The Marine Corps have many different job occupations or specialties to choose from. One of them is the Combat Engineer specialty. The Combat Marine Engineer is a jack-of-all-trades, a Marine who is called upon to be an expert soldier, but also to know a great deal about how to build, construct, and make things work. Metalworking, maintenance, repair, heavy equipment usage, repair and construction of military structures, these duties and a lot more are common in the Combat Engineer job. Sometimes Marine engineers also work in the bulk distribution of fuels and other materials.
Starting out a Marine interested in becoming a Marine Combat engineer has to attend basic training, as with all Marine specialties or jobs. After boot camp, a Marine interested in this field will attend Basic Combat Engineer School, located at Camp Lejune, NC. From there the Marine may continue on in more advanced specialized training, or rotate out immediately on their first assignment in their new specialty.
Some of the specialty formal schools that a Marine Engineer Candidate may attend include Welding school, engineer assist, bulk fuel school, and engineer combat and heavy equipment schools. There are a number of billets available inside the Marine Engineer Specialty. Duty ranges from normal Combat Marine billets to Instructor-Inspector billets, Combat Engineer force service group billets, and Engineer billets attached to Marine aircraft wings.
Marine Combat engineers repair, alter, maintain, alter and adjust various structures and buildings. They set up, brace, and move heavy equipment and objects. They use equipment and rigging devices to do this type of work. Servicemembers who are assigned to this MOS are taught construction and carpentry skills, as well as skills in demolition projects and destruction of objects. Skills in specialized demolitions in land mines and for urban land breaching is also taught.
Combat Engineer physical demands are heavy, you need to be in good physical condition to perform as a Combat engineer. You should have normal color vision, and normal hearing.
As a combat engineer you will operate or serve as a crewmember on a variety of different Marine military vehicles. You will perform basic and advanced Combat Construction. You will be trained to recognize and disarm various explosives and booby traps, Training will assist you to know how to locate and eliminate mines by visual or mechanical means. You will gain in leadership ability as you gain in rank, and gradually be more responsible for supervision of soldiers who are more junior than you in rank.
