Photo By Sgt. 1st Class Christopher Davis | Spc. Dominique Sheppard, 166th Engineer Company, Alabama National Guard, operates a...... read more read more
CINCU, Romania. – The engineers from the Romanian Land Forces treat their Alabama National Guard counterparts from the 166th Engineer Company to cold water stored in a homemade earthen cooler in June of 2016. 1st Lt. Dan Aron, 1652 Engineer Battalion Romanian Land Forces, smiles and lets the small team of engineers know they are ahead of the curve for the day.
The goal for the day was to complete the gables of three pavilions at the small arms range on Cincu Training Range, Romania. Beforehand, the Romanians laid a friendly wager who could complete the most gables before the end of the day.
Sgt. Brandi Lawrence, from Byhalia, Mississippi, was the team leader for the Alabama engineering team working side-by-side with their Romanian counterparts. She admitted the teamwork the Romanians displayed was a valuable reminder on how important it is for people to work as a group.
“It’s impressive how fast they worked together to finish a task of the construction site,” said Lawrence.
Soldiers from the 166th Engineer Company from Winfield, Alabama, have returned to Cincu Training Range as part of Resolute Castle 16. Their mission over several rotations was the construction of vertical structures, like buildings, pavilions and ammunition sheds. Over the past two years, they have sharpened their skills and precision more with each new project they have tackled.
“It gives me more experience, especially hands-on,” said Sgt. Tyler Salters from Vernon, Alabama. “So I can pass down what I know to the next Soldiers who are coming up behind me.”
The work that the 166th Engineer Company has completed at Cincu Training Range will improve the Romanian Land Forces ability to host multinational joint force operations. Their work was indicative of the work ethic they readily executed from day one of their rotation.
Within an hour of their arrival at Cincu Training Range, the men and women of the 166th Engineer Company went to work and started putting hammer to nail, after 20 hours of flying and driving from Alabama to Romania.
“Everything was there for us,” said Spc. John Shearer from Nashville, Tennessee. “We were able to get out to work the first day we got here and just hit the ground running.”
Last year was more challenging as the engineers were waiting for building materials. According to Salters, the main focus for them was horizontal work. The 166th Engineer Company cleared the grounds and poured concrete pads in preparation for the next rotation of engineers coming in behind them.
This year, everything was in place, and the 166th Engineer Company was eager to accomplish more than the year prior.
What makes the Alabama National Guard engineers unique is their ability to jump in on a site, pick up exactly where the last group left off and see the project to the end, according to Lawrence.
Another unique factor is their ease of transition from working with only their own unit to working with multiple units and under different leadership. Whether it is other guardsmen or Romanian engineers, the 166th Engineer Company learned new techniques in construction or made the best of the situation by developing a comradery with other Soldiers.
“It was a lot of fun,” said Shearer. “You learned a lot of things and had a few good laughs with them.”
Soldiers of the 166th Engineer Company understood that construction techniques vary from nation to nation but did not consider their counterparts less able for it. Often at the vertical construction site, the Alabama and Romanian engineers would break up into small teams to work on specific tasks for the day.
On one such task, the engineers formed two small teams to finish three sets of gables to pavilions on the small arms range. The two teams established a friendly wager on whose method was going to be more effective to completing the task on time.
“They see a project and try to find the easiest, simplest route to go about it,” said Shearer. “Sometimes we get stuck in doing it our own way.”
The Alabama engineers have been trained to follow the mantra to measure twice and cut once. The Romanian engineers laid all the metal pieces together with the overlaps, popped a chalk line and then cut each section needed for the gable successively.
Shearer said that the unit’s process was methodical, where the Romanian’s process was more a problem-solving group effort. Both sides learned the value of seeing how goals can be achieved by different methods.
After accepting defeat and losing bragging rights, the two teams of engineers retired to a lunch of Romanian soup, a pork dish, homemade sausage and fatback with vegetables on the side. Soldiers from both nations enjoyed the time with humor and stories of home.
Soldiers from the 166th Engineer Company were able to expand their skillsets within their own occupational specialties as vertical engineers. Shearer explained how he lacked the proper experience to lay blocks with concrete before but now has that ability. Other Soldiers, like Lawrence and Salters, learned what it meant to be a supervisor at a construction site or multiday project.
“It gave us first hand insight,” said Lawrence. “We were given the supervisor role to see how we would be able to setup our mission and how we would support our group.”
The Soldiers of the 166th Engineer Company expanded their skills and capabilities with the completion of a second year annual training period at Cincu Training Range in Romania for Resolute Castle 16.
Salters smiled with a small laugh and said the experience itself was rewarding, working with fellow engineers and developing positive relations with the Romanians.
“It was fun every day,” said Salters. “Even though it might have been a little warm outside, we still worked and still had a good day regardless of what we were doing.”
| Date Taken: | 06.30.2016 |
| Date Posted: | 07.05.2016 07:03 |
| Story ID: | 203093 |
| Location: | CINCU, RO |
| Web Views: | 688 |
| Downloads: | 0 |
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