Do engineers get killed on foreign missions?

ysition

I am doing an in-dept study into this issue. My Aunt is a member of the Irish Army's Corps of Engineers, and i'm wondering do they get shot at, or are they in the firing line much. Or do they stay out of the action? Has anybody ever heard of engineers been harmed in combat abroad, and are engineers in danger of been harmed, or even killed on foreign missions, even if they are peacekeeping missions.

LondonIrish90

Engineers in Afghanistan are on the front line, and are just as likely to be killed as any infantryman. Not at all uncommon to hear of members of the Royal Engineers being killed on BBC news.

RMD

Really depends what engineering trade you're in. Combat Engineer and Driver can be fairly dangerous jobs depending on where you're deployed. Then there's the obvious one of Bomb disposal. After that I'm not entirely sure, I could be completely wrong in saying this but a lot of other trades are based away from direct combat and the danger factor isn't as high, there's still always the risk though of mortar attacks and the likes.

I'm not sure about the Irish army, but in the BA there's been a good few deaths in the REC. The term engineer corps really covers a lot of areas, so it really comes down to your trade within the corps.

xflyer

I remember seeing Engineer badged vehicles driven by very civilian looking drivers. I often wondered about that. In America the Corps of Engineers has a considerable civilian role particularly in relation to river defences. But also they are deployed to Afghanistan and Iraq.

Manic Moran

Bottom line, Ysiton, if one is particularly worried about staying safe, one shouldn't join the Army. Its our job to go into harm's way.

There are various different subcategory of combat engineer, such as pioneer, horizontal engineer or vertical engineer. Pioneers are most likely to get shot at, as their job is to go up to obstacles and clear them. Bridge builders, less so. It all varies.

NTM

Kat1170

RMD wrote: »

Then there's the obvious one of Bomb disposal.

Thats an Ordnance Corp. job in the Irish DF.