what is the life of a 12b like in the Army?

I started to write a long thing, but realized I have been out for nearly 24 years. I enjoyed being a 12B immensely, but it is not for the faint of heart. Be ready to sweat and work hard and to spend a lot of time in training areas (field problems, living in tents out in the boonies). But, you get to shoot lots of weapons 4 times a year at qualification, and hit the demolition range a couple times a year, at least back when I was in.

What is a Combat Engineer? In a nutshell, it is a person with a bedrock faith in the idea that in all the many and various arenas of human social interaction there are no interpersonal conflicts that cannot be satisfactorily resolved through the proper application of high explosives.

PT, stand around, bs on cell phones, maybe do a layout, pmcs some vehicles, lunch, Bs on cell phones some more, wait for final formation.

This was my experience, recommend becoming a pilot. I am enjoying that much better.

We spent the majority of our time in the field doing long range recon for days to remote bridges and towns, practicing assault boat river crossing, practicing bridge demotions, working on infantry tactics, building stuff on the base, baily bridge construction, timber bridge contruction, we built a tank target range, built a boy scout camp for a small town, sitting in the woods on "deployment alert" multiple times for several days at a time, munitions bunker security multiple times for two weeks at a time, worked as gate guards on the base, war games, escape and evade exercises, regular firing range time with M16, M203, M60,50cal and laws rocket on occasion, Competitions against German Military Engineers , lots of PT , painted company trucks twice a year, lots of other Guard duty, reforger and other war games, practiced getting to designated bridges targeted for demotion near 1k zone, built some sidewalks for a new movie theater on base

Well I spend most my time in the field at demo ranges.. And I love it, it's very satisfying to make things go boom.. just pray you don't have to build any bridges

Be prepared for the 2 different routes as a 12B. There is route clearance and sapper. I’m in a sapper company. My job consists of dealing with demolitions. Within my company we take care of going into the breach. Doing manual breaching and demo breaching. I work with Bangalores, shape charges, cratering charges, c4, and det cord as well as all the other mdi. Out of all the jobs I could’ve gone with I’m glad I chose 12B. It’s a fun job and if you enjoy what you do you won’t work a day in you life.

Lots of time in field, deployments on a regular basis. Army can't survive without 12B soldiers, and infantry can't fight without us. Engineer forward so infantry can get around obstacles and troops that are dug in.

Don't. Get a civilian job in the Army. 20 years and a disability is all you will get. Maximize your enlistment to set yourself up for life. Blowing crap up and whatnot was fun but there are so many better jobs to do.

Be prepared to work.

Your experience will vary from duty station to duty station. Light units train differently than mech units, some units maintain a higher operations tempo than others. If you go to a mechanized unit you will do a lot of vehicle maintenance and shoot a lot of gunnery " Qualifications with big guns". If you go light you will get more small unit tactics training. Day to day while not in the field, at a range or deployed can be a little dull if you have dull leadership. Demo ranges kick ass, machine guns are fun as hell to shoot ied's will keep you alert. All in all it doesn't such. You get what you put in. Its like infantry but with demo and a brain.