How the Iraq War Redefined the Role of a Combat Engineer

How the Iraq War Redefined the Role of a Combat Engineer Name: Course title: Professor: Institution: Date Due:  It was in the year 2003 when the American president by then George W. Bush declared war on Iraq. This declaration and subsequent execution of war by the American forces was due to the assumption that the country that was being led by Saddam Hussein was harboring terrorists as well as dangerous weapons of mass destruction. This paper will assess the functions of a US combatant engineer in Iraq war. The basic mission of US army is to fight all the enemies of the state and offer sustained, prompt land dominance across the full range of its operations and conflict spectrum by support of combatant commanders. A combat engineer in US perspective performs various roles related to demolition and construction under combat circumstances. Such roles may involve making trenches, bunker, tank traps, road and bridge construction or destruction, clearing and laying of land mines as well as other physical operations in the battlefront. In essence, the goals of a combatant engineer include facilitation of army operations and movements including those of the friendly forces while impeding the movement and operations of the enemy (US military, 2013). The Iraq war redefined the US military engineer functions, both in reconstruction and in combat. This put to test the swift deployment policy, which heavily depended on the work of engineers. In essence, the engineer combatant were responsible for upgrading, expanding, and updating the equipment fleet of the army, as well as offering the capability of moving around these equipments, materials and gear. They were also relegated with a duty of maintenance of communication systems, transmissions, deployment of compact tele-equipment kits, which enabled field units to directly consult with experts and army commandants in America by use of satellites. They also assisted in moving supplies of construction equipments and fabricated materials such as modular mats that were used for helicopter pads. In addition, they worked closely with other teams that were responsible for explosive ordinance disposal, clearing ammunition dumps and weapon caches so as to improve security and safety ( HYPERLINK "mailto:enr_web_editors@mcgraw-hill.com"  Sawyer and Wright, 2003). Apart from these roles, military engineers were as well involved in various other civic projects. Some of these projects were concerned on improving relations with the local populace, restoring order, and services for the local people and so on. This apparently led to reduction of operation costs. For instance, had the American Army employed local contractors for such jobs, they could have indeed used more money in this Iraq war project. The goal of the engineers during the Iraq invasion was to facilitate mobility for the forces by conjuring an efficient infrastructure in supporting, protecting and sustaining the advances towards their enemy territories. The concept of assured mobility is at the focus of the army department. Moreover, this concept puts the impetus on the lead, hard charging and mechanical i...