What's the reality of being a combat engineer?

Heavy equiptment/mechanical, was my choice, mechanical always was a benifit and still does, heavy equitpment is a trade that'll allways be needed for service, in the civil or military.
Had some good friends that were electrician, carpenters and plumbers, hung around those guys and learned the trade, to do things for myself at my own home. I still do my electrical, plumbing and picked up maisonary skill too.
Mechanical gave me the insight and willingness to learn fixing things, I did my own Harley repairs. Now, a wife might not like a husband that is always in the company with his new love, his Harley.

Combat engineers have a wide skillset that covers alot of things. They do everything from demo, mine clearance, digging holes, cutting trees, breaching, clearing landzones, and also building to include carpentry. I saw them do everything from blowing doors, clearing trees from potential landing zones, digging vehicle fighting positions and even building walls, barriers and even putting together wooden structures for new op centers or new huts for troops to call home. Your wife will always have reservations regardless of what you choose.

William Abbott Below is a previous post with information about the Combat Engineer MOS. Search on "12B" and "Combat Engineer" to find other posts. Gather as much information as you can and then talk to your wife so that you are both on the same page. Good luck. Let us know what you decide.

https://www.rallypoint.com/answers/how-is-it-being-a-12b-combat-engineer-on-active-duty

My Uncle retired from the US Army and was a Combat Engineer, He did enjoy what He did. It seems likely however handling explosives the loud noise caused Him some permanent damage which showed mostly as He got older although He made it to age 90. He was well versed in taking out bridges and buildings with explosives. He knew how things were built also as He spent most of His life as a building contractor.

Depends on what you want out of life and a career. 12B deals with explosives, mobility/counter mobility. As you move up in rank you will be expected to figure out demo formulas, route recon parameters such as how steep is a slope, how fast is a current in water, what is the radius of a turn in a road. Algebra comes into play. Yes there are pocket calculators today, but you need to be able to do this by hand as well because what if you are on a mission and your calculator goes tits up?? Yes, it is a good MOS, I had it along with my 11B MOS, they went together real well. I worked a lot with explosives in my civilian job at one time, so was good. If you are looking for a MOS that has a civilian side, not as good as many others. You need to weigh out all your options, figure out what you want in life.

All depends on the kind of unit you get to. Primarily in the Motor Pool doing maintenance on vehicles; in the field a lot. Deployments nowadays aren't too dangerous. At the end of the day, if you have all 10 fingers, 10 toes and 90% of your hearing still intact....it was a good day.

I signed up to be a 51B carpenter mason then later re- classed to a 12B. 91-96 Army, A lot of building and a lot of bombs for me. When i signed up as a 51B I signed up so I will be able to utilize this experience to further my career when I got out, this is critical, and became a General Building Contractor and used my 4 years experience with the Corps I needed to take my state exam. It’s a two pronged approach. Choose an MOS that’s going to help you as a civilian as well. Find an mos that you’re passionate about and it’s the beginning of your career road for life. If you score well on your ASVAB Test you can do much in any branch. If you score low you might only be offered infantry. You have to score pretty high to become one of today’s Combat Engineer. Be prepared for your ASVAB Test!! 75% of potential cruits fail and are not accepted in today’s high tech US Armed Forces. The better you do the more choices you have. Navy corpsman are great, they save infantry and marine lives on the battlefield, then get out and you’ve paved your way into the medical field , first responder , hospitals $ for instance. Sounds like you might have a family to raise, best of luck to you trooper

extremely valuable operations
rich

Well it's called route clearance training to prepare, and base preparation as well as unit duty taking care of the unit at rank pay grade.

We’re you in Vietnam if so what Company and what year