U.S. ARMY CORPS OF ENGINEERS Military and International Operations
The front exterior of the new VA Stockton Community Based Outpatient Clinic in Stockton, California, on Aug. 7, 2023. Construction crews with the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers Sacramento District have nearly finished the exterior of both the clinic and an on-site central utilities plant, and are planning to turn both facilities over to the VA Northern California Health Care System in early 2024. The clinic will provide a wide array of services to Central Valley veterans, including primary care, mental health care, and prosthetics. USACE PHOTO BY JEREMY CROFT
Military and International Operations
USACE’s Founding Mission
T
he U.S. Army Corps of Engineers (USACE) is an agency built to serve the U.S. military. Its original mandate – to protect and enable Soldiers of the Continental Army in the Revolutionary War – has evolved and expanded considerably since Col. Richard Gridley, the Army’s first chief engineer, BY CRAIG COLLINS
66 I AMERICA’S ENGINEERS
ordered the construction of fortifications at Breed’s Hill, near Boston, in 1775. The range of expertise contained within USACE today – some of it literally found nowhere else in the world – remains focused on supporting the armed forces. USACE helps the U.S. military and its allies maintain readiness, ensure national and regional security, and respond to contingencies with either lethal or life-saving efficiency, as circumstances dictate.
Today’s Corps of Engineers supports the Army’s Engineer Regiment, headquartered at Fort Leonard Wood, Missouri. The Army engineers in this regiment compose units that perform combat engineering, rescue, construction, and other specialties, and all fall under the command of the Army chief of staff. The only uniformed unit that falls directly under the command of USACE is the 249th Engineer Battalion (Prime Power), which provides commercial-level power to military units and federal relief organizations in time of need. Most of the Corps of Engineers’ support to the military is conducted outside of the command structure. USACE performs this work as directed by Congress, and often as a service provider to interagency or international customers. Maj. Gen. Kimberly M. Colloton, USACE’s deputy commanding general for Military and International Operations, oversees this extensive portfolio, which is delivered by more than 11,000 men and women around the world. “We build clinics and hospitals, barracks, operations facilities, and schools, to only name a few,” said Colloton, “which provide quality services for our active-duty military, veterans, civilians, and their families at hundreds of installations, camps, posts, and stations worldwide.” The knowledge and skills developed over decades of performing and refining this work have made the Corps of Engineers a uniquely capable service provider for the Army, the Department of Defense (DOD), and a growing number of non-DOD customers at home and abroad.
