Providing Engineer Reconnaissance to the Maneuver Commander

<p>The use of reconnaissance on the battlefield has been a valuable tool for centuries. The ability of the engineers to support these reconnaissance efforts has however been a source of many discussions. The discussions are not whether it is important to provide detailed engineer reconnaissance on the battlefield but how to provide this specific reconnaissance. While some maneuver forces specifically the scout military occupational skill (MOS 19D) soldiers are trained to provide all types of reconnaissance information to include specific engineer information far too many times the engineer reconnaissance is secondary in priority and quality to the detriment of the entire force. The engineer branch must come up with a way to augment the brigade and task force reconnaissance units to provide detailed engineer reconnaissance to the brigade combat team commander with this much needed information. Present engineer doctrine speaks of the importance of providing assets to gathering detailed engineer reconnaissance. However this same doctrine does not speak of providing assets to this mission. For far too long engineer commanders have had to answer this question on their own with little help from the engineer branch or engineer doctrine. This thesis will examine this longstanding dilemma and evaluate the flaws within our doctrine and force structure with the goal of recommending a practical solution to the problem of getting high-quality timely engineer reconnaissance to the maneuver commander.</p><p>This work has been selected by scholars as being culturally important and is part of the knowledge base of civilization as we know it. This work was reproduced from the original artifact and remains as true to the original work as possible. Therefore you will see the original copyright references library stamps (as most of these works have been housed in our most important libraries around the world) and other notations in the work.</p><p>This work is in the public domain in the United States of America and possibly other nations. Within the United States you may freely copy and distribute this work as no entity (individual or corporate) has a copyright on the body of the work.</p><p>As a reproduction of a historical artifact this work may contain missing or blurred pages poor pictures errant marks etc. Scholars believe and we concur that this work is important enough to be preserved reproduced and made generally available to the public. We appreciate your support of the preservation process and thank you for being an important part of keeping this knowledge alive and relevant.</p><br>