A Day in the Life of an Engineer in Afghanistan

Operation Enduring Freedom is the official operational designator for the American operations in Afghanistan. However, it would be more accurate to call it Operation Sappers Lead the Way. The actual shooting operations are all but concluded in the theater, but that doesn’t mean that the area is completely threat-free. The war in Afghanistan is one where an American combat engineer, also known as a sapper, can truly test his mettle.

In an actual organized war against an organized enemy force, like a Soviet-style army, the combat engineer unit is trained to build the battle field to the specifications of the Allied force commander. The engineer installs minefields, barbed and razor wire obstacles, and ten-foot-deep anti-tank ditches to limit the enemy’s movement across the battlefield. To do this, the combat engineer is trained to use whatever means are available. If all an engineer unit has is explosives, then they’re going to use those explosives however they can to complete the mission. If the mission takes an engineer deep into enemy territory, so be it. Such is the uncertain and dangerous life of the engineer.

However, if Afghanistan were a normal war, then it would have been over in 2002. Afghanistan, needless to say, isn’t a normal war. It’s an engineer war. The sapper truly comes into his own in the Afghanistan theater of operations.

As a sapper in Afghanistan, one finds himself doing every job in the book. The biggest threats to allied operations are mines, unexploded bombs, and improvised explosive devices. For the common soldier, these are the primary enemies on the battlefield. But for the sapper, these are his prey.

An average day for a combat engineer does not exist, per se. Depending on what the engineer has been tasked to do for the deployment, the day could be mundane and mind-numbingly dull, or the day could be incredibly dangerous. Simply put, it all depends on the mission.

One of the most critical missions in Afghanistan is area clearance. That is, a combat engineer unit, usually eight sappers, a medic or specially-trained soldier called a Combat Lifesaver, the mission site officer or non-commissioned officer (usually a senior sergeant) in charge, and a site safety supervisor all go to a mission site and sweep every inch of the ground for mines and unexploded ordnance (UXO). Even though the most advanced mine detectors are available to the sapper for this type of mission, the job of pulling the unstable and highly explosive devices out of the ground still falls to a sapper, on his stomach, sticking a knife into the ground with careful precision. One false move, and not even the armored vest and protective face shield will do much more than ensure that there will be a piece of soldier just large enough to bury. The stress of this mission provides enough insurance that the sapper probing the ground will have some interesting story for his kids, as long as he survives long enough to get home.

As dangerous as area clearance missions are, route clearance missions provide a whole new series of dangers. A squad or so of engineers, trained in the use of specialized mine-resistant vehicles, drive up and down primary roads and trails through the mountains of Afghanistan, looking for the same mines and roadside bombs that most sane soldiers try desperately to avoid. Each soldier knows the risks of their mission, not the least of which is being blown to tiny pieces by remotely detonated improvised explosive devices (IEDs). Route clearance patrols routinely find themselves the specific targets of enemy ambushes and directed attack IEDs, built from armor-piercing rockets and shaped charge mines. Any one of these threats would prove deadly, but the enemy has become quite adept at combining them into a very nasty combined operation. The most startling fact for most people, however, is that these dedicated sappers conduct these missions every day, often for several days at a time, with no rest.

In sharp contrast to these almost ridiculously dangerous operations are construction missions. Afghanistan is fast becoming a major center for combat operations in the Middle East. As such, the necessity for construction missions cannot be overstated. Whether the soldiers are building bunkers or guard towers, or huts to house the latest wave or replacement soldiers or special forces operators, combat engineers routinely find their skills of improvisation turned to the task of building. In these missions, the risks are much lower, but their level of dedication does not wane in the least.

The crown jewel of the combat engineer’s operational crown, however, is the opportunity to work with the best of the best the US Armed Forces have to offer. Commonly referred to by command as Other Coalition Forces, the US Army’s Special Forces and Rangers often request sapper support for their unorthodox missions. These missions, often code-word classified, vary from area clearance under conditions more arduous than normal, to assisting in raids against enemy leaders and suppliers of weapons and explosives. These missions are dangerous in their own right, but have the added benefit of providing the sapper with experience and knowledge he won’t find anywhere else during his usual tour of duty.

After this kind of basic explanation of what a combat engineer does in Afghanistan, the question the reader may be asking is “why on earth would anyone voluntarily do this?” There is no simple answer. For some soldiers, it’s a chance to do something few other people have. For others, the adrenaline rush is enough. Still other soldiers are simply insane, and find comfort in their insanity through these missions. Ultimately, though, a combat engineer does his job because he knows that if he doesn’t, who will?

Sean J. Callot is senior in political science. He is also a combat engineer serving in Afghanistan, and has participated in each of the missions described above during his tour of duty.