D Company 31st Engineer Battalion

This past week your Soldiers began their Advanced Individual Training starting with demolition. The Dragon were taught how to prime, tie-in, and place TNT, C4, Bangalore Torpedos, Shape charges, and Crater charges. This is the Combat Engineers bread and butter! Never Fail the Breach!! 31st Engineer Battalion U.S. Army Engineer Regiment U.S. Army Fort Leonard Wood... First Engineer Brigade U.S. Army Combined Arms Center U.S. Army Training and Doctrine Command See more

This small patching ceremony signifies your loved ones becoming Army Soldiers. Even though they still have to complete AIT to become Combat Engineers, we are extremely proud of everything they've done so far! Never Fail the Breach!

This past week your loved ones have gone through their last FTX in BCT called The Forge. This started with an outstanding 10-mile road March and focused on squad missions consisting of a squad attack, downed pilot rescue, reconnaissance mission, presence patrol, and a resupply. The last day consisted of battle, march, and shoot; which is a 3.5-mile timed ruck march in full kit ending in a stress shoot to show the importance of keeping calm and clearing your mind while in a fi...refight. Lastly, is the Night Infiltration Course where live rounds are fired over their heads while they crawl over 50 meters to the objective. Unfortunately due to high winds and an increased fire danger level, we were not able to use the live rounds, regardless, the immense training value was still there! Congratulations to the Army’s newest Soldiers! We are proud of you all!! Never Fail the Breach! See more

Yesterday your Soldiers completed Pugils. This was the first experience with hand to hand combat. Some learned how not to quit, others had to learn how to remain calm after getting hit in the face and completing the task at hand.

!!GRADUATION UPDATE - CLASS 20-504!! **NOTE** Please read the entire post as several of the bullets may apply to your Soldier. We understand there will still be many questions, so please comment them and we will try to address as many as possible. We don't expect many changes to our current plan, but we remain flexible as we continue to adapt the ever changing conditions of our world. Families and friends of Class 20-504, thank you for your patience and understanding during o...ur planning process for graduation. After completing ticketing today, we are comfortable now releasing the following information: o National Guard/Reserve Soldiers will leave FLW upon graduation and will take GOV transportation back to their state. o Active Duty who have elected to take leave will leave from FLW, go to their destination by either plane or bus, then report to their first unit of assignment after the holidays on their own. o Active Duty who have not elected to take leave will leave from FLW on GOV transportation and report to their first unit of assignment. o Airborne bound personnel and Soldiers who will be stationed outside the the continental United States have been given the same opportunity to take leave. If they elect to take leave, they will leave the same time as everyone else, then return to FLW on the completion of their leave for further processing. If they do not take leave, they will remain on FLW with our holdover formations. o POV has been authorized for our graduation and the individuals who will be utilizing it have already been identified. The information for this process will be put out at a later date, most likely from your Soldier. We hope this post can put some of the worry at ease. Once again, please let us know of any questions and we will try to address them in a timely fashion. Have a great day!