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    Engineers build community ties in Romania

    Romanian Community Leader Thanks 926th Engineers

    Photo By Capt. Colin Cutler | Mrs. Roxana Opris, principal of the Voila School District, presents a plaque to Lt....... read more read more

    CINCU, ROMANIA

    06.15.2017

    Story by Capt. Colin Cutler 

    926th Engineer Brigade

    VOILA, Romania -- “You gain another language, you gain another soul,” Lt. Col. Nicolae Acasandrei, a Romanian operations officer at the Joint National Training Center, Cincu, Romania, said to a group of children, teachers and guardians gathered at Voila Secondary School for an outreach event meant to strengthen ties between surrounding communities and the multinational forces of Resolute Castle 2017 and Saber Guardian 2017, 15 June 2017.

    Months of coordination, phone calls, legal reviews, and generous donations resulted in the non-governmental Spirit of America donating 8 laptops and 8 projectors to the Voila School District in Braşov County, Romania. A civil-military team composed of Soldiers from the U.S. 83rd Civil Affairs Battalion, Romanian 1st CIMIC Battalion, and the 926th Engineer Brigade coordinated and carried out the effort.

    Capt. Amanda Van Duynhoven as well as Lt. Adrian Cudalbu and Lt. Marian Cudalbu, brothers in the Romanian Land Forces, said, “We’re glad to see it all coming together now.” Because the district has limited hard copies of textbooks, this technology will allow them to use electronic copies of the textbooks produced by the Ministry of Education, saving costs over time.

    The U.S.-Romanian CIMIC team identified this need and coordinated with Spirit of America, whose stated mission is providing “flexible, private assistance in response to local needs identified by deployed American troops and diplomats.”

    After a few minutes of high-fives and playing soccer in the school courtyard, the group went upstairs to the conference room, where the mayor of Voila, Mr. Gheorghe Osalciuc, and the principal of the Voila schools, Mrs. Roxana Opris, addressed the room and presented plaques of appreciation to Capt. Van Duynhoven, Lt. Col. Nicole Davis of the 926th Engineer Brigade, and Lt. Col. Nicolae Acasandrei of the Joint National Training Center.

    Lt. Col. Davis, presently the officer-in-charge of Resolute Castle 2017, stressed the importance of partnership within NATO: “It is invaluable to have this kind of training, but also these interactions—to work with both the soldiers and the communities of our NATO partners.”

    Resolute Castle is an engineering mission in support of Operation Atlantic Resolve, which strengthens the NATO alliance, enhances its capacity for multinational training and bolsters eastern Europe's capacity for responding to threats within the region.

    With Operation Atlantic Resolve exercises like Resolute Castle, Noble Jump, and Saber Guardian putting hundreds of vehicles and thousands of NATO Soldiers on the roads around the Voila railhead and Cincu, the impact to small communities can be heavy, stressing road and housing infrastructure and causing traffic jams between tanks, cars and cows. Capt. Amanda Van Duynhoven stated the importance of civil-military efforts, especially in communities heavily affected by military operations, “It puts faces on the Soldiers who are passing by in their tanks and trucks.”

    (Supplementary reporting by 1LT Martin Sims of the 122nd Engineer Battalion, SCARNG)

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    NEWS INFO

    Date Taken: 06.15.2017
    Date Posted: 06.18.2017 09:38
    Story ID: 238359
    Location: CINCU, RO
    Hometown: BIRMINGHAM, AL, US
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