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Engineer 51 January–April 2014 T he idea of educating engineers to understand geospa- tial engineering in support of tactical operations is not a new one. Over the past three decades, the Engi- neer Regiment has advocated that engineer offcers become terrain experts at the tactical level. However, there has never been a dedicated training curriculum for offcers for the application of geospatial engineering to tactical opera- tions. The military occupational specialty-producing courses for warrant offcers, noncommissioned offcers, and enlisted Soldiers provide excellent individual technical skills in geo- spatial engineering. The National Geospatial–Intelligence Agency previously offered joint-level courses on various geospatial topics, which included everything from learning to use FalconView ® software in the Geospatial Information and Services for the Warrior Course to training topographic engineer offcers to supervise the development of hardcopy mapping products in the legacy Topographic Offcer Man- agement Course at the National Geospatial–Intelligence Agency. Yet, no single course offered a complete understand- ing of how Army engineer offcers could use geospatial engi- neering capabilities to address the full spectrum of tactical operations in which engineers could be involved. Development of Tactical Geospatial Knowledge T here is no course available that is dedicated to train- ing Army personnel to use geospatial data for plan- ning or conducting operations at the tactical level. No specifc training on using geospatial engineering at the tacti- cal level existed for commissioned offcers. To address this gap in training, the 20th Engineer Brigade (Combat) devel- oped a 24-hour course focused on educating offcers assigned to positions requiring the application of geospatial engineer- ing for tactical operations. The Geospatial Engineer Tactical Operations Course (GETOC) was developed by feld grade offcers who possessed operational and academic experience in the felds of tactical combat engineering and geospatial intelligence. The GETOC is a course "for geospatial engineers by geo- spatial engineers" that focuses on developing the geospatial knowledge of company grade Army engineer offcers assigned to positions where a signifcant amount of geospatial engi- neering is applied to tactical operations. The course was designed to prepare new lieutenants to attain a level of base- line geospatial expertise to lead platoons in a geospatial engi- neer company. It was also designed to provide junior warrant offcers with an understanding of how geospatial informa- tion and services can be applied to tactical operations in wartime, contingency, and disaster relief environments. The objectives of the GETOC are— ■ Provide company grade geospatial engineering offcers with a fundamental understanding of how geospatial information and services are used for tactical military operations. ■ Familiarize students with common geospatial hardware, software, and data. ■ Provide company grade leaders with fundamental geo- spatial concepts for planning and leading geospatial operations at the tactical level. T he GETOC is a 3-day (24-hour), tactically based course that focuses on geospatial engineering sup- port to warfghters engaged in land-based opera- tions. It provides a fundamental understanding of geospa- tial engineering and common geospatial products. It also provides tactical-level leaders with a basic understanding of their roles and responsibilities concerning geospatial infor- mation and services. The course focuses on the application of geospatial information and products to tactical-level mili- tary operations. The GETOC does not provide any executive-level train- ing or U.S. Army Training and Doctrine Command military occupational specialty certifcation. That type of training is outside the charter of a tactical-level combat engineer bri- gade. The GETOC is not a joint, strategic, academic, or theo- retical course; but it does introduce various concepts in those domains as they relate to tactical military operations. The GETOC does not educate students specifcally on geospatial —Major R. Wendell Stevens 1 By Lieutenant Colonel Jared L. Ware EN Ware.1.indd 54 3/24/2014 2:17:16 PM