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Combat Engineer or Infantry

  • Thread starter Thread starter mellow_minded
  • Start date Start date
1081shadow said:
or just building bridges, clearing mines ect.

The rivers that need to be crossed are in front of every one...the minefields that need to be breached are in front of everyone...guess where the engineers are ?



 
Good to know. I just wanted to make sure that I wasn't choosing a career that relied on infantry to watch over us.
 
1081shadow said:
Good to know. I just wanted to make sure that I wasn't choosing a career that relied on infantry to watch over us.

You know this warfare things i done as a team right ?

Everyone has their part to play........no one fights alone.
 
1081shadow said:
This might be a stupid mission, but do combat engineers ever go on combat missions?

The trade isnt called "backyard engineer" is it ?
 
1081shadow said:
This might be a stupid mission, but do combat engineers ever go on combat missions?

Ok have you not read anything above in the previous threads?
 
As per the above posts, it does seem to us like you're not reading what we tell you, but I suppose it's possible you just may not be using the best words.  IE, our version of "combat" may be different than yours.

When you write "combat", do you mean an offensive-based mission where there is an enemy and you go out to kill them, either by advancing until you find them or knowing where they are and conducting a deliberate operation against them?

If so, then yes Combat Engineers take part in those sorts of missions, but as per the above, everyone has a role to play.  In this case, the Engineers may be involved with route clearances on the way there and if it's a house/building at the end they'll be involved in clearing the obstacles/demo that the door kickers (usually infantry) find.  But as has already been brought up a dozen times they are close to the front and can quite easily get shot at and shoot back at the enemy.
 
1081shadow said:
/bump

I'm having the same problem deciding.

Would be nice for some real Combat Engineers or infantry to give some info on which career choice would be better :)

You've got until April next year to decide. There are literally dozens of threads of these same questions on the forum already.
 
Petamocto said:
As per the above posts, it does seem to us like you're not reading what we tell you, but I suppose it's possible you just may not be using the best words.  IE, our version of "combat" may be different than yours.

When you write "combat", do you mean an offensive-based mission where there is an enemy and you go out to kill them, either by advancing until you find them or knowing where they are and conducting a deliberate operation against them?

If so, then yes Combat Engineers take part in those sorts of missions, but as per the above, everyone has a role to play.  In this case, the Engineers may be involved with route clearances on the way there and if it's a house/building at the end they'll be involved in clearing the obstacles/demo that the door kickers (usually infantry) find.  But as has already been brought up a dozen times they are close to the front and can quite easily get shot at and shoot back at the enemy.

That is exactly the answer that I was looking for :)

Thanks alot !
 
Also can any combat engineers here tell me the pro's and con's of being a combat engineer ?

 
1081shadow said:
Thanks alot !

You're certainly welcome.  Understand that it's frustrating for some people to answer the same questions over and over, but I've got plenty of patience so feel free to PM me with more questions and I'll give you all the time I can.
 
Also, do any combat engineers here find their job boring or tedious or is it exciting ?

A response would be greatly appreciated :D
 
1081shadow said:
Also, do any combat engineers here find their job boring or tedious or is it exciting ?

I did it for 11 years and never found it too boring. You have the best of both worlds in a way. You do alot of what infanteers do and you had solid technical challenges of your own.

I'm not sure why you are so fixated on this " infantry is super exciting so everything else might be boring" idea.
 
CDN Aviator said:
I did it for 11 years and never found it too boring. You have the best of both worlds in a way. You do alot of what infanteers do and you had solid technical challenges of your own.

I'm not sure why you are so fixated on this " infantry is super exciting so everything else might be boring" idea.

Well most of the videos that I saw of infantry was firefights. So it's hard not to think that they aren't exciting. All I was wondering was if Engineers had the same amount of excitement.
 
1081shadow said:
Well most of the videos that I saw of infantry was firefights. So it's hard not to think that they aren't exciting. All I was wondering was if Engineers had the same amount of excitement.

It's just one long firefight from the day you join until you retire. ::)

Sorry if that is not to your liking but everything you have asked has been REPEATEDLY answered. If your listening skills are on par with your comprehension skills we don't want you in either the infantry or the engineers.
 
1081shadow said:
Well most of the videos that I saw of infantry was firefights. So it's hard not to think that they aren't exciting. All I was wondering was if Engineers had the same amount of excitement.

If you do a 25 year career in the Infantry, I can guarantee you that you will spend a maximum of 0.1% of your career in direct contact with the enemy.

Probably a lot closer to 0.001%, actually.
 
George Wallace said:
Right now your question shows that you have done absolutely no research, and you have provided us with little to qualify your question.  Are you very muscular?  Do you like hiking and camping out?  Do you like building things?  Do you like to dig?  Do you like to fire guns or/and are you a hunter?  Do you seek adventure?  Do you like the outdoors?  Do you want cammaradarie?  Do you like to blow things up?  What are your interests and what do they have to do in relation to whatever Trade you would like to do in the CF?  Without a lot more information, we can't make up your mind for you.............but then again, it is you who should be able to do that.

::)

Sorry for the bump, I have been yelled at (PMed) for both posting on an old thing when I was “supposed to make a new one”, and I have been PMed for making a new one when there was already one that had not been posted in for 10 years.

Anyhow, I would like to answer these questions in order to have some of you kind fellows help me along in this choice.

Are you very muscular? I am not particularily muscular (although I am working on it, I am 15), but I am fit and am able to do close to 40 push ups on a regular basis, just to give you some information.

Do you like hiking and camping out? Hiking and Camping in the world that God created, especially in a country as beautiful and freeing as Canada, yeah, well, I bet you know where I am going with this  ;D

Do you like building things? A fair bit, I have never seen my self doing construction work, but I like to build stuff that I know will help myself or someone else.

Do you like to dig? I’m not sure how to answer this, we just got about a ton of dirt (I have no idea how much it weighs), and we put it around in the planters (gardens), if that counts.

Do you like to fire guns or/and are you a hunter? I don’t hunt, except for squirrels/chipmunks, they destroy things and so yes I do shoot them on a very regular basis. If I am not doing homework, not on this forum, and not eating food inside, I am doing target practice. I have gotten fairly proficient with a rifle (Proficient like 1 inch grouping at 100M with a .22), mind you this is not shooting in a stressful situation.

Do you seek adventure? All the time

Do you like the outdoors? Yup

Do you want cammaradarie? This is about the most important thing to me, does one (Infantry or Engineers) have better or stronger camaraderie?

Do you like to blow things up? Is this even a question?  ;D Although doing it as a job isn’t something that I feel I “need”.

What are your interests and what do they have to do in relation to whatever Trade you would like to do in the CF?
- I like shooting for one.
- I like to help people, I have enjoyed staying home for a week or two some years and sandbagging my area with the army, they let me inside/on top of their LAVs (they may have been Coyotes, not Kodiaks/LAV IIIs, my apologies), every since I have been in love with LAVs.
- I am trying to decide between armour recce, Infantry, and Combat engineer, but let’s keep this threads discussion to Infantry and Engineers.
- Does one trade (Infantry/Engineer) give me a higher likelyhood of trying out for CSOR/JTF2 (I’m sorry, I’m fifteen and just had to ask)

P.S. My mother doesn’t want me going the infantry route because it doesn’t lead to a civilian career, but I figure if I do it for some amount of years and then remuster (OT) to a more technical trade that would allow me to transfer that over to civilian after a total of 25 or 35 years.

Thanks all, sorry for any grammar/spelling mistakes, I don’t think the spell check feature works on iPad.
 
ConsideringCareers I've seen your posts as of late and I have some advice you may or may not want to heed. In addition to the great advice you've been given so far that is. (I work with a lot of new soldiers who are basically you but 2-4 years down the road)

Absolutely finish high school. Members who don't finish high school before joining often end up trying to do so afterwards which can be a pain in the ass and harder to do both because you're out of the school mindset and also adult home and work responsibilities.

If you can afford it you should really consider getting a college diploma or university degree (I'd lean towards college) even if it puts you joining the CAF back a couple years.  There are a number of reasons for this;

1. Life experience. Going right from high school to the full time military you're not coming in with a lot of adult life experience. You'll do a lot of "growing up" in the army. Problem is sometimes it's pretty slow. There's still some 35+ year old men who act like 19 year olds. Coming in to the military with previous life experience will make you more mature and teach you life skills. In some cases the military teaches you to be independent, in others it teaches dependency.

2. Injuries.  People don't join the military expecting to get seriously hurt. You might join the military expecting to do 25 years except you might spend a year in a battalion, go on a parachute course, land on your head and find yourself injured to the point you're not able to continue military service after a whopping 11 months in the army. (I personally know 3 people who went and are going through this right now).  The army will try and help you transition to civilian life but we don't have an amazing track record doing that. Plus it's even more changeling when you're injured.  By having some sort of post secondary schooling you're helping yourself in the unfortunate event you need to adopt a second career (and pay bills).

3. You might end up hating the army. It happens. People have all kinds of expectations coming in to the army (military) which don't always turn out well. You might join up and after 3 years realize you hate military life. You're bored at work, you don't feel challenged, you don't like where you're posted, you hate having very little control over your life. List goes on. You might do 3 years and not re-sign. Now you have high school (hopefully) and 3 years army service. Good paying jobs are pretty competitive, by having post secondary school you at least have a partial plan B.

4. Bringing skills to the work place.  One of the things you'll notice about the combat arms (I'd say especially infantry) is that you end up working all over the place. You could be driving seadoo's all summer patrolling a bay for security, setting up hundreds of tents and helping run a camp, working a desk job on computers you were never trained with, helping build ranges with wood and tools, maintenance on vehicles, working with civilian organizations. Stuff you learn in post secondary school, say communications or computers, will be useful in your military career. Soldiers with woodworking and tool experience are often asked to help out or lead different projects or jobs.


IF you decide to do post secondary school give it a lot of thought. Instead of the common police foundations look at something you may already have a background in or something that relates to a job that's in high demand just in case your 25 years turns in to 3.
 
ConsideringCareers… said:
Sorry for the bump, I have been yelled at (PMed) for both posting on an old thing when I was “supposed to make a new one”, and I have been PMed for making a new one when there was already one that had not been posted in for 10 years.

I use this as my guideline,

Necroposting - Not always a bad idea 
https://army.ca/forums/threads/87278.0
 
ConsideringCareers…

I'll add a few points to the very good advice posted above by Jarnhamar.

It's easy to find a lot of interesting things that trades like infantry and combat engineers do (or might do). But the most important thing to understand is that (a) not everyone in each trade does all of those things, and (b) none of them are doing the interesting things all the time. A lot of people are disappointed when they discover that a lot of military service isn't the fun parts. There's also a lot of heavy (and seemingly unrewarding) work, both in support of the 'fun' stuff, and sometimes you get to do the heavy labour without being part of the team that does the fun part. Sometimes you're in the unit that watches other units go on tours or challenging exercises, finding yourself just at the wrong place and wrong time for that opportunity. As you explore trade choices, keep in mind that the ideal outcome of trade choice and level of activity seldom happens, and be prepared to manage your expectations when you find yourself in the slow lane because of where the army placed you. There are a lot of jobs filled by members of each trade that are just as important and need to be done well and professionally, but they aren't the roles emphasized in recruiting videos or youtube highlights.

 
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