United States Army Corps of Engineers
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| U.S. Army Corps of Engineers | |
|---|---|
 USACE Logo |
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| Active | June 15, 1775-Present. |
| Country | United States |
| Branch | Regular Army; Army Reserve; and National Guard |
| Size | 34,600 civilian and 650 military members |
| Garrison/HQ | Washington, D.C. |
| Motto | Essayons (Let us try) |
| Colors | Red and White |
The United States Army Corps of Engineers, or USACE, is made up of some 34,600 civilian and 650 military men and women. The Corps' mission is to provide engineering services to the United States, including:
- Planning, designing, building and operating dams and other civil engineering projects
- Designing and managing the construction of military facilities for the Army and Air Force
- Providing design and construction management support for other Defense and federal agencies
The Corps' history began in 1775 when the Continental Congress authorized the first Chief Engineer whose first task was to build fortifications near Boston at Bunker Hill. The first Corps were mostly composed of French subjects, who had been hired by George Washington from the service of Louis XVI. In 1802 a corps of engineers was stationed at West Point and constituted the nation's first military academy.
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[edit] Highlights
Continental Congress authority for a "Chief Engineer for the Army" dates from June 16, 1775. A corps of Engineers for the United States was authorized by the Congress on March 11, 1779. The Corps of Engineers as it is known today came into being on March 16, 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' authority over river works in the United States began with its fortification of New Orleans after the War of 1812. A Corps of Topographical Engineers, authorized on July 4, 1838, was merged with the Corps of Engineers in March, 1963.
Notable projects by the Corps include the survey and construction of the National Road until federal funds were withdrawn (1838), the 555 ft 5 1/8 in (169 m) tall Washington Monument, completed under the direction and command of Lieutenant Colonel Thomas Lincoln Casey in 1888, major hydroelectric projects, the planning and building of The Pentagon, and the Manhattan Project.
[edit] Leadership
The Chief of Engineers has separate and distinct command and staff responsibilities. As a staff officer at the Pentagon, the Chief advises the Army on engineering matters and serves as the Army's topographer and other related engineering programs. As commander of the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, the Chief of Engineers leads a major Army command that is the world's largest public engineering, design and construction management agency. This office defines policy and guidance and plans direction for the organizations within the Corps. The current Chief of Engineers is LTG Carl Strock. The Command Sergeant Major is Robert A. Winzenried. Under the Chief sits the Director of Civil works, usually a Major General. The current Director of Civil Works is MG Don T. Riley
The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers Headquarters is made up of an Executive Office and 17 Staff Principals. The Headquarters, located in Washington, DC, creates policy and plans future direction of all the other Corps organizations.
[edit] Organization
The Corps is organized geographically into nine divisions and 45 subordinate districts throughout the U.S., Asia and Europe. The districts oversee project offices throughout the world. Divisions and districts are defined by watershed boundaries for civil works projects, and by political boundaries for military projects. The eight U.S. divisions are:
- Great Lakes and Ohio River Division (LRD)
- Mississippi Valley Division (MVD)
- North Atlantic Division (NAD)
- Northwestern Division (NWD)
- Pacific Ocean Division (POD)
- South Atlantic Division (SAD)
- South Pacific Division (SPD)
- Southwestern Division (SWD)
Since 11 September 2001, the Corps has responded with the creation of expeditionary elements in Iraq (the Gulf Region Division or GRD) and Afghanistan (the Afghanistan Engineer District or AED).
[edit] 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.
There are three types of permits issued by the Corps: 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 get a nationwide permit, an applicant need only send a letter to the regional Corps office notifying them of his or her intent. Regional general permits are specific to each Corps division office. Individual permits are required for projects greater than 0.5 acres (2,000 m²) in size.
[edit] Research
The Engineer Research and Development Center (ERDC) is the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers research and development command. ERDC consists of seven unique laboratories.
Research support includes:
- Dam safety systems
- Mapping and topography terrain analysis
- Infrastructure design, construction, operations and maintenance
- Structural engineering
- Cold regions and ice engineering
- Coastal and hydraulic engineering, producing products such as HEC-RAS
- Environmental quality, including toxic chemistry of bay mud and other dredge spoils
- Geotechnical engineering
- High performance computing and information technology
[edit] Support services
There are several other major organizations within the Corps of Engineers:
- Huntsville, U.S. Army Engineering and Support Center (CEHNC) - provides engineering and technical services, program and project management, construction management, and innovative contracting initiatives, for programs that are national or broad in scope or not normally provided by other Corps’ elements
- Transatlantic Programs Center (CETAC) - supports U.S. government programs and policies overseas
- Finance Center, USACE (CEFC) - supports the operating finance and accounting functions throughout the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers
- Humphreys Engineer Center Support Activity (CEHEC) - provides administrative and operational support for HQUSACE and Corps Field Offices
- Marine Design Center (CEMDC) - provides total project management including planning, engineering, and shipbuilding contract management in support of Corps, Army, and national water resource projects in peacetime, and augments the military construction capacity in time of national emergency or mobilization
- Institute for Water Resources (IWR) - supports the Civil Works Directorate and other USACE offices by developing and applying new planning evaluation methods, polices and data in anticipation of changing water resources management conditions.
- 249th Engineer Battalion (Prime Power) - generates and distributes prime electrical power in support of fighting wars, disaster relief, stability and support operations as well as provides advice and technical assistance in all aspects of electrical power and distribution systems. It also maintains Army power generation and distribution war reserves.
- 911th Engineer Company - (formerly the MDW Engineer Company) provides specialized technical search and rescue support for the Washington, D.C. metropolitan area; it is also a vital support member of the Joint Force Headquarters National Capital Region, which is charged with the homeland security of the United States capital region.
[edit] Trivia
- The logo of the Corps, the Corps Castle, was started in 1840 on an informal basis. Beginning in 1841, cadets at West Point wore personal insignia of this type on their uniforms as they became commissioned officers in the U.S. Army. In 1902, the Corps Castle was formally adopted by the Army as the insignia of the Corps of Engineers. It was once changed to silver from gold from 1894 to 1921. [1]
- A current tradition was established with the "Gold Castles" pins of General Douglas MacArthur, West Point Class of 1903, who served in the Corps 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-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. [2]
- The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers appears in Tennessee Williams's play, A Streetcar Named Desire, in the form of the "engineers' corps." One of the main characters, Stanley Kowalski, once worked for the corps as a sergeant major.
[edit] History
- WT Preston, a museum ship that was once a "snagboat," or specialized river dredge
