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My Role as Combat Engineer

Heroes Remember

My Role as Combat Engineer

Transcript
The role of combat engineer is to allow freedom of movement for friendly forces and deny the enemy mobility. That’s our role. So we are normally first into an area to clear an area and make sure it is safe for our forces to go and engage the enemy. We have a huge branch. We have combat engineers, electrical engineers, construction engineers, mechanical engineers so our umbrella is pretty wide and you just choose which branch you want to go with. The training, it starts off you do your basic training, you know, your recruit school and after recruit school you will go to your career course which was almost five months of intense military training. So they teach you how to be a soldier. With the combat engineers we do a lot of bridge building. We do demolitions so we have to learn all about the demolitions, all about the safety procedures with everything that goes with being a combat engineer. I specialized in combat diver, under water operations then I branched and specialized in explosives ordinance disposal then I was bridge building. I was in charge, took some bridge courses and I was teaching recruits. Pretty much those three things near the end of my career.
Description

Mr. MacEachern details his duties as combat engineer and his later specialization as a combat diver and ordinance disposal.

Brian MacEachern

Mr. Brian MacEachern was born August 2, 1975 in Cape Breton, Nova Scotia. With his father being a reserve soldier for over 30 years, Mr. MacEachern knew his own destiny at a very young age. Joining the reserves with the Combat Engineers division, he later specialized in combat diving and ordinance disposal. Throughout his military career Mr. MacEachern was part of the Swiss Air recovery mission and credits this exercise as being his reasons for continuing to serve in the Canadian military. In 2004 Mr. MacEachern accepted a deployment to Ethiopia and later that year travelled to Afghanistan and again in 2007 holding rank of sergeant with Combat Engineers. After being released from the military, Mr. MacEachern accepted support through Soldier On and in 2016 became a member of Team Canada Invictus Games travelling to Orlando, Florida as part of the cycling team. Mr. MacEachern continues to stay involved in the sport and now resides in Nova Scotia with his family.

Meta Data
Medium:
Video
Owner:
Veterans Affairs Canada
Recorded:
July 25, 2018
Duration:
1:39
Person Interviewed:
Brian MacEachern
War, Conflict or Mission:
Canadian Armed Forces
Location/Theatre:
Canada
Branch:
Army
Rank:
Private
Occupation:
Combat Engineer

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