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More Specific Questions..

ShadyBrah

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This time I looked around the forums for hours and haven't found any definite answers to these 2 questions.. (The search bar is also down)

1. I've heard Combat Engineers spend very little time at home. If they aren't on deployment they are away from home training for deployment. Can anybody verify this? If you could give a rough estimate of time spent with "regular" work days that would be greatly appreciated! (By regular I mean at base, 7:00-17:00 or whatever the day/hours may be.) I recently became a father and would like to know how much of him growing up I'll be able to be part of.

2. I know every engineer learns to lay mines, and I am pretty sure that every engineer has to work with disarming IED's and mines, but a friend of mine tells me only if the engineer completes the Ordnance Disposal course. Is that also true? And is this course offered to everyone or a only a select few?

Thanks for any helpful answers in advance!
 
As for time away from home if you are just joining expect to be away from home a lot as courses will take some time to complete and take place in different provinces. Once you are posted to a unit you will have more time for family, however you will still have to go on taskings and exercises. There are many Combat Engineers with families and they all manage to spend time with them.

As for your second question I will leave for someone else to answer as I have been out of the trade for some time now.
 
Thanks for the response :)

I would just be starting out, so I know it will take quite a while before I am done training and placed to a unit. Would these excercises come weekly? monthly? Randomly? Basically I just want to be sure I'm not missing out on my growing family :)

Thanks!
 
ShadyBrah said:
Thanks for the response :)

I would just be starting out, so I know it will take quite a while before I am done training and placed to a unit. Would these excercises come weekly? monthly? Randomly? Basically I just want to be sure I'm not missing out on my growing family :)

Thanks!

That all depends on many factors. Exercises happen for all units in the military so its not just Combat Engineers. I don't think anyone can give you a direct answer of how often you will be away. A lot of the times things can change on a dime and your going on an exercise last second that you thought you weren't going on. If your looking for consistency as in knowing when you will be home and for how long the military may not be for you.
 
Don't get me wrong, I'm not hoping for a set weekly schedule. A key part of my interest in the Forces is that I hopefully won't have the same boring stuff day in and day out all year. I'm more looking just to make sure I'll have a family life at all (which is sounding good so far).

Thanks for your help :)
 
ShadyBrah said:
I know every engineer learns to lay mines, and I am pretty sure that every engineer has to work with disarming IED's and mines, but a friend of mine tells me only if the engineer completes the Ordnance Disposal course. Is that also true? And is this course offered to everyone or a only a select few?
!

Your average DP1 Cbt Engr learns to lay, lift and disarm / neutralize mines and deal to a certain extent with destroying IEDs under certain aspects (they are not trained in how to render safe, ie "disarm", except on the IEDD Op course). During the DP2 Sect 2IC course, you will learn basic conventional munitions disposal (destroying misfired / dud non-biochem / nuclear munitions) which is the gateway to further advanced EOD training.

With the cuts currently under way, no one will be able to accurately forecast how much time away from home you will see.
 
As Capt Happy said, hard to see how the cuts will affect training and tasks but the following is an average schedule (if you are not on a career course):
winter:  1 or 2 weeks away
spring ex: 3 weeks
spring task: 2 wks
summer tasks: maybe 2 x 2 wks
fall ex: 3 wks
fall task: 2 wks
individual trg: 4 wks

even in the same unit some ppl are away less some a lot more
 
PanaEng said:
As Capt Happy said, hard to see how the cuts will affect training and tasks but the following is an average schedule (if you are not on a career course):
winter:  1 or 2 weeks away
spring ex: 3 weeks
spring task: 2 wks
summer tasks: maybe 2 x 2 wks
fall ex: 3 wks
fall task: 2 wks
individual trg: 4 wks

even in the same unit some ppl are away less some a lot more

As an example 4 ESR does a Regimental Deployment to the field in the Fall to support BEOC 1.1 (old Phase 3) for a month or so...
 
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