117th Civil Engineering Squadron Renovate Romanian Clinic
By Senior Airman Wesley Jones, 117th Air Refueling Wing Public Affairs
/ Published June 10, 2015
BIRMINGHAM, Ala -- Airmen from the 117th Civil Engineer Squadron traveled to Romania on a Deployment for Training mission April 22, 2015.
Colonel Michael Todd, 117th Air Refueling Wing Civil Engineering Squadron Commander was in charge of the DFT mission tasked to repair and renovate a 70 year old government run medical building, originally constructed by communist forced labor workers.
The 117 CES was divided into teams and began making updates to the building. The projects included the construction of a concrete handicap ramp led by First Lieutenant Jeff Farmer, the removal and replacement of exterior siding on the clinic led by Second Lieutenant Nathan Brown and a rooftop terrace reutilization project led by Major Scott Vandenberghe.
"Overall, this was an extremely successful mission for the 117th CES. Many Engineers learned new skills and were able to work with tools and materials they never used before," Said Vandenberghe.
There were many obstacles facing the engineering teams. Those included language barriers, limited supplies and tools, and other delays. Despite the problems, tiling was replaced, repairs were made to plumbing, bathroom stalls were added and a ramp was constructed to add handicap access. These tasks were all completed in a two week period.
The Romanians where extremely grateful for all of the hard work and very satisfied by all that was accomplished by the 117 CES.