Integrating an engineer platoon within a combined arms team

Military Review,  March-April, 2006  by Mark T. Martinez

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In war, as well as in training, well-established combined arms teams, like the Armored Cavalry Regiment (ACR), are frequently augmented with additional engineer assets. These nonhabitual engineers do not have the luxury of bringing a working understanding of the team to the battle and, subsequently, are not fully integrated into the fight. The repercussion of this is severe and, as history demonstrates, can costs lives.

I first experienced the integration process in the fall of 1993 as platoon leader of a mechanized combat engineer platoon. The assignment for my platoon and me was to Fort Bliss, Texas, where we deployed to Kuwait with the 3d Armored Caw airy Regiment (3d ACR) for Operation Intrinsic Action, a combined arms/coalition training exercise with Kuwaiti forces. My platoon was to augment the 3d ACR's organic engineers (habitual engineers) so they would have enough mechanized engineer support on the ground to complete their mission. I had never worked with this unique combined arms team, and I had a lot to learn in the area of integration.

The operation's live-fire exercise was staged at the Undari Range Complex, about 50 kilometers (km) from Kuwait City. The training required each ACR cavalry troop to take its turn going through a 20-km tactical obstacle course (tactical lane) consisting of minefields and enemy strongpoints. The four engineer platoons (three organic, one nonorganic) rotated as engineer support for the troops negotiating the lane. In the 3 months we were deployed, my platoon had the opportunity to integrate with each of the cavalry troops, although the process was not always successful.

Iteration 1

After working most of the day repairing obstacles on the tactical lane, my platoon reported to K Troop for the next day's operations. This was my first mission with the cavalry, and I felt confident that my platoon could meet any challenge. By the time we arrived at the assembly area it was dark, so I arranged my platoon within the perimeter and reported to the troop's tactical operation center. When I asked the whereabouts of the commander, the troop's executive officer (XO) told me the commander had already retired for the day. When I asked about the next day's operation, the XO became irritated and said, "Look, here's our troop's radio frequencies. Be ready to roll at 0400; tape up your front blackout drive lights, and keep your platoon behind my command track. And for heaven's sake, engineer, try to keep up!" So much for being welcomed into the fold of the combined arms team.

The short conversation shook my sense of how the engineers integrated. To the cavalry officer, I was not one of his team members, I was just one of those "damned engineers" that could not keep up. This was an eye opener for me, and I could not understand why the maneuver force had taken its engineer support so lightly. This was my first taste of a real-world, combined-arms team, and I could not see how it was going to work. When I returned to my platoon, my squad leaders were waiting for their orders. Taking the attitude that I would be ready for anything, I told the squad leaders we would prepare for our basic breach battle drill, and I would adjust that as circumstances required.

Early the next morning, my platoon pulled out with K Troop. Although visibility was poor because of dust, I kept the XO's command track in sight and my platoon in formation. My track had two radios, so I monitored K Troop's frequency as well as my own and kept my squad leaders briefed on the status of the battle.

K Troop's forward elements reached the line of departure just as the sun came up. The traffic on K Troop's net increased. Things were happening, and I braced myself for the imminent radio call to send my engineers forward for the breach. Twenty minutes later I heard that one of the scout platoons had encountered a minefield/wire obstacle. They were taking heavy direct fire and requested that the tanks be moved forward. The battle ensued and enemy artillery fire pinned down the tanks. I heard reports as they were being sent back and forth from the platoons to the XO. The K Troop commander was yelling orders to his platoons, and as the number of his vehicles being destroyed increased, his voice became more frantic. The battle to find a bypass around the minefield was taking a heavy toll.

Still not understanding how the cavalry worked, but understanding that something was wrong, I radioed the XO and reminded him that my engineers were still sitting behind him. The XO, in an irritated voice, demanded that I stay off the net. So, I quietly listened to the systematic destruction of K Troop. The final desperate words of the troop's commander were "Come on! Find that #@% bypass! Fight like men, dammit! Fight like men!" The company commander, in a last-ditch effort, attempted to roll through four rows of mines and became a casualty. Then the net was quiet. A voice from the tower declared the end of the exercise. The final count still alive included the troop's XO, two Bradleys, and a platoon of extremely bored engineers.