SYRACUSE, N.Y. - When 25-year-old New York Army National Guard 1st Lt. Rebeka Eaton sets out to do something, she makes sure it gets done right.
“I’m a very determined individual,” Eaton says.
That trait helped her succeed as an engineer officer in Somalia, serving in the 1st Battalion, 69th Infantry’s Task Force Wolfhound in East Africa in 2022 and 2023, according to Maj. Brendan Lalor, the 69th Infantry’s operations officer.
This summer, that determination earned her the right to wear the Sapper Tab, which marks her as one of the best combat engineers in the Army. The Sapper Tab is the combat engineer equivalent of the Ranger Tab sought by infantrymen.
Even as a new second lieutenant, Eaton impressed the task force staff and commander, Lalor said. So, she and her team were pushed forward to remote operating locations to improve troop accommodations.
Determination also makes her a great company executive officer, said Capt. Dylan Kuhn, her commander in Bravo Company, 152nd Brigade Engineer Battalion.
“Beki is a very motivated leader and driven leader,” Kuhn said. “She always wants to lead from the front and be the best engineer officer she can be.”
Both men said her determination enabled her to earn the Sapper Tab on June 14 at Fort Leonard Wood, Missouri.
Earning it means completing 28 days of education, hands-on work, and demanding physical and leadership challenges in the Sapper Leader Course.
Eaton is now one of four New York National Guard Soldiers entitled to wear the tab on the left shoulder of the uniform. She is also the only woman on that list.
“The school is tough, and the days are long,” said Lt. Col. Nicholas Whaley, the commander of the 204th Engineer Battalion, who wears the tab. “Students ruck multiple miles daily, carrying their personal, squad and platoon gear.
“It requires a high level of physical fitness, but also mental toughness and academic knowledge in those combat engineer skills,” he said. “Ultimately, those who succeed are the ones that can make good decisions under stress.”
Eaton tackled the course just after returning from East Africa. Things went well until the end of the course, when she learned she hadn’t completed the leadership requirements.
“That was truly disappointing,” she said. “Sometimes, things just don’t work out the way we hope for.”
“Beki, being a very driven leader, turned that very moment into motivation to go back and earn her Sapper Tab,” Kuhn said.
Eaton returned in 2024 and completed the course, earning the right to wear the tab.
Eaton, a Fort Lauderdale, Florida native, attended New Mexico Military Institute in Roswell. She simultaneously played college volleyball and earned an Army ROTC commission.
The institute awarded her a commission with a two-year degree. It is one of only four schools that can do that.
However, she needed a four-year degree to maintain it, so she earned a degree in Earth Science and Environment, Sustainability and Policy at Syracuse University.
Easton said she joined the New York Army National Guard and became an engineer because of the “diversity of opportunities” in the branch.
“You can go to the construction side or the combat side,” she explained. “When I was deployed, I spent a lot of time on the construction side.”
In Somalia, she managed Air Force civil engineers and Army engineers and did some hands-on work with the Soldiers.
But the 152nd is a combat engineer battalion, and she wanted to master those skills, Eaton said.
So, she decided to go to the Sapper Leaders Course.
“I like to see how far I can push myself, but truly the people who have conducted combat engineer missions in actual environments have inspired me,” Eaton said.
Combat engineers blow up bridges, crater roads, breach obstacles, fill ditches, clear minefields, and do all that while also fighting in close combat.
They’re called sappers, according to the Sapper Leader Course website, because their engineer ancestors would dig trenches, called “saps,” closer and closer to enemy fortifications to undermine their walls or blow them up.
Since 2004 the Army has recognized Soldiers who make it through the course with the award of the Sapper Tab.
Eaton said the experience has made her a stronger officer.
Being the first New York National Guard woman to earn the tab “is a little bit exciting,” she said.
Her next goal is to be a company commander. However, she said her immediate goal is to be a good officer.
“I want to make sure that when my Soldiers come to drill, we provide them with the best training possible,” Eaton said.