History of The Military Engineer

The original nine-member board appointed by Maj. Gen. William Black, USA, to establish the Society of American Military Engineers also arranged the donation of Professional Memoirs, a magazine that had been published by the Engineer Bureau since 1909. The memoirs, subsequently renamed The Military Engineer, became the cornerstone upon which SAME was founded; the magazine has been published continuously since its debut in 1920.

     

In the 100 years since the publication was established, The Military Engineer has celebrated the efforts of military engineers during some of the history’s most significant armed conflicts, including two World Wars, Korea, Vietnam and the Global War on Terror. It has detailed the greatest feats of modern engineering, such as the Panama Canal, the Hoover Dam and the Manhattan Project. The Military Engineer has followed the trends of military engineering from the early development of our nation’s transportation infrastructure through Cold War-era construction and the birth of computer-aided design to the current era of sustainable development, emergency preparedness and military base realignment.

     

In January 2008, in celebration of The Military Engineer’s 100th year in print, the magazine was redesigned for a cleaner, more modern look, and the title, which served since 1920, was reconfigured into the acronym TME. The online version, presented in HTML format since 2005, was retooled as an interactive PDF that showcases all the print version’s articles and advertisements in their original format. Live web and e-mail links now connect content and ads with the appropriate web resources, and the site—www.same.org/tme—is open to the general public.

For a more detailed account of the history of The Military Engineer, read former editor in chief Gordon T. Bratz’s article “TME Celebrates 100th Year in Print,” published in the magazine’s November-December 2008 issue.