United States Army Corps of Engineers

U.S. Army Corps of Engineers

United States Army Corps of Engineers logo.svg
Active June 16, 1775 – present
Country United States
Branch United States Army
Size 34,600 civilian and 650 military members
Garrison/HQ Washington, D.C.
Motto Essayons (Let Us Try)
Colors Red and White
Commanders
Current
commander		 LTG Robert L. Van Antwerp, Jr., Chief of Engineers
Notable
commanders		 COL Richard Gridley,
COL Joseph Swift,
COL Alexander Macomb, Jr.,
BG William Louis Marshall,
MG Richard Delafield,
BG Joseph Totten,
BG Henry Robert,
LTG Edgar Jadwin,
LTG Leif J. Sverdrup
Colonel Debra Lewis, the Gulf Region Division Central District commander with Sheik O'rhaman Hama Raheem, an Iraqi councilman, celebrate the opening of a new women's center in Assriya Village that the Corps helped construct in 2006.
U.S. Army Corps of Engineers Dredge Tauracavor 3 in New York Harbor.
Mississippi River Improvement, 1890.
Proctor Lake, Texas, constructed by the Corps of Engineers to provide flood control, drinking water, and recreation.

The United States Army Corps of Engineers (USACE) is a federal agency and a major Army command made up of some 34,600 civilian and 650 military personnel,[1] 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 is the nation's number one provider of outdoor recreation and provides 24% of the US hydropower capacity.

The Corps' mission is to provide vital public engineering services in peace and war to strengthen our Nation's security, energize the economy, and reduce risks from disasters.[2]

Their most visible missions include:

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 Nations engineering challenges.[2]

Contents

Mission areas

Warfighting

See also: Sapper, Combat engineering, and Military engineer

USACE provides support directly and indirectly to the warfighting effort.[3] They build and help maintain much of the infrastructure that the Army and the Air Force use to train, house, and deploy troops. USACE built and maintained navigation systems and ports provide the means to deploy vital equipment and other material. Corps Research and Development (R&D) facilities help develop new methods and measures for deployment, force protection, terrain analysis, mapping, and other support.

USACE directly supports the military in the battlezone, making expertise available to commanders to help solve and avoid engineering and other problems. Forward Engineer Support Teams, FEST-A's or FEST-M's, may accompany combat engineers to provide immediate support, or to reach back electronically into the rest of the Corps for the necessary expertise. A FEST-A team is an 8 person detachment while a FEST-M is approximately 36 individuals. These teams are designed to provide immediate technical engineering support to the warfighter or in a disaster area. Corps professionals use the knowledge and skills honed on both military and civil projects to support the US and local communities in the areas of real estate, contracting, mapping, construction, logistics, engineering, and management experience. This work currently includes support for rebuilding Iraq, establishing Afghanistan infrastructure, and supporting international and interagency services.

In addition, the work of almost 34,000 civilians on civil works programs throughout USACE provide a training ground for similar capabilities worldwide. USACE civilians volunteer for assignments worldwide. For example, hydropower experts have helped repair, renovate, and run hydropower dams in Iraq in an effort to help get Iraqis to become self-sustaining.[4][5]

Homeland security

USACE supports the United States' Department of Homeland Security and the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) through its security planning, force protection, research and development, disaster preparedness efforts, and quick response to emergencies and disasters.[6]

The Corps conducts its emergency response activities under two basic authorities – the Flood Control and Coastal Emergency Act (Pub.L. 84-99), and the Stafford Disaster Relief and Emergency Assistance Act (Pub.L. 93-288). In a typical year, the Corps of Engineers responds to more than 30 Presidential disaster declarations, plus numerous state and local emergencies. Emergency responses usually involve cooperation with other military elements and Federal agencies in support of State and local efforts.

Infrastructure support

Work comprises engineering and management support to military installations, global real estate support, civil works support (including risk and priorities), operations and maintenance of Federal navigation and flood control projects, and monitoring of dams and levees.[7]

More than 67 percent of the goods consumed by Americans and more than half of the nation's oil imports are processed through deepwater ports maintained by the Corps of Engineers, which maintains more than 12,000 miles (19,000 km) of commercially navigable channels across the US.

In both its Civil Works mission and Military Construction program, the Corps is responsible for billions of dollars of the nation's infrastructure. For example, the Corps maintains direct control of 609 dams, maintains and/or operates 257 navigation locks, and operates 75 hydroelectric facilities generating 24% of the nation's hydropower and three percent of its total electricity. USACE inspects over 2,000 Federal and non-Federal levees every two years.

Four billion gallons of water per day are drawn from the Corps' 136 multi-use water supply projects comprising 9,800,000 acre feet (1.21×1010 m3) of water storage, making it one of the United States' largest water supply agencies.[5]

The 249th Engineer Battalion (Prime Power), the only active duty unit in USACE, generates and distributes prime electrical power in support of warfighting, disaster relief, stability and support operations as well as provides advice and technical assistance in all aspects of electrical power and distribution systems. The battalion deployed in support of recovery operations after 9/11 and was instrumental in getting Wall Street back up and running within a week.[8] The battalion also deployed in support of post-Katrina operations.

All of this work represents a significant investment in the nation's resources.

Water resources

Through its Civil Works program, USACE carries out a wide array of projects that provide coastal protection, flood protection, hydropower, navigable waters and ports, recreational opportunities, and water supply.[9] Work includes coastal protection and restoration, including a new emphasis on a more holistic approach to risk management. As part of this work, the Corps is the number one provider of outdoor recreation in the US, so there is a significant emphasis on water safety.

Army involvement in works "of a civil nature," including water resources, goes back almost to the origins of the U.S. Over the years, as the nation's needs have changed, so have the Army's Civil Works missions.

Major areas of emphasis include the following:

Environment

The Martis Creek Wetland Project in California

The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers environmental mission has two major focus areas: restoration and stewardship. The Corps supports or manages numerous environmental programs, that run the gamut from cleaning up areas on former military installations contaminated by hazardous waste or munitions to helping establish/reestablish wetlands that helps endangered species survive.[11] Some of these programs include Ecosystem Restoration, Formerly Used Defense Sites, Environmental Stewardship, EPA Superfund, Abandoned Mine Lands, Formerly Utilized Sites Remedial Action Program, Base Realignment and Closure, 2005, and Regulatory.

This mission includes education as well as regulation and cleanup.

The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers has an active environmental program under both its Military and Civil Programs.[11] The Civil Works environmental mission that ensures all Corps projects, facilities and associated lands meet environmental standards. The program has four functions: compliance, restoration, prevention, and conservation. The Corps also regulates all work in wetlands and waters of the United States.

The Military Programs Environmental Program manages design and execution of a full range of cleanup and protection activities:

A member of the Radiation Safety Support Team wearing Tyvek tests excavated soil.

The following are major areas of environmental emphasis:

See also Environmental Enforcement below.

History

Early history

Plan of the military academy at West Point, New York.

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.[10] 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." The United States Military Academy was under the direction of the Corps of Engineers until 1866. The Corps's authority over river works in the United States began with its fortification of New Orleans after the War of 1812.

Corps of Topographical Engineers

The US Army Corps of Topographical Engineers, was separately authorized on 4 July 1838, consisted only of officers, and was used for mapping and the design and construction of federal civil works such as lighthouses and other coastal fortifications and navigational routes. It included such officers as George Meade and John C. Frémont. It was merged with the Corps of Engineers on 31 March 1863, at which point the Corps of Engineers also assumed the Lakes Survey District mission for the Great Lakes.[12] In the mid-1800s, Corps of Engineers' officers ran Lighthouse Districts in tandem with US Naval officers.

19th century-present

Pontoon bridge across the James River, Virginia, 1864

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.[10] The versatility of officers in the Army Corps of Engineers contributed to the success of numerous missions throughout the Civil War. They were responsible for building pontoon and railroad bridges, forts and batteries, the destruction of enemy supply lines, and the construction of roads.[10] The Union forces were not the only ones to employ the use of engineers throughout the war; and on March 6, 1861, once the South had seceded from the Union, among the different acts passed at the time, a provision was stated that called for the creation of a Confederate Corps of Engineers.[13]

A bulldozer operated by Sgt. C. G. McCutcheon of the 1304th Engineer Construction Battalion on the Ledo Road, Burma, 1944.

The progression of the war demonstrated the South’s disadvantage in engineering expertise; because of the initial 65 cadets who resigned from West Point to accept positions with the Confederate Army, only seven were placed in the Corps of Engineers.[13] To overcome this obstacle, the Confederate Congress passed legislation that gave a company of engineers to every division in the field; and by 1865, they actually had more engineer officers serving in the field of action than the Union Army.[13] The Army Corps of Engineers served as a main function in making the war effort logistically feasible. One of the main projects for the Army Corps of Engineers was constructing railroads and bridges, which Union forces took advantage of because railroads and bridges provided access to resources and industry. One area where the Confederate engineers were able to outperform the North was in the ability to build fortifications that were used both offensively and defensively along with trenches that made them harder to penetrate. This method of building trenches was known as the zigzag pattern.[13]

From the beginning, many politicians wanted the Corps to contribute to both military construction and works of a civil nature. Assigned the military construction mission on 1 December 1941 after the Quartermaster Department struggled with the expanding mission,[14] the Corps built facilities at home and abroad to support the U.S. Army and Air Force. During World War II the mission grew to more than 27,000 military and industrial projects in a $15.3 billion mobilization program. Included were aircraft, tank assembly, and ammunition plants, camps for 5.3 million soldiers, depots, ports, and hospitals, as well as the Manhattan Project, and the Pentagon.

In the 20th century, the Corps became the lead federal flood control agency and significantly expanded its civil works activities, becoming among other things, a major provider of hydroelectric energy and the country’s leading provider of recreation; its role in responding to natural disasters also grew dramatically. In the late 1960s, the Corps became a leading environmental preservation and restoration agency.

Five commanding general /Chiefs of Staff (after the 1903 reorganization) of the United States Army held Engineer commissions early in their careers. All transferred to other branches before rising to the top. They were Alexander Macomb, George B. McClellan, Henry W. Halleck, Douglas MacArthur, and Maxwell D. Taylor.[15]

Notable dates and projects

Gatun Lock Construction, Panama Canal, March 12, 1912.
An aerial view of the John F. Kennedy Space Center.

Occasional civil disasters including the Great Mississippi Flood of 1927 resulted in greater responsibilities for the Corps. New Orleans is another example of this.

Organization

Lieutenant General Robert L. Van Antwerp

Leadership

The current Chief of Engineers and Commanding General, U.S. Army Corps of Engineers is Lieutenant General Robert L. Van Antwerp, Jr.[1][16]

Four Deputy Commanding Generals assist in supervising General Staff activities and in discharging the responsibilities which devolve upon the Commanding General. The current Deputies are:

Headquarters

The Headquarters group defines policy and guidance and plans direction for the organizations within the Corps. It is made up of an Executive Office and 17 Staff Principals.[1] Located in Washington, DC, the Headquarters creates policy and plans the future direction of all other Corps organizations.

USACE has two directors who head up Military Programs and Civil Works.

The current USACE Command Sergeant Major is Micheal L. Buxbaum.

Divisions and Districts

The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers is organized geographically into eight permanent divisions, one provisional division, one provisional district, and one research command reporting directly to the HQ. Within each division, there are several districts.[1] Districts are defined by watershed boundaries for civil works projects and by political boundaries for military projects.

Map of U.S. Army Corps of Engineers Civil Engineer Divisions and Districts.

Other USACE Organizations

There are several other organizations within the Corps of Engineers:[1][5]

Directly reporting military units

Controversies

Civil works

Secretary of the Army Francis J. Harvey (r) discusses U.S. Army Corps of Engineers operations in New Orleans with Brigadier General Robert Crear, commander, Mississippi Valley Division, USACE in New Orleans, 2006.

Some of the Corps of Engineers' civil works projects have been characterized in the press as being pork barrel or boondoggles such as the New Madrid Floodway Project and the New Orleans flood protection.[21][22] Projects have allegedly been justified based on flawed or manipulated analyses during the planning phase. Some projects are said to have created profound detrimental environmental effects and/or provided questionable economic benefit such as the Mississippi River Gulf Outlet in southeast Louisiana.[23] Faulty design and substandard construction have been cited in the failure of levees in the wake of Hurricane Katrina that caused flooding of 80% of the city of New Orleans.

Review of Corps of Engineers' projects has also been criticized for its lack of impartiality. The investigation of levee failure in New Orleans during Hurricane Katrina was sponsored by the American Society of Civil Engineers (ASCE) but funded by the Corps of Engineers and involved its employees.[24][25]

Corps of Engineers projects can be found in all fifty states,[26] and are specifically authorized and funded directly by Congress. Many times, local citizen, special interest, and political groups lobby Congress for authorization and appropriations for specific projects in their area.[27]

Senator Russ Feingold and Senator John McCain sponsored an amendment requiring peer review of corps projects to the Water Resources Development Act of 2006,[28] proclaiming "efforts to reform and add transparency to the way the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers receives funding for and undertakes water projects." A similar bill, the Water Resources Development Act of 2007, which included the text of the original Corps peer review measure, eventually passed by Congress in 2007, overriding Presidential veto.[29]

Military works

Some of the Corps of Engineers' military works projects of the past have been criticized as being deleterious to the environment. A number of camps and facilities designed by the Corps of Engineers, including the former Camp O'Ryan in New York State, have had an unintended or negative impact on the surrounding communities. Camp O'Ryan, with its rifle range, has possibly contaminated well and storm runoff water with toxic lead. This runoff water eventually runs into the Niagara River and Lake Ontario, sources of drinking water to millions of people. This situation is exacerbated by a failure to locate the engineering and architectural plans for the camp, which were produced by the New York District in 1949.[30][31]

Further criticism of the Corps of Engineers was documented in Leslie Carde's 2008 documentary film America Betrayed

Operational Facts and Figures

Public Laws affecting the Corps of Engineers

Subcommittee on Transportation and Infrastructure Hearing on Water Resources Needs and the President’s Budget Proposal for the Army Corps of Engineers for Fiscal Year 2008, March 2007.

The Corps of Engineers' work is specifically authorized by Congress, either for an individual project or for a specific class of projects. Note: See Controversies section above about how the Congressional authorization process adds to the controversial nature of some projects. Here are some of the specific laws affecting work done by the Corps.[32]

Regulatory Program

Emergency Response

Project manager with the Kansas City District U.S. Army Corps of Engineers inspects the Little Blue River at Swope Parkway, 2007.

Flood Control

Hurricane and Storm Damage Reduction

U.S. Army Corps of Engineers personnel distribute supplies for Hurricane Andrew victims, 1992.

Ecosystem Restoration and Protection

General Navigation

Mississippi River in New Orleans, Louisiana, 2006.

Stems from the Commerce clause of the US Constitution and US Supreme Court decisions. the Corps mission is considered to have begun in 1824 when funds were appropriated to clear snags from the Ohio and Mississippi Rivers. Specific Project Authorizations:

Emergency Streambank and Shore Protection

Hydroelectric Power

Lavon Lake, located in Wylie, Texas, part of the Fort Worth District.

Water Supply Storage

Recreation

Dam Safety Assurance

Other Related Laws

Environmental enforcement

One of the major responsibilities of the Corps of Engineers is administering the wetlands permitting program under Section 404 of the Federal Water Pollution Control Act of 1972. (aka "The Clean Water Act"). This Act authorized the Secretary of the Army to issue permits for the discharge of dredged and fill material.

Section 10 of the Rivers and Harbors Act of 1899 (codified in Chapter 33, Section 403 of the United States Code) gave the Corps authority over navigable waters of the United States. As navigable waters are defined as "navigable waters of the United States are those waters that are subject to the ebb and flow of the tide and/or are presently being used, or have been used in the past, or may be susceptible for use to transport interstate or foreign commerce", the Corps has broad authority to enforce this, including licensing of bridges over navigable waters, and the maintenance of pierhead and bulkhead lines.

There are three types of permits issued by the Corps of Engineers: Nationwide, Regional General, and Individual. 80% of the permits issued are nationwide permits, which include several general types of activities, as published in the Federal Register. To gain authorization under a nationwide permit, an applicant usually needs only send a letter to the regional Corps office notifying them of his or her intent, type and amount of impact, and a site map. Although the nationwide process is fairly simple, Corps approval must be obtained before commencing with any work. Regional general permits are specific to each Corps division office. Individual permits are generally required for projects greater than 0.5 acres (2,000 m2) in size.

Research

ERDC Research support includes:

Insignia

The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers gold castle branch insignia, worn by engineer officers.

The Corps of Engineers branch insignia, the Corps Castle, is believed to have originated on an informal basis. In 1841, cadets at West Point wore insignia of this type. In 1902, the Castle was formally adopted by the Corps of Engineers as branch insignia.[33] The castle itself is actually the Pershing Barracks at USMA in West Point, NY[34]

A current tradition was established with the "Gold Castles" branch insignia of General of the Army Douglas MacArthur, West Point Class of 1903, who served in the Corps of Engineers early in his career and had received the two pins as a graduation gift of his family. In 1945, near the conclusion of World War II, General MacArthur gave his personal pins to his Chief Engineer, General Leif J. Sverdrup. On May 2, 1975, upon the 200th anniversary of the Corps, retired General Sverdrup, who had civil engineering projects including the landmark 17-mile (27 km)-long Chesapeake Bay Bridge-Tunnel to his credit, presented the Gold Castles to then-Chief of Engineers Lieutenant General William C. Gribble, Jr., who had also served under General MacArthur in the Pacific. General Gribble then announced a tradition of passing the insignia along to future Chiefs of Engineers, and it has been done so since.[35]

See also

References

 This article incorporates public domain material from the United States Government document "The United States Army Corps of Engineers website". (links 1 and 22 don't work)

 This article incorporates public domain material from the United States Government document "Miscellaneous USACE History Publications".

We Clear The Way World War II poster for the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers.
  1. ↑ 1.0 1.1 1.2 1.3 1.4 USACE Organization webpage
  2. ↑ 2.0 2.1 USACE Mission and Vision webpage
  3. ↑ USACE Warfighting Mission webpage
  4. ↑ Engineer Update Story on Iraqi Hydropower
  5. ↑ 5.00 5.01 5.02 5.03 5.04 5.05 5.06 5.07 5.08 5.09 5.10 5.11 5.12 From Serving The Armed Forces and The Nation 2007 edition (October 2007), and data from the US Army Corps of Engineers
  6. ↑ USACE Homeland Security Mission webpage
  7. ↑ USACE Infrastructure Mission webpage
  8. ↑ Engineer Magazine article "Disaster Relief"
  9. ↑ USACE Institute for Water Resources: Programs Overview
  10. ↑ 10.0 10.1 10.2 10.3 USACE History webpage
  11. ↑ 11.0 11.1 USACE Environmental Mission webpage
  12. ↑ Charting the Inland Seas: A History of the U.S. Lake Survey, Arthur M. Woodford, 1991
  13. ↑ 13.0 13.1 13.2 13.3 First Lieutenant Shaun Martin, Confederate Engineers in the American Civil War, Engineer: The Professional Bulletin for Army Engineers. Technology Industry. U.S. Civil War Center
  14. ↑ USACE Office of History vignettes
  15. ↑ Bell, William Gardner, Commanding Generals and Chiefs of Staff, 1775-2005: Portraits & Biographical Sketches of the United States Army's Senior Officer (Washington, D.C.: Center of Military History, U.S. Army, 2006).. ISBN 0-16-072376-0.
  16. ↑ HQUSACE Executive Office webpage
  17. ↑ http://www.usace.army.mil/CECW/Pages/CWChief.aspx
  18. ↑ http://www.usace.army.mil/CEMP/Pages/MGJeffreyJDorko,DeputyCommandingGenreralMilitaryandInternationalOperations.aspx
  19. ↑ http://www.usace.army.mil/about/HQORG/Pages/CEMP.aspx
  20. ↑ http://www.usace.army.mil/about/HQORG/Pages/CECW.aspx
  21. ↑ Time Magazine article
  22. ↑ St Louis Today, Missouri State News
  23. ↑ Close the Mississippi River Gulf Outlef - The Hurricane Highway
  24. ↑ Critics of Corps investigation
  25. ↑ IPET Statistics on Corps of Engineers
  26. ↑ U.S. Army Corps of Engineers Home website
  27. ↑ Army Corps of Engineers is Broken(See "Skewed Priorities")
  28. ↑ Feingold, McCain, Coburn Work to Reform Army Corps of Engineers
  29. ↑ Water bill passes despite Bush veto
  30. ↑ FOIA Request to the Army Corps of Engineers, New York District, "records pertaining to the former Camp O'Ryan site, previously the Wethersfield Range", 21 February 2007
  31. ↑ "State of New York Annual Report of the Chief of Staff to the Governor for the Division of Military and Naval Affairs for the Year 1949 ", Karl F. Hausauer, Major General, N.Y.N.G., Chief of Staff to the Governor, 31 December 1949, pages 57-59
  32. ↑ U.S. Army Corps of Engineers Civil Works Pocket Reference, Prepared by the Institute for Water Resources, 1998
  33. ↑ http://www.hq.usace.army.mil/history/vignettes/Vignette_90.htm
  34. ↑ http://sites.google.com/site/militaryscienceandleadership/Home/spring-2009/branch-ebook
  35. ↑ USACE History Vignette 89

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