412th THEATER ENGINEER COMMAND

412th THEATER ENGINEER COMMAND

BY MAJ. ALAN MOSS

The 412th Theater Engineer Command (TEC), headquartered at the George A. Morris U.S. Army Reserve Center in Vicksburg, Mississippi, is one of only two units of its kind in the American military. The TEC provides command and control of theater-level engineer operations levels above brigade in support of unified land operations. The TEC provides mission command of all Army Reserve engineer assets in 21 states east of the Mississippi River.

The 412th Theater Engineer Command commands three brigades, a Regional Support Group (RSG), and five direct reporting units (DRUs) totaling nearly 13,000 Soldiers. The brigades are the 411th Engineer Brigade based at New Windsor, New York; the 302d Maneuver Enhancement Brigade based in Chicopee, Massachusetts; the 926th Engineer Brigade located in Montgomery, Alabama; and the RSG located in Springfield, Illinois. The DRUs are the 206th Digital Liaison Detachment, the 207th Digital Liaison Detachment, the 368th Forward Engineer Support Team-Main, the 608th Construction Management Team, and the 475th Explosive Hazards Coordination Cell.

An engineer two-star general, Maj. Gen. Stephen Strand, commands the TEC, focusing the proper emphasis on unit training/readiness during peacetime employment and the proper emphasis on the theater engineer mission required for emerging threats and possible near-peer adversaries.

The TEC provides theater-wide engineer support as well as engineer support to forces deployed within a joint operations area; geospatial support; construction; real property maintenance activities; line of communications sustainment; engineer logistics management; base development; and theater infrastructure repair, or development as required. It serves as the senior engineer headquarters for the theater Army as well as all assigned or attached engineer brigades and other engineer units. When directed, it may also command engineers from other services and multinational forces and provide oversight of contracted construction engineers.

The TEC’s combat capabilities consist of mobility augmentation, clearance, and Sapper companies. The construction capabilities are vertical, horizontal, engineer support, and multirole bridge companies.

The TEC mobilizes and deploys to any theater and operates as the senior engineer headquarters to command, plan, and control engineer assets within the theater of operations and acts as the senior engineer adviser to the theater commander. The TEC deploys an early entry deployable command post (DCP) with all of these capabilities. Additionally, the DCP can expand and tailor its size to the operation as the mission requires.

U.S. Army Reserve Sgt. Mathew Annis, top left, and Spc. Aldrich Cushnie of the 287th Engineer Detachment (firefighting team), 368th Engineer Battalion, 302d Maneuver Enhancement Brigade, 412th Theater Engineer Command, based in Danvers, Massachusetts, are assisted by Victor Basabe and Edwin Hernandez, emergency medical technicians, Haz-Mat Operations, Fire Department of the City of New York (FDNY), as they remove a “victim” from a car accident during the New York City Joint Chemical, Biological, Radiological, and Nuclear Event Response Demonstration at the Times Square Church, July 10, 2018. The FDNY, in concert with U.S. Army North, conducted the training event.

U.S. Army Reserve Photo 1st Class Clinton Wood

PEACETIME EMPLOYMENT

• Executes mission command of all Army Reserve engineer units east of the Mississippi, with additional military police, chemical, and signal units, ensuring trained and ready forces available to U.S. Army Forces Command (FORSCOM) and U.S. Army Reserve Command (USARC).

• Supports and participates in FORSCOM/USARC training exercises in the continental United States and combatant command (COCOM)/Army Service Component Command (ASCC) exercises and training opportunities outside the continental United States to maintain unit readiness.

• Maintains constant communications with the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers (USACE) and the ASCCs to ensure continuous support, focused on the long-term goals of both organizations in their areas of responsibility (AORs).

• Maintains communications/ties with sister-service engineer organizations, in order to enhance joint readiness and interoperability.

WARTIME EMPLOYMENT

• Manages and executes the ASCC’s maneuver support mission at theater level. The TEC is modular and scalable, enhancing its versatility. It deploys in part, combination, or in its entirety.

• Executes mission command for all Army theater engineer assets in the ASCC AOR and is expandable enough to manage the joint, allied/coalition engineer effort, as well as many contracted construction operations.

• Supports engineer operational-level planning, coordination, and technical services supporting the ASCC, geographic combatant command, or joint task force (JTF).

• Participates in joint civil engineering support planning in support of the ASCC/COCOM.

• Provides command and control of theater-level engineer operations levels above brigade in support of unified land operations.

• Provides trained and ready forces in support of global operations utilizing the Army force generation model, and provides policies, guidance, resourcing, and administrative support as an operational command over assigned Army Reserve units.

• Provides command and control of assigned or attached engineer brigades, groups, and other engineer units engaged in general, geospatial, and combat engineering missions for an ASCC or JTF.

• Provides engineer support to joint exercises, humanitarian civil assistance, exercise-related construction, installation-related construction, and theater security cooperation plans and partnership for peace missions.

• Operates as the senior engineer headquarters to command, plan, and control engineer assets within the theater of operations. The TEC supports an ASCC or JTF in a theater.

• Operates as the senior engineer headquarters to command, plan, and control engineer assets within the theater of operations.

• Develops and validates plans, procedures, and programs for theater-level engineer mission command and support to the ASCCs.

• Communicates to the ASCCs the capabilities of the theater engineer commands and opportunities where the TEC can support those commands.

U.S. Army Reserve Spc. Walter Maupin, in the 718th Engineer Company, 926th Engineer Battalion, 926th Engineer Brigade, 412th Theater Engineer Command, based at Fort Benning, Georgia, operates a D7G dozer during Rotation 19-03 at the National Training Center in Fort Irwin, California, Jan. 18, 2019. The company supported the 3rd Armored Brigade Combat Team, 1st Cavalry Division, Fort Hood, Texas.

U.S. Army Reserve Photo 1st Class Clinton Woco

The 412th Theater Engineer Command currently supports U.S. Army Pacific, an operational-level Army force designated by the secretary of the Army as the Army Service Component Command (ASCC) of the U.S. Indo-Pacific Command. The 412th TEC also supports U.S. Southern Command and U.S. Northern Command.

On order, the 412th Theater Engineer Command mobilizes and deploys to a theater of operations as the senior engineer headquarters to provide mission command of assigned or attached units in support of ASCC-assured mobility, protection, logistics, and infrastructure development lines of operation.

In addition to providing wartime support, the 412th TEC performs key roles in large-scale training exercises, in contingency planning, and in-theater security cooperation plan engagements.

Most of the units participating in these overseas missions and exercises were conducting their two-week extended combat training. As a key responsibility, the TEC oversees the training of its Soldiers and subordinate units. During 2019, the command enabled Soldiers from 400 subordinate units to attend numerous major events, exercises, or operations across the continental United States and the world. n