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Show Ifbi 0 If m4d2001 April 26, Civil in build Guatemala school engineers by Senior Airman Lara Gala 4 19th FW Public Affairs Office is hot. There are lots of bugs, the water is dirty; and there's not do Guatemala hi town. Instead of choosing a variety of other locations, 18 of the 419th Civil Engineering Squadron elected "to spend their k annual tour in Guatemala located in Central America. They'd been back for a week, but as the men gathered to talk about the experience over a bag of chocolates and a stack of photos during the April unit training CE building, snow falling outside, assembly weekend in the climate-controllGuatemala was still fresh on their minds. "See that? They would stand in the mud like that to clean their clothes," said Master Sgt. Gordon Randolph, 419th CES structural supervisor, as he was holding out a photo of Guatemalan women gathered around a spot of brown their laundry water. Photo after photo, barefoot Guatemalans smiled shyly at the camera, caught in the middle of some daily activity women carrying pots of water on their heads, children playing games, and gathering for school. Under the U.S. Southern Command's New Horizons program, Reserve, Guard and active duty medical and engineering units from all branches work together to improve living conditions of people living in poverty in South and Central America. This year's New Horizons project, dubbed Joint Task Force Aurora, had the mission to build five schools and five wells and assist with road repairs in Flores, ' Guatemala. . The project is meant to foster goodwill and improve relations between the United two-wee- ''V - if" ed - - jo V' , -- -, 0 ft 1 : X! XA?' ' . Photos by Tech. x Sgt Master Sgt Gordon Randolph, 419th Civil Engineering Squadron structural supervisor, installs the main roof support beam for the new school where more than 100 Guatemalan elementary school children will attend. Michael Martinez Tech. Sgt. Rock Hill and Staff Sgt. Frank Owens from the 419th Civil Engineering Squadron, help distribute donated school supplies. heading each one and had established a mode of operation that kept everything running smoothly for two weeks, Sergeant Randolph said. ., "I guess the bottom line is we meshed well because we're professionals," Master Sgt. Mike Martinez said. "We knew what we were doing. In this case, everything we were doing was for the people." They strove for quality, Sergeant Randolph said. After they elected to tear down and rebuild wall an Army inspector found built wrong, the inspectors rarely visited again. At the end of a two weeks, they left the Army wishing they would stay and the Guatemalan people with a lot more than walls. In the village, the women were doing their laundry in the shade above the mud on platforms the men constructed. All five schools had two picnic tables and benches for the students. The Army-ru- n base camp had more efficient utility pipes. "It was really something, I don't think I've ever seen anything like it," said Lt. Col. Robert West, commander, of T7 the 301st and the combined group of airmen. "They came down with one mission in mind and they , States and the host nation, but fulfilling the mission seemed incidental to working for the people, Sergeant Randolph said. "All you had to do was look at their faces," he said. "I mean, really. They were just so happy and grateful." Each of the five school complexes was built by a different service branch. Civil engineers from the 419th CES joined up with their counterparts from the 301st Fighter Wing based at the Naval Air Station Joint Reserve Base in Ft. Worth, Texas. They completed the second phase, of the buildings the Air Force was in charge of. In two weeks, they were tasked to build the walls of the schoolhouse, a kitchen and a latrine to roof height. The two units had never met, let alone worked together. But during orientation," the commander of the -combined group made it clear in this mission the 301st and 419th designations didn't matter. They were all members of the same team. "It should have been .the 720th, the way we got together," said Tech. Sgt. Steven Klauser. ' , Within an hour of meeting at the worksite the morning of March ,17, the two units organized themselves Master Sgt: Joseph Moulton, Tech. Sgt. Collin Green and Tech. Sgt. Rock Hill an experienced construct a concrete drain form for the school's new outdoor latrine. into groups . . .. bricklayer and cement mixer. - L!Sn ; - COPY ( - and more. It was. accomplished it impressive." More than 100 Guatemalan children in the village had attended school in small, decaying buildings. When Aurora finishes this month and moves out, the children will meet in smaller class sizes in the new with new school buildings eat lunch in the kitchen materials, and use toilets that flush. They'll also have clean drinking water from the wells. The men speak about it less with pride than with awe. "The work was hard, the conditions were hard. Even our day off Was hard," said Sergeant Martinez, 419th CES member. , Some of the men took the last day of the tour off to climb the Incan pyramids nearby. "The whole trip was hard, there was nothing easy about it." Every moment was memorable because it was so hard," he said. |