Engineers In Vietnam War Essay

The engineer’s role in the Vietnam War proved to be one of extreme importance. The engineer during this time, as in modern day military is one that is versatile and involved in every phase of the operation. Engineers are charged with a plethora of important tasks necessary to provide assured mobility, counter mobility and survivability for follow on friendly forces. During this time they performed these tasks with very few or no recourses at all. Regardless Engineers continued to fight along their infantry counterparts executing these tasks while developing better techniques and adapting to challenges that they face. The Army Engineer will prove to be the quintessential Soldier that was called upon to solve complex problems in the Vietnam War.

The enemy utilized tunnel system to remain elusive in War which proved to be a successful tactic. The tunnels were hard to find because they were expertly camouflaged, and were usually found in uninhabited locations. These tunnel systems were complex and substantial enough for large size elements to assemble and operate from. The Army engineer was again called upon to deal with this complex problem due to the great amount of intelligence that could be gathered in these tunnels. The exploration of these tunnels was usually done in two-man teams. Engineers would use smoke grenades to flush out the enemy from these tunnels prior to exploiting and destroying it. They then used a combination of acetylene gas, and demolition charges to destroy these tunnels depending on the depth the tunnels were dug to. However, regardless of the various techniques used the engineers were continuing to adapt their techniques to destroy these tunnels quicker. The constant adapting to overcome challenges presented and the intestinal fortitude to take on these challenges at any time can be correlated to the modern day combat engineer (Ploger 1974, p.