Engineers in Combat in World War II 1957 US Army; Army Corps of Engineers

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more at: http://quickfound.net/links/military_news_and_links.html " WORLD WAR II ENGINEER MISSION IN COMBAT - TRAINING AT ENGINEER SCHOOL, FT BELVOIR, VA. ENGINEERING ACTIVITIES DURING WW II IN THE EUROPEAN AND PACIFIC THEATERS OF OPERATION." US Army Film MF5-8854 Public domain film from the National Archives, slightly cropped to remove uneven edges, with the aspect ratio corrected, and mild video noise reduction applied. The soundtrack was also processed with volume normalization, noise reduction, clipping reduction, and equalization (the resulting sound, though not perfect, is far less noisy than the original). http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0/ http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/United_States_Army_Corps_of_Engineers The United States Army Corps of Engineers (USACE, also sometimes shortened to CoE) is a federal agency and a major Army command made up of some 38,000 civilian and military personnel, making it the world's largest public engineering, design and construction management agency. Although generally associated with dams, canals and flood protection in the United States, USACE is involved in a wide range of public works support to the nation and the Department of Defense throughout the world. The Corps of Engineers provides outdoor recreation opportunities to the public, and provides 24% of U.S. hydropower capacity. The Corps' mission is to provide vital public engineering services in peace and war to strengthen the nation's security, energize the economy, and reduce risks from disasters. Their most visible missions include: - Planning, designing, building, and operating locks and dams. Other civil engineering projects include flood control, beach nourishment, and dredging for waterway navigation. - Design and construction of flood protection systems through various federal mandates (see Public Laws below). - Design and construction management of military facilities for the Army, Air Force, Army Reserve and Air Force Reserve and other Defense and Federal agencies. - Environmental regulation and ecosystem restoration. The Corps' vision is having a great engineering force of highly disciplined people working with partners through disciplined thought and action to deliver innovative and sustainable solutions to the nation's engineering challenges... The history of United States Army Corps of Engineers can be traced back to 16 June 1775, when the Continental Congress organized an army with a chief engineer and two assistants. Colonel Richard Gridley became General George Washington's first chief engineer; however, it was not until 1779 that Congress created a separate Corps of Engineers. One of its first tasks was to build fortifications near Boston at Bunker Hill. The first Corps was mostly composed of French subjects, who had been hired by General Washington from the service of Louis XVI. The Corps of Engineers as it is known today came into being on 16 March 1802, when President Thomas Jefferson was authorized to "organize and establish a Corps of Engineers ... that the said Corps ... shall be stationed at West Point in the State of New York and shall constitute a Military Academy." Until 1866, the superintendent of the United States Military Academy was always an engineer officer. During the first half of the 19th century, West Point was the major and, for a while, the only engineering school in the country. The Corps's authority over river works in the United States began with its fortification of New Orleans after the War of 1812... The Army Corps of Engineers played an instrumental role in the American Civil War. Many of the men who would serve in the top leadership in this institution were West Point graduates, who rose to military fame and power during the Civil War. Some of these men were Union Generals George McClellan, Henry Halleck, George Meade, and Confederate generals Robert E. Lee, Joseph Johnston, and P.G.T. Beauregard... In 1944, specially-trained army combat engineers were assigned to blow up underwater obstacles and clear defended ports during the invasion of Normandy. During World War II, the Army Corps of Engineers in the European Theater of Operations was responsible for building countless bridges and building or maintaining roads vital to the Allied advance across Europe into the heart of Germany. In the Pacific theater, the Pioneer troops were formed, a hand-selected unit of volunteer Army combat engineers trained in jungle warfare, knife fighting, and unarmed jujitsu (hand-to-hand combat) techniques. Working in camouflage, the Pioneers cleared jungle and prepared routes of advance and established bridgeheads for the infantry as well as demolishing enemy installations...