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Airfield Engineer (46)

If you are an Airfield Engineering Officer... Keeping the runways open is what it's all about...

The Airfield Engineering Officer's job is to operate in support of an air base to assist the air force to live, fly and fight.

You will be trained in the skills necessary to keep our airfields functional. You will plan, develop and implement airfield engineering field training, which involves military engineering tasks and projects, including preparation or approval of drawings, specifications, standards and estimates of cost in manpower, money and materials for both static and deployed operations. You will provide advice, maintain liaison on military engineering matters, and exercise leadership and technical control over all organisations involved in engineering services, including the administration and control of manpower, funds and material. This is no picnic. It is not an easy task, but you will be trained to do the job. You will also be trained as a leader, to co-ordinate the activities of the engineers under your command.

You will be trained to lead the engineers under your command. You will practice your new set of skills with real equipment. You will learn the capabilities of engineering equipment. You will go anywhere?anytime. You will learn to work in mountains, jungles and deserts with the same skill as you would in your own backyard. Sun, rain, snow, day or night...it does not matter to you...the Airfield Engineering Officer.

You are trained in basic and advanced construction engineering skills. Building runways and helipads will become commonplace. You will be versed in the employment of heavy construction equipment as well as rifles and machine guns.

Airfield Engineering squadrons may be deployed on United Nations or NATO missions. These are not always in the best places... no vacation spot. Sometimes you will be asked to repair a school or hospital. It is all part of the job.

From your first day of training you will be expected to be a leader and make decisions. To put your engineers first and yourself last.

If you like to work out-of-doors in a unique and challenging job, a career as an Airfield Engineering Officer might be for you.

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As far as Airfield Engineer squadrons, the only ones I know of are reserve. Airfield Engineers do find employment withing 1 CEU (Construction Engineering Unit) along side their army counterparts. persons of this trade will likely find themselves employed in a base CE position.

On an historical note the Airfield Engineer is the revival of the RCAF construction Engineering Branch which disapeared after unification. It probably would have been more efficient to introduce a new "purple" engineer trade which would have adopted the historical roles of the RCAF Construction Engineering Branch, the RCN Civil Engineers, and the RCE Works Branch. This would have left Army Engineers solely with the historical role of the RCE Feild Branch. But . . . if in practice the AF Engineer works the same way as my "purple" suggestion it doesn't realy matter.

Here is an official description of the histroical roles filled by different engineers prior to unification:

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The Canadian Forces Reoganization Act in 1968 brought the military engineers of the three environmental elements (Royal Canadian Navy - RCN, Canadian Army and Royal Canadian Air Force - RCAF) together to form the "Canadian Military Engineer Branch (CME)" in 1971. The RCN Civil Engineers began at the start of WW II and its chief works were the construction of bases, buildings and augmenting existing dock facilities. The Army element consisted of the RCE field units supporting the field force and the RCE Works Companies providing construction support to Army bases. The RCAF Construction Engineering Branch began in 1939 due to the magnitude of the Commonwealth Air Training Plan and its mandate consisted of providing fire fighting services as well as construction of immense numbers of hangars, buildings, power plants radar sites and runways.

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Combat arms means we are the ones at the sharp end of the stick. Not logistics or support or whatnot.
Supposodly everyone in the CF should be able to fight if pressed, but it the combat arms job to fight.

Combat Engineers (or Feild Engineers) build bridges and clear minefields and obstilces, under fire if nessesary. We are right up there with the infantry, often ahead of them. (they can't cross the river without us) Our secondary role is to fight as infantry. So that's why we are combat arms.