Photo By Mark Abueg | Roman Bieniek, mechanical engineer, 579th Engineer Detachment (FEST-M), admires the...... read more read more
VICKSBURG, Miss. – When new employees of the 579th Engineer Detachment (Forward Engineer Support Team - Main) are hired, they are aware of the situations facing their new employment.
They can be sent someplace across the nation to anywhere around the world. For one FEST-M engineer, he never imagined that he would end up on a barge along the Mississippi River.
For the past month, Roman Bieniek, the FEST-M mechanical engineer, was selected for duty with the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, Vicksburg District, Mat Sinking Unit, which lays mats to protect the banks of the river from further erosion, get it back to a stable slope, and then over time have the vegetation reestablish itself and turn back into a natural condition and still be stable from the revetment.
“This has been a great experience,” Bieniek said. “Andy Metz, the chief of operations, and his team were exceptional to work with on the Mat Sinking Unit. Never could I have imagined this is the kind of work I would be doing as part of the FEST-M.”
To better prepare for unfamiliar work, Bieniek tapped into training from his teenager days.
“I actually graduated from a technical high school of shipbuilding back in Poland,” he said. “So suddenly I started remembering how all this works: barge, water, that being so close to the ships.”
Bieniek’s day would start off just as any typical work day. He would get up, do some exercises, wash up, and get dressed. It was how he got to work that was anything but typical.
“To get to the plant barge where the crew worked, I would take the personnel barge, which transports about 150 to 200 people,” he said. “On other occasions I would take a small boat called ‘Muddy Water’ when other engineers and I would need to move quickly from barge to barge.”
As part of his duties, Bieniek explained he initially observed everything and learned as much as possible. He even got the chance to help lay mats.
“I tried one of the operations during the sinking of the mat that involves tying the section of the mat,” he said. “I was able to make about 16 ties in two minutes. That’s nothing compared to how fast this crew can make the ties. It’s a very tough job that the crew does here.”
As Bieniek felt more comfortable with the daily operations of the unit, he picked up some mechanical projects from Metz.
“For the engineering duties, one of the projects I picked up from Andy was the replacement of the brake on the winch,” he continued. “You have design, bracketing and structure that you will place the new brake on to stop the drum of the winch. When you stop moving the winch – stop the operation – you want the brake to hold it in position.”
Bieniek is back at his home station currently working on projects for the MSU, including a boom crane that will help pick up gang planks and set it up without four people having to move the heavy structure while standing in the mat or the water.
In the meantime, he cannot wait to get back on that water himself.
“I spent a few hours one night in the steering cabin of the tugboat when we were going back to Vicksburg as we were passing New Orleans downtown,” Bieniek said. “The lights and skyscrapers and us on the river. That was beautiful.”
| Date Taken: | 11.16.2009 |
| Date Posted: | 11.12.2010 09:24 |
| Story ID: | 60000 |
| Location: | VICKSBURG, MS, US |
| Web Views: | 56 |
| Downloads: | 0 |
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