NAVFAC Northwest Helps Lead Engineer Operations Course, Empowering Service Engineers for Joint Success

In late January, Capt. Benjamin Leppard, Naval Facilities Engineering Systems Command (NAVFAC) Northwest Executive Officer, facilitated and taught segments of the resident learning phase of the Joint Engineer Operations Course (JEOC) at Joint Base Lewis-McChord (JBLM) under the direction of the U.S. Army Engineer School.

Established in 2004, the course is designed to equip service engineer officers, warrant officers, senior non-commissioned officers, and select government civilians with the necessary skills for duty on a combatant command staff or a joint task force engineer staff.

Each class consists of roughly 60 multi-service engineering students offered rotationally at the U.S. Marine Corps University, U.S. Army Engineer School, U.S. Air Force Institute of Technology, and the U.S. Navy Civil Engineer Corps (CEC) Officers School.

January’s resident course at JBLM consisted of approximately 45 students and a team of 10 facilitators from each of the Armed Services and the Defense Logistics Agency.

Leppard, a professional engineer registered in the State of Minnesota and member of the Civil Engineer Corps for 26 years, attended JEOC as a lieutenant commander back in 2014 and helped facilitate his first course at Marine Corps Base Quantico in 2023.

“The JEOC was a meaningful course as a budding senior officer,” said Leppard. “I became passionate about the course in my previous tour and remained so in this, my last tour on active duty.”

At its core, JEOC’s objective is to provide a foundational understanding of service engineer forces, joint doctrine, planning processes, and engineer staff positions. Recognizing the operational deficiencies among service engineers in integrating sister service capabilities into operations, the need for the JEOC was identified, studied, and validated through subsequent recommendations and memoranda.

JEOC is structured into two phases: Phase I involves non-resident learning conducted virtually, covering joint operations, joint warfare, and joint engineer doctrine; Phase II involves in-person training offering practical exercises and exposure to operational and strategic enablers through subject matter experts and guest speakers.

Since its inception, the course has only grown in importance to CEC officers, Leppard said.

With over 4,500 service engineers and allies trained to date, the course has been formally certified and included in the Joint Professional Military Education program since 2010.

“The foundational element that makes JEOC successful lies in its cast of supporting facilitators,” said Leppard. “Each facilitator brings their shared experiences that speak to the realities of joint operations and joint engineering in a tactical environment; students can share in facilitator experiences and the extreme success they have seen over the years.”

Lt. Cmdr. Philip Moncayo, NAVFAC Northwest Facilities Engineering and Acquisition Division Director, attended the resident training.

“As an engineer in a role focused on delivering construction products and services for the Navy and Marine Corps, I am reminded daily of the significant engineering resources required from all services to achieve the strategic goals set forth by the Department of the Navy,” said Moncayo.

Moncayo also said that learning how to quickly support joint operations with sister services is becoming the norm for future operations.

“It’s important for our junior officers to understand the basic capabilities of our fellow engineers serving with the Air Force, Army, and Marine Corps. While each service may have a specialized focus that they bring to the fight—for example, Seabees who focus on port damage repair—our combined efforts will provide combatant commanders with greater capabilities and flexibility in future operations,” said Moncayo.

“Without these training opportunities, service engineers may struggle to understand the capabilities of other service engineers and execute operations in a joint environment,” said Leppard. “I hope that officers who are sent to the course see its value and continue to personally invest in their careers as senior military engineers. The time invested in becoming a facilitator and sharing your experience with the next generation of engineers is a small task compared to the long-term joint-engineering objectives of the Department of Defense.”