What does it take to be an Army combat engineer?

That's why engineers got the nice atomic fireworks back in the day.

Getting to blow stuff up is certainly one of the benefits of being in a Combat Engineer unit. Remember, there are few problems in life that can't be solved by the proper application of Demolitions.
Getting to play on the rest of the Equipment is the other advantage. By the time I left Command, I was qualified on all the Construction Equipment (not hard, I was a farm boy) plus the AVLB and CEV.

Yes, and I loved it for 8 years.

SFC Randy Hellenbrand - Engineers were not the only ones, One of the last schools I attended was for Nuclear Launch Codes.