Engineer

MAY-AUG 2013

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.

Issue link: https://engineer.epubxp.com/i/145930

Contents of this Issue

Navigation

Page 7 of 43

By Colonel Adam S. Roth T he four components that comprise the Engineer Regiment are the Regular Army, the Army National Guard, the U.S. Army Reserve, and the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers (USACE). As the Regiment moves toward the Army of 2020, it also moves toward a period of constrained resources, fscal austerity, and sequestration. These factors confound the "fow" of the Regiment, which has fowed in a laminar fashion for the past decade at war, using overseas contingency operations funding. Now, however, it fnds itself fowing in a turbulent fashion due to budget decrements. Some factors that have made the fow become turbulent include the decrease in authorized funding, the curtailment of training and exercises and—for our Regiment specifcally—the postponement of ENFORCE. Moving forward, the Regiment must look at things holistically, studying the way it supports the Army and the Nation from a "one Regiment" perspective. The fow would stop if we retrenched back to the way our components were before 11 September 2001 and continued to operate along tribal "stovepipes." After more than a decade of warfghting, we must do everything possible to continue developing and cultivating the mutual trust among the components that we now enjoy as institutional knowledge. We must also continue the dialogue, especially when the opportunities for "professional intimacy" decrease. Face-to-face interactions (which cannot be wholly replicated through tele- 6 Engineer conferences, video teleconferences, and blogs) will become fewer. Brigadier General Peter A. (Duke) DeLuca, the U.S. Army Engineer School commandant, says that there should be no single-purpose engineer Soldier. Similarly, there should also be no single-purpose engineer event. Our challenge is to preserve professional intimacy while operating at the same level of operational tempo with fewer resources. It will be the Regiment moving forward, as one that must preserve the "engineerness" of our rich Regiment and thrive in that environment. T Governance he Engineer Regiment has a heartbeat, which is the normal battle rhythm that fuels the decisionmaking of our senior leaders and determines the way we interact with the larger, institutional Army. Examples of this heartbeat include— ■ Regimental synchronization teleconferences (usually held on the second Tuesday of every month). ■ Engineer fusion cell/engineer warfghter forums (secure video teleconferences usually held on the last Wednesday of every month). ■ Regimental command councils (held semiannually). ■ ENFORCE (held annually). May–August 2013

Articles in this issue

Archives of this issue

view archives of Engineer - MAY-AUG 2013