Elizabeth Tarbox

CPT Elizabeth Tarbox’s desire to serve her country began hearing stories of her grandfather’s heroic service as an amphibious sapper during WWII. During college, Elizabeth simultaneously studied engineering, participated in ROTC, volunteered as an EMT, and worked as a researcher. During that time, Elizabeth’s research was published in scholarly journals and presented at international conferences. She went on to become a patented inventor of medical technology.   

In 2017, Elizabeth followed her grandfather and joined the US Army as an engineer officer. As a Lieutenant, she led an Equipment Support Platoon through the National Training Center. She then led the 517th Geospatial Planning Cell – a position two ranks above her own. There, Elizabeth planned, prioritized, and managed geospatial security cooperation engagements to Africa Partner Nations. She managed geospatial intelligence for the U.S. Army – Africa during critical Humanitarian Assistance and Disaster Relief (HADR) missions. She also deployed to African countries where she familiarized their engineers on geospatial sciences to counter human trafficking and terrorist activity.   

Today, Elizabeth is studying environmental engineering at Missouri S&T. She plans to use her education to further her work as an Army Engineer. Some of her goals include working for the US Army Corps of Engineers – a leader in civil works in the U.S. with notable projects including hurricane Katrina and post 9-11 reconstruction. Long term, Elizabeth hopes to merge her leadership, geospatial, and environmental engineering skills as the commander of the JTF-Bravo, Honduras and provide counter human trafficking and HADR to South America.