Photo By Chief Warrant Officer James Marchetti | A Royal Thai Marine Corps combat engineer welds a purlin into the truss of a new...... read more read more
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KAENG HANG MAEO DISTRICT, CHANTHABURI PROVINCE, Thailand – A combined force of Royal Thai Marine Corps and Navy, Indian Army, and U.S. Navy military engineers are giving Ban Chan Krehm Elementary School a makeover as part of Exercise Cobra Gold 2015.
A new library will open its doors to young scholars who attend Ban Chan Krehm, located in Kaeng Hang Maeo District, Chanthaburi Province, Thailand, after its dedication ceremony Feb. 17, 2015.
Progress has been swift and consistent. As of Jan. 30, the project is at nearly 60 percent completion this is a testament, U.S. Navy Lt. j. g. Matthew Yerkes-Medina the officer in charge of his detachment of sailors with Naval Mobile Construction Battalion 4 based out of Naval Construction Battalion Center Port Hueneme, Calif., believes, to the relentlessness, expertise and cooperation of the multinational force in the face of adversity.
“One of the big hurdles we had coming out here was our tools container showed up a week late,” Yerkes-Medina said. “We were able to work with the Thais and Indians to level our building, set the forms and pour the foundation without using any traditional U.S. construction methods.”
In order to meet the quota in the early stages of construction, the sailors took the backseat and observed the way their counterparts went about business.
“Some of the Thai people have built this kind of building eight to 10 times before,” Yerkes-Medina explained. “They said, ‘hey, we have a better way of doing this, so would you want to put the column in place with this method?’ We came together, agreed upon it, and decided to try it. We did it anticipating that it would take two days to put the columns up, but with the Thai’s knowledge, expertise and skills, we were able to do it in less than one day.”
Yerkes-Medina added, the opportunity to partake in CG15, will lead to cohesion among nations. The coalition forces are exposed to a real-world mission and have established a sense of interoperability to achieve effective solutions to common challenges they could face when crises strikes anywhere in the world.
While the sailors increase their repertoire of constructional tactics with each minute spent on the clock, Yerkes-Medina stated he hopes his group will take a step back at the end of the day and examine the big picture.
“A lot of these guys just love going out and building, but the biggest reward they’ll probably take away is the bonds they’ll make,” Yerkes-Medina said. “Yeah they’re going to learn how to lay block better here, but they’re going to have pictures from hanging out with the Royal Thai Marines and sailors, and the Indian soldiers and they’ll remember the friendships they made. It’s an experience very few people will ever have.”
| Date Taken: | 01.29.2015 |
| Date Posted: | 02.07.2015 11:47 |
| Story ID: | 153898 |
| Location: | CHANTHABURI PROVINCE, TH |
| Web Views: | 116 |
| Downloads: | 0 |
This work, CG15 multinational engineer force constructs school library, unforgettable bonds, by CW2 James Marchetti, identified by DVIDS, must comply with the restrictions shown on https://www.dvidshub.net/about/copyright.
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