This summer, I had the privilege of interning at the 412^th Theater Engineer Command as the Operations Officer. The 412^th Theater Engineer Command  trained and ready forces in support of global operations and provides policies, guidance, resourcing and administrative support as an Operational Command over assigned Army Reserve units. While deployed, the 412th TEC mobilizes and deploys to a theater of operations as the senior engineer headquarters to provide mission command of assigned or attached units in support of the Army Service Component Command’s assured mobility, protection, logistics, and infrastructure development lines of operation.

As the operations officer, I oversaw the movement of units currently deployed outside of the United States. This meant that I planned, coordinated, scheduled, and conducted activities that tracked the welfare of the 412^th Soldiers. It was really a unique experience getting to see the operational side of national defense. As someone who aspires to one day influence or dictate policy, I appreciated having the understanding of actually executing policy. Indeed, as a uniform personnel operating under Department of Defense guidelines and policies this summer, I knew I had limits. I also had specific goals set forth from policy already established. It was definitely a balancing act of prioritization and mitigating risks within my duties. Overall, I enjoyed analyzing the existing policy to see how I can impact the mission an operations within the 412^th.