Photo By Petty Officer 3rd Class Christian Carlson | 200112-N-WA745-1065 POHNPEI, Federated States of Micronesia (Jan. 12, 2020) U.S. Navy...... read more read more
Story by Builder 3rd Class Christian Carlson
POHNPEI, Federated States of Micronesia – The students of Sokehs Elementary School welcomed U.S. Navy Seabees with Naval Mobile Construction Battalion (NMCB) 5’s Detail Pohnpei with open arms at the Sokehs Opening Ceremony, Jan. 13.
The Seabees with NMCB-5 will renovate the school, which is comprised of over 140 students from the island of Sokehs and teaches students from kindergarten to eighth grade.
“Having the Seabees here increases our overall mission accomplishments, not only for our U.S. forces, but also with our partners,” said Rear Adm. John Menoni, commander, Joint Region Marianas. “Your presence and what you do here really does matter.”
Lt. Brian Wood, officer in charge with NMCB-5’s Detail Pohnpei, kicked off the opening ceremony, followed by a meet and greet with NMCB-5’s Seabee crew. The Seabees did chalk drawings, played basketball, volleyball, and catch with the students during the ceremony.
Randy Lambert, principal of Sokehs Elementary, spoke about the impact the Seabees have and what their presence means to the community.
“When I was young, I saw a lot of projects being done by Seabees,” said Lambert. “It’s been a while since we’ve seen Seabees. We’re really fortunate to have you on campus. We appreciate everything you’re going to do for us. Our campus is also your campus.”
The renovations on the campus will focus on the library and computer lab facility, along with upgrades to the head facility. The Seabees will replace the roof, build new walls, replace the exterior sheeting to the building, and install new air conditioning units in addition to other cosmetic overhauls.
These renovations will give sustainable upgrades to the building, which dates back to sometime in the 1950s. The building was the first on campus that some of the older generations of locals attended when they were school children.
NMCB-5 is deployed across the Indo-Pacific region conducting high-quality construction to support U.S. and partner nations to strengthen partnerships, deter aggression, and enable expeditionary logistics and naval power projection. The battalion stands ready to support Humanitarian Aid/Disaster Relief and Major Combat Operations throughout the region.
| Date Taken: | 01.13.2020 |
| Date Posted: | 02.11.2020 00:01 |
| Story ID: | 362494 |
| Location: | FM |
| Web Views: | 189 |
| Downloads: | 0 |
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