Subscribe
KABUL, Afghanistan — In the sweltering summer heat of southern Afghanistan, International Security Assistance Force engineers from Canada and the United States trained 60 Romanians to construct steel bridges over the streams and wadis in the region.
The newly-qualified Romanian bridge crews will soon be constructing bridges in Zabul province. Their work will allow Afghans to travel more freely in the rugged terrain.
Chief Warrant Officer Alain Guimond, Canadian army engineer and Master Sgt. Harold Russell, United States Army National Guard engineer, spent nine days teaching the Romanians the skills needed in bridge construction.
"These bridges aren't for us," said Russell. "We can drive through the wadis. Our mission is to improve mobility for the people of Afghanistan."
"We worked great together, we are a team," said Pvt. Iute Marius, a Romanian engineer.
Language barriers were an issue at first during the training. The engineers quickly found that different nationalities use the same hand signals when directing the forklift operators to move sections of the bridge. This made the work easier to accomplish.
The Romanian engineers will perform a vital role as part of the overall operation in Afghanistan. With the construction of new bridges in Zabul, Afghans will be able to move more freely between their communities and conditions for agriculture and commerce will improve in the province.
| Date Taken: | 07.09.2009 |
| Date Posted: | 07.09.2009 00:12 |
| Story ID: | 36144 |
| Location: | KABUL, AF |
| Web Views: | 310 |
| Downloads: | 288 |
This work, Building Bridges in Afghanistan, must comply with the restrictions shown on https://www.dvidshub.net/about/copyright.
