A sapper, also called a combat engineer, is a combatant or soldier who performs a variety of military engineering duties, such as breaching fortifications, demolitions, bridge-building, laying or clearing minefields, preparing field defenses, and road and airfield construction and repair.
A combat engineer is a type of soldier who performs military engineering tasks in support of land forces combat operations. Combat engineers perform a variety of military engineering, tunnel and mine warfare tasks, as well as construction and demolition duties in and out of combat zones.
The Ranger School is a 62-day United States Army small unit tactics and leadership course that develops functional skills directly related to units whose mission is to engage the enemy in close combat and direct fire battles. Ranger training was established in September 1950 at Fort Benning, Georgia. The Ranger course has changed little since its inception. Until recently, it was an eight-week course divided into three phases. The course is now 61 days in duration and divided into three phases as follows: Benning Phase, Mountain Phase, and Swamp Phase.
The School of Infantry (SOI) is the second stage of initial military training for enlisted United States Marines after recruit training. The ITB now called IMC went from a 59 day course to 14 week course. Since the initial training pipeline is divided between coasts, Marines from areas east of the Mississippi River usually graduate from MCRD Parris Island and move on to SOI at SOI East, while those from the western half of the nation attend MCRD San Diego and move on to SOI West at the Camp San Onofre area of Camp Pendleton in California. Female Marines are trained at both SOI East and SOI West. The School of Infantry's training mission ensures "Every Marine is, first and foremost, a Rifleman". At SOI, Marines with the Military Occupational Specialty of infantry are trained at the Infantry Training Battalion (ITB), while all non-infantry Marines are trained in basic infantry and combat skills at the Marine Combat Training Battalion. SOI marks a transition in the professional training of entry-level students from basically trained Marines to combat-ready Marines.
The Basic School (TBS) is where all newly commissioned and appointed United States Marine Corps officers are taught the basics of being an "Officer of Marines." The Basic School is located in Stafford County, Virginia to the south-west of the Marine Corps Base Quantico complex. Each year, over 1,700 new officers are trained, representing such commissioning sources as the U.S. Naval Academy, Navy ROTC, Officer Candidates School, and newly appointed Marine Corps Warrant Officers, U.S. Merchant Marine Academy accession programs.
Long-range surveillance (LRS) teams were elite, specially-trained surveillance units of the United States Army employed for clandestine operation by Military Intelligence for gathering direct human intelligence information deep within enemy territory. Classic LRS employment is to infiltrate deep into enemy territory, construct hide and surveillance sites, and provide continuous surveillance/special reconnaissance of an intelligence target of key interest.
United States Army Reconnaissance and Surveillance Leaders Course (RSLC) is a 29-day school designed on mastering reconnaissance fundamentals of officers and non-commissioned officers eligible for assignments to those units whose primary mission is to conduct reconnaissance and surveillance, target acquisition, and combat assessment operations. RSLC is taught by the 4th Ranger Training Battalion, Airborne and Ranger Training Brigade. The school is open to Soldiers, Marines, Sailors and Airmen to train them to expert levels in reconnaissance, surveillance, target acquisition, battle damage assessment, communications, planning, foreign vehicle identification, and other skills. The school was originally created to serve leaders from Long Range Surveillance Units (LRSU's), but now provides the specific reconnaissance training needed to ensure the effectiveness of small unit reconnaissance elements for the U.S. Army and joint force. Given the training focus and difficulty of the RSLC, the school is still commonly attended by operators from U.S. Army Special Forces, the 75th Ranger Regiment's Regimental Reconnaissance Company, U.S. Army Civil Affairs, Navy SEALs, and Marine reconnaissance units; today's students also come from more conventional infantry, Stryker and armored Brigade Combat Teams (BCT). Following the US Army decision to disband US Army LRS companies, the reconnaissance fundamentals taught in the course also provides U.S. military commanders the ability to preserve key LRS skills and abilities within the conventional force.
The CTOE - Centro de Tropas de Operações Especiais, based in Lamego, is a unit of the Portuguese Army with the mission of instructing troops in unconventional warfare and counter-terrorism. Until 2006, it was known as CIOE - Centro de Instrução de Operações Especiais.
Company F, 425th Infantry was a long range surveillance unit of the Michigan National Guard that was inactivated on 12 June 2011. The company came into being in the mid-1960s when the 1st Battalion (Airborne), 225th Infantry was reflagged as Companies E and F (Ranger), 425th Infantry, and organized as Ranger companies. During this period these two companies were assigned to division and higher level commands to perform long range reconnaissance patrol missions, as opposed to the Ranger companies of today which comprise the four battalions of the 75th Ranger Regiment. According to the United States Army Center of Military History, it was reorganized and redesignated as the 425th Infantry Detachment (LRS) effective 1 September 2008 and was relocated from the State of Michigan Pontiac Armory to the Selfridge Air National Guard Base near Mount Clemens, 15 miles northeast of Detroit.
The Army Mountain Warfare School (AMWS) is a United States Army school located at the Camp Ethan Allen Training Site, Jericho, Vermont to train soldiers in mountain warfare, the specialized skills required for operating in mountainous terrain. It is home to the 86th Infantry Brigade Combat Team. The school is located in Vermont's Green Mountains.
Recondo is an American military acronym for a highly specialized infantry training or a graduate of a Recondo School who leads a small, heavily armed long-range reconnaissance team that patrols deep in enemy-held territory. It is also the colloquial name for a Marine who has graduated the grueling Basic Reconnaissance Course and earned the title of Recon Marine.
The Ranger tab is a service school qualification tab of the United States Army, awarded to any soldier who completes Ranger School at the U.S. Army Fort Moore, Georgia. Soldiers who are awarded the Ranger tab are authorized to wear it for the remainder of their military careers. The Ranger tab is considered the pre-eminent award for soldiers in combat arms branches within the United States Army. It is considered an unwritten rule in the Infantry Branch that a Ranger tab is required to achieve full career success, with the majority of commissioned and non-commissioned officers serving in battalion and above leadership roles holding the award.
In the United States Army, tabs are cloth and/or metal arches that are worn on U.S. Army uniforms, displaying a word or words signifying a special skill. On the Army Combat Uniform and Army Service Uniform, the tabs are worn above a unit's shoulder sleeve insignia (SSI) and are used to identify a unit's or a soldier's special skill(s) or are worn as part of a unit's SSI as part of its unique heritage. Individual tabs are also worn as small metal arches above or below medals or ribbons on dress uniforms.
The Special Forces Qualification Course (SFQC) or, informally, the Q Course is the initial formal training program for entry into the United States Army Special Forces. Phase I of the Q Course is Special Forces Assessment and Selection (SFAS). A candidate who is selected at the conclusion of SFAS will enable a candidate to continue to the next of the four phases. If a candidate successfully completes all phases they will graduate as a Special Forces qualified soldier and then, generally, be assigned to a 12-men Operational Detachment "A" (ODA), commonly known as an "A team." The length of the Q Course changes depending on the applicant's primary job field within Special Forces and their assigned foreign language capability but will usually last between 56 and 95 weeks.
68W is the Military Occupational Specialty (MOS) for the United States Army's Combat Medic. 68Ws are primarily responsible for providing emergency medical treatment at point of wounding on the battlefield, limited primary care, and health protection and evacuation from a point of injury or illness. 68Ws are certified as Emergency Medical Technicians (EMT) through the National Registry of Emergency Medical Technicians (NREMT). However, 68Ws often have a scope of practice much wider than that of civilian EMTs. This specialty is open to males and females with minimum line scores of 107 GT and 101 ST on the Armed Services Vocational Aptitude Battery (ASVAB).
A United States Air Force Tactical Air Control Party, commonly abbreviated TACP, is an individual or team of United States Air Force Special Warfare Airmen with AFSC 1Z3X1, who are aligned with conventional, Special Operation Forces, and Tier 1 combat maneuver units. They provide precision terminal attack control and terminal attack guidance of U.S. and coalition fixed- and rotary-wing close air support aircraft, artillery, and naval gunfire; establish and maintain command and control (C2) communications; and advise ground commanders on the best use of air power.
The United States Army Pathfinder Course trains military personnel in the U.S. Army and its sister services to set up parachute drop zones and helicopter landing zones for airborne and air assault missions.
The Combat Training Centre is responsible for the individual training of Canadian Army soldiers and officers in military occupational classifications that are controlled by the Canadian Army. The centre is headquartered at the 5th Canadian Division Support Base Gagetown, New Brunswick, and maintains schools at CFB Kingston, 8 Wing Trenton and CFB Borden in Ontario. Originally known as the Combat Arms School, it was formed at Camp Borden, Ontario, in 1965, moving to CFB Gagetown in the early 1970's. It is a formation of the Canadian Army Doctrine and Training Centre, the former Land Force Doctrine and Training System which was renamed as part of the reorganization of the Canadian Army on 18 July 2013.
The Army Reserve Officer Training Corps (AROTC) is the United States Army component of the Reserve Officers' Training Corps. It is the largest Reserve Officer Training Corps (ROTC) program which is a group of college and university-based officer training programs for training commissioned officers for the United States Army and its reserves components: the Army Reserves and the Army National Guard. There are over 30,000 Army ROTC cadets enrolled in 274 ROTC programs at colleges and universities throughout the United States. These schools are categorized as Military Colleges (MC), Military Junior Colleges (MJC) and Civilian Colleges (CC).
The School of Engineers is part of the South African Army Engineer Formation, which provides combat engineering corps training and teaching to military officers and personnel as well as other Military Schools throughout the South African National Defence Force. They are currently the only Military School in Southern Africa to formally present IEDD.
United States 
United States Army 
169th Engineer Battalion, 1st Engineer Brigade, United States Army Engineer School 
