When the Waters were dried an' the Earth did appear,
("It's all one," says the Sapper),
The Lord He created the Engineer,
Her Majesty's Royal Engineer,
With the rank and pay of a Sapper!
("It's all one," says the Sapper),
The Lord He created the Engineer,
Her Majesty's Royal Engineer,
With the rank and pay of a Sapper!
"Yessir—Ol' B Comp'ny broke another bridge buildin' record. A kraut regiment is retreatin' across it."
—Caption from a Bill Mauldin cartoon in World War II.
"That's a communications system. It needs repair but I'm willing to bet that you've brought one of those famed Starfleet engineers who can turn rocks into replicators."
— Keevan, Star Trek: Deep Space Nine, "Rocks and Shoals"
Bob: Are you the Corps of Engineers, the guys who build the runways the planes land on?
"Whenever I start complaining about Final Fantasy Tactics's challenge peaking at Act Three, Balk always appears to shut me up. He's not terribly important to the story — just another proletarian activist/machinist aligned with the templars — but dealing with him in battle is a pain in the ass. He's fast. He has innate support abilities that make it so your attacks never seem to do as much damage as they should. He always comes packing some horrible magic-shooting gun... And he always makes sure you're coming into the fight at a disadvantage. The first time you meet him, he poisons everyone on your team before the battle even starts, then snipes at you from behind a wall of knights and archers. When he challenges you to a rematch later on, he blasts at you from an advantageous position, sics some of the most powerful monsters in the game on you (those fucking hydras), and keeps a Chemist around to help shoot at you and toss recovery/resurrection items at the dragons. If you want a warrior's job done right, it sometimes takes a scientist."
—Pat R., "But I Sure Do Miss the Nineties"
When I got to Vietnam they made me a "combat engineer, pioneer" — which they told us meant we were sort of like infantry, but too dumb to carry a rifle, so they gave us a shovel. Actually, our primary tools were high explosives and chain saws — and yes, some were dumb enough to be killed by both.
—From an autobiographical sketch by Joe Haldeman
by Joe Haldeman