Engineer presents professional information designed to keep U.S. military and civilian engineers informed of current and emerging developments within their areas of expertise for the purpose of enhancing their professional development.
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"Captains Courageous . . . illustrates the importance of on-the-job training. Classroom training is an important step in education, but nothing prepares a Soldier to perform his or her combat mission better than performing that same mission in peacetime." Harvey has pride in the calluses on his hands from handling fshing tackle, climbing ropes, rowing a dinghy, and cleaning and storing the fsh. Gradually, he becomes accepted as part of the crew through his hard work and learned capability. His place is cemented by the survival of the ship and its crew through exhausting days, with tedium underscored by fear during vicious storms and a near miss with a steamer that obliterates a nearby fshing boat in a dense fog. shape their bodies into the tools and weapons that they can become. Soldiers learn responsibility for themselves, their unit, and their equipment. They are given increasingly diffcult tasks to complete, but having built confdence in themselves and their team through training, they know that they can accomplish any task. They have evolved from private citizens into professionals of arms and have laid the foundation for leadership. At the end of a successful and highly proftable voyage for the crew, the ship puts into port and Harvey sends a telegram to his parents to let them know that he is alive and well. His parents, thinking him dead for months, rush across the continent in their private railroad car to reclaim their son. Harvey continues his work with the We're Here, representing the ship at the scales and ensuring that a correct tally of the cargo is completed. His parents arrive to fnd a completely different son from the one they had lost. Instead of an overindulged boy with an unearned sense of entitlement, Harvey is now a confdent, respectful, and reliable young man with a sense of purpose, integrity, and loyalty. He has become a professional sailor. Captains Courageous also illustrates the importance of on-the-job training. Classroom training is an important step in education, but nothing prepares a Soldier to perform his or her combat mission better than performing that same mission in peacetime. Horizontal construction engineers conduct equipment operator training while on construction sites. Vertical construction engineers ensure that Soldiers can perform the tasks necessary to be profcient in their military occupational specialty and usually cross-train Soldiers so that they can perform the tasks of another specialty when needed. Not only does this training reinforce and hone the skills that Soldiers learn in advanced individual training, it also gives Soldiers a sense of accomplishment as they make a tangible contribution toward the completion of the construction mission. Harvey's father tests this newfound professionalism by offering him two future paths: he can live off his father's wealth and spend his time idly; or he can go to a university, graduate, and join one of his father's many business ventures and earn his way to the top. To his father's delight, Harvey considers his choices and chooses the latter, harder choice. Yanked from his life of privilege and thrust into a world of hard work, Harvey has learned the values that will make him successful throughout the rest of his life. The transformation from ordinary citizen to competent professional that Harvey undergoes is similar to the way the Army creates leaders out of individuals from all walks of life. Offcers and enlisted Soldiers start in a basic course, where they learn to be followers and to work as a team toward mission accomplishment. They learn a moral code and a set of values. They learn that if they want a reward—a pass, an award, or a promotion—they have to earn it, because nothing will be handed to them. This is a diffcult lesson for some people to learn, since they live in a society of instant gratifcation. Captain Bruce is attending the Engineer Captains Career Course at Fort Leonard Wood, Missouri. He holds a bachelor's degree in international relations from the University of Nebraska at Omaha and is pursuing master's degrees in geological engineering through the Missouri University of Science and Technology, Rolla, and international relations through Troy University, Troy, Alabama. The Army teaches the fundamentals of physical ftness; and through exercise and tasks such as the obstacle course, foot marches, and squad training exercises, Soldiers May–August 2013 Engineer 35