05:00

18 years ago we went to the field quite a bit. Each squad had a particular Infantry Rifle Company that we supported, so when they went to the field, we went with them. In addition to that, we had our own field time to do and in addition to that, we ended covering for guys who were at schools and what not from time to time. On the other hand, especially in the light world, we got lots opportunity for schools and support for going to them. We trained on breaching, breaching, breaching, and also breaching. Every once in a while we would construct an obstacle or practice doing a route clearance. I was in the best shape of my life. Also I was in Hawaii.

Response by CPT Lawrence Cable made Sep 5 at 2019 7:28 AM

2019-09-05T07:28:03-04:00

Since they pushed a Battalion of Combat Engineers down to every maneuver Brigade, anywhere there are Infantry or Tanks. If you are considering making this a career, I would push the recruiter for Airborne, then go for Sapper when you get to your unit. That should be fairly easy in an Airborne unit. Those are the two big schools on our side of the fence, Ranger is a plus when you get up to those competitive senior NCO ranks.
I did most of my Engineer time as National Guard, but we supported 3rd ID in Wurzburg and we got a lot of keep up time with them. All mechanized units, but my general opinion of how things worked was that Guard has better equipment operators and my motor pool would have ran circles around what I saw in Bamberg (82 Engineers). I give them the advantage in squad level training and most of their senior NCO's were pretty good. My last tour with them, the 82nd had just switched from Corp level to Divisional, so a lot of the Officers and Senior NCO's were struggling to adapt to the maneuver world, where I had been enlisted and commissioned a grunt before branch transferring and ending up in a Divisional Engineer unit.

Response by SPC Jeremy Babson made Jan 7 at 2020 8:37 AM

2020-01-07T08:37:32-05:00

I was at Fort Riley with 1st En Bn for three years. We deployed once. Almost deployed again. Then did nothing mentionable but JRTC until I ETS'D out of frustration with the idleness.

I think as others pointed out it really depends on where you are stationed. Most of our combat hardened guys let after they released the stop loss before the second deployment that was cancelled so we could change over to a mobility brigade.

Without the combat hardened troops stateside became a shit show respect by rear d douchebags.