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26 Engineer January–April 2014 4. Devise Inclusive Team-Building Activities N ew BEB commanders inherit the lineage and honors of storied engineer battalions. Respect that heritage, but fgure out ways to celebrate the contributions of the rest of the team. Commanders can't rewrite history, but they can alter ceremonies and traditions to make them inclusive. There will be a natural camaraderie among the engineers, born from a shared set of experiences and assign- ment patterns. Platoon leaders from one engineer company will move to be the executive offcers of a sister company or to the battalion S-3 shop. Engineer captains on the battal- ion staff will move down to take command of the engineer companies. These patterns will stitch the engineers together by establishing natural lines of communication and coopera- tion. The same patterns do not exist with the other compa- nies, so it takes deliberate command emphasis to build a cohesive team. Shared training, competitions, and social events are effec- tive in building greater cohesion across the formation. When structuring competitions, commanders need to ensure that they provide every formation an opportunity to play to their strengths. The great diversity of the BEB companies will bring diverse skills. Some companies will have an advantage in physical activities, while others will shine in skill-based competitions. For example, instead of conducting a simple litter relay, a contest could require teams to use a radio to call for a medical evacuation frst. Likewise, ceremonies and traditions can be adjusted to include the other branches. Command and ships T he adage that "good fences make good neighbors" could read "clearly defned command and support relationships make good neighbors." In Afghani- stan, my BSTB had 18 separate entities working with or for adjacent battalions. Clearly defning each of these relationships is the commander's business. Staff offcers tend to use the terms attached, direct sup- port, tactical control, and operational con- trol interchangeably and loosely. In one case, during battal- ion train-up, a draft brigade task organiza- tion showed half of my signal company was under the operational control of the brigade S-6. Not only is this doctrinally impossible, it is operationally problematic. I recommend that BEB com- manders be personally involved in the development of the brigade's task organization. Throughout our brigade's prep- aration for deployment, my battalion S-3 and I routinely discussed task organization with the brigade engineer, S-2, S-3, and S-6 to ensure that subordinate units were pro- viding proper support with the proper command/support relationship. E mbrace nonstandard missions. Part of the beauty of the BSTB is its ability to cover down on nonstan- dard missions for the BCT commander. Because a signifcant part of the battalion is typically task-organized under the operational control of other battalions, the BSTB becomes something of an extra mission command node for the brigade commander. This may be slightly less true for the BEB than the BSTB, but the battalion still provides the brigade commander with a complete staff that can exercise mission command over missions such as base defense; area security; reception, staging, onward movement, and integra- tion; and training for enablers (female engagement teams, military working dogs). Although the BEB has the small- est battalion staff, it also has the most functionally diverse one. This diversity increases the ability to execute a diverse range of missions effectively. T he unique squads and platoons of the BSTB make it challenging to structure a shared training experi- ence for the battalion for anything beyond common warrior tasks. In earlier engineer battalions, it was typical for the battalion to centrally organize and execute squad and platoon training lanes for each identical sapper pla- toon, often with a best squad/platoon designation at the end. Soldiers from the 65th Engineer Battalion conduct an after action review. EN Dillard.1.indd 29 3/12/2014 1:17:23 PM