District marks Patriot Day with
‘welcome home’ event
Jay Field
LOS ANGELES -- As the nation paused in remembrance
of the terrorist attacks of 9/11, the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers Los Angeles District honored a group of employees
who had recently returned home
from duty in Afghanistan in a
ceremony at the headquarters
Sept. 11. The District’s Emergency Management office hosted
the event attended by more than
three dozen people, including
co-workers and family members
of the honorees.
“It is ironic, or maybe serendipitous, that this event was
scheduled for Sept. 11,” said Col.
Kim Colloton, district commander. “I mean, it really does
Marvin Mai
make us think about what we’re
doing out there to improve the lives of other people who
share this planet with us because, I think, providing people
with security, the ability to have a vision and a dream for a
better life, is going to make, hopefully, a more peaceful and
sustainable world.”
The six returning employees served at various times since
2011 in a variety of contract administration and construction
project engineer positions throughout Afghanistan. At any
one time during the past six months, more than 400 Corps
employees representing nearly every district served there,
including about 30 from Los Angeles District.
“The thing that I really enjoyed, I think, was working
with all the folks from all the different districts from across
the nation,” said Al Quintero, chief of the contract administration branch in the Los Angeles District. “I really enjoyed
Shawn Murphy, a civil engineer with the Los Angeles District, poses with
colleagues during his most recent deployment to Afghanistan. (Photo
courtesy of Shawn Murphy)
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that I made a lot of new friends.”
“I was charged with contract closeout, boxing contracts
and sending things back to Virginia,” said Dennis Graham, an
engineering technician in the District’s Southern California
Area Office. “I finished, I think, about 350 boxes of contracts
that dated back to 2004. It was hot and dusty; it was a workout at the same time—guys would go to the gym and I would
just go to work [to get my exercise]!”
“I managed 10 projects over $90 million,” said Shawn
Murphy, a civil engineer. “A lot of it was very difficult to complete, because they [Afghan construction contractors] didn’t
know our ways; they didn’t have any of our codes for building
structures, so we were pretty much guiding them.”
One of the larger projects Corps employees worked
on in Afghanistan is called
the Southeast Power System,
essentially two projects--one
in the north, and one in the
south--that will create one big
electrical grid around Afghanistan.
“SEPS is about a $100
million project that consumed
about 80 percent of my time,”
said Shafak Pervez, an electrical engineer in the District’s
Las Vegas Resident Office.
“One thing that I miss the
Al Quintero
most from there was working
with the people; and the fast pace.”
“I got to do a lot of good work on stuff outside of my specialty, so that was fun!” said Civil Engineer Marvin Mai. During his tour, Mai set a personal goal of shedding 50 pounds of
weight, which he accomplished in the seventh month of his
eight-month tour at Bagram Air Field with the 59th Forward
Engineering Support Team.
The returning employees were asked to share some of
their memorable and challenging experiences. One talked
of the difficulties traveling to remote outposts where Corps
work was being accomplished.
“We would come in on our plane, and there was this runway put down in between the village and the base and they
had to shoo off the goats,” said Savoth Hy, a hydraulic engineer with the District’s Reservoir Regulation Section. “The
Spanish military would line up along the runway and ensure
that we didn’t get attacked while we were landing.”
As a token of appreciation, Colloton presented each of
the employees with a Commander’s Coin of Excellence. The
event concluded with refreshments and an opportunity for
the returning employees to mingle with their families and
co-workers and to share stories of their Afghanistan tours.
Around the District
professional pride
Brig. Gen. David Turner, commander of the U.S. Army Corps
of Engineers’ South Pacific Division, congratulates Maj.
Bonitto Housen, a project engineer from the District’s Fort
Irwin Project Office, on his promotion \?[??H ?\?]?\ ??NK?
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