Joint Task Force-East

"Good fences make good neighbors" - Seabees build friendships across fences

Contrary to poet Robert Frost’s Mending Wall, Seabees in Constanta have found that building a good fence has created a good friendship. A little more than a month after they started work, Naval Marine Construction Battalion 74 (“Seabees”) from Mihail Koganiceanu Air Base (MK) finished renovation works on Kindergarten 46 in nearby Constanta. The Seabees demolished the old concrete fence surrounding the building, constructed a new wire-mesh fence to replace the old graffiti-laden one, painted the exterior walls of the building, did minor landscaping, and planted new flowers and bushes. Daily, excepting Sundays, a team of four to six soldiers performed renovation works in order to finish the project as soon as possible.

On April 14, the Seabees officer-in-charge (OC) and Kindergarten 46’s administrator cut a ribbon to symbolically inaugurate a renovation project designed to make the school in Constanta safer and more attractive. The reconstruction was made possible through funds from the US Embassy in Bucharest, the hard work of the Seabees, and the collaboration of the kindergarten staff.

Kindergarten 46 Director Elena Teodorescu thanked to the Americans for their support. “We saw each other every day here and we became friends,” she said, referring to the relationship between the American Seabees, teachers and children. Due to the new fence, the youngsters attending Kindergarten 46 can spend more time outdoors, without being disturbed by people who don’t belong to the school and without having their games interrupted.

According to the Seabee’s officer-in-charge, CWO2 William McDermott, the Seabees are working on a similar school renovation project at Kindergarten 31 which is expected to be completed in May 2008.

The Seabee detachment in Romania will rotate back to Gulfport, Miss., in about four months and will be replaced by another detachment. The Seabees plan to maintain a continuous rotation of detachments to Romania and Bulgaria to upgrade military bases there and perform civic assistance projects in the two Joint Task Force-East host nations.

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