Do you have to be a sapper school graduate to be in a sapper company or is that something you can go to once you get to the unit?

18 years ago, Sapper School was a leadership course that Combat Engineer NCOs and officers were encouraged to attend. Graduating did not qualify you for a different MOS or duty position, it just signified that you had mastered a lot of very detail-oriented technical and tactical tasks as well as some small unit leadership evaluations in a patrol phase. We used to use the term Sapper more as a substitute for "Combat Engineer" than as a reference to graduation from the course. It was a really good course, though - especially for getting a solid handle on troop leading procedures (TLP) and the orders process at a small unit (company and below) level. At that time there were no sapper companies, just divisional Combat Engineer battalions (and in an Armored Cavalry Regiment, a Combat Engineer company) as the Army had not moved to a BCT-based system at that time.

You do not have to be a sapper school graduate to be in a sapper unit. Although, it is far more likely for you to get a slot to go to sapper school from a sapper unit. Best of luck.

Great school if you get a shot take it ...... the cutting edge of our countries sword