Engineers bridge gap with Afghans with training

Photo By Chief Petty Officer Jason Carter | U.S. Army Cpl. Suzette Bouman waits, ready with her tools, to go to work on a Maybey bridge on Camp Gazi, Afghanistan. NATO and coalition forces are training the Afghan army how to assemble and disassemble the bridges for future use around the country.  

CAMP GAZI, AFGHANISTAN

10.21.2010

Story by Master Sgt. Steve Horton 

ISAF Joint Command

CAMP GAZI, Afghanistan – Afghan and coalition forces engineers recently completed a 10-day course on the construction and use of Mabey bridges as part of a larger training and development mission in Afghanistan.

The course was designed to give Afghan and Coalition members the knowledge to go back to their respective units or regions and help teach others the skills they learned.

“It is very useful to cooperate with different nations and help Afghan National Army to organize this training,” said Maj. John Velegrakis, Company Commander, Greek Engineers. “It makes you a better engineer, working here with everyone.

“The mission of the Hellenic Forces here is to offer humanity help to the Afghan people especially in the schools or the local community,” he said. “In case of emergency, we are supposed to help the Afghan National Army and the local population to construct this bridge. So it is not only useful for us, but for the local community also.”

From more than three decades of war and unrest throughout Afghanistan, many bridges are either destroyed or are in such bad condition structurally they need to be repaired or replaced. The Mabey bridge is a temporary fill for those areas in immediate need of a bridge until more permanent infrastructure can be built.

“This is a very good course,” said Jawid, and NCO in the Afghan National Army. “We come learn something from this course and we can use it for us now and the future.”

Jawid added that attending the course and learning how to build bridges was an important part in him being able to help rebuild his country.

“I am very happy,” he said. “Now I have experience in this bridge building. If I leave the Army and join civilian, I can work in civilians same activity…the same bridge. This is the first course that I have just started and I am willing to continue more courses on bridging.”

The course is taught at the Engineer Resource Park at Camp Gazi in Kabul, and managed by ISAF Joint Command engineers. The object of this course, and others, is to involve the Afghans as much as possible so they can train other Afghans in the future.

“Currently we invite ANA engineers from all of the Regional Commands,” said Macedonian Army Capt. Tome Peev, Engineer Resource Park and Training officer. “We try to teach two to three classes per year to familiarize the students with the basics, and hopefully they’ll be able to learn more in the future.”

With more and more Afghan engineers learning the intricacies of bridge building, the more access and freedom of movement the population will have, and the more they will be able to grow and develop into a prosperous nation.

• Date Taken: 10.21.2010
• Date Posted: 10.23.2010 00:32
• Story ID: 58655
• Location: CAMP GAZI, AF