MARINE CORPS BASE CAMP LEJEUNE, North Carolina -- Marines with 8th Engineer Support Battalion, 2nd Marine Logistics Group, completed construction of a storage facility April 2, 2015 aboard Camp Lejeune, North Carolina.
The Marines spent approximately a month building the facility from the ground up to provide the unit with a place to store their equipment for the Marine Corps Martial Arts Program.
“Right now the unit has their [MCMAP] gear in metal [containers],” said Sgt. Christopher Panko, a combat engineer with the unit and Springfield, Pa. native. “They’re going to be able to put it in here now, lock it up and have easier access to the gear.”
As Marines support a variety of operations around the globe, this construction project brought a variety of capabilities together to reach a common goal, according to Lance Cpl. Matthew Jackson-Hisle, a combat engineer with 8th ESB, and Independence, Missouri, native.
“As engineers, we have a very broad (job field),” said Jackson-Hisle. “We cover anything from construction, demolitions or heavy equipment operations. We have multiple (job types) working together here, and we’re using each of our skill-sets to put this together.”
This project was a change of pace and a training experience for some of the Marines, who don’t always have the opportunity to work on this type of task.
“The past few years we haven’t done a whole lot of construction projects, and a lot of Marines haven’t had a chance to deploy to do humanitarian (missions),” Panko said. “It’s really good with their experience level, and they’re doing really well. The knowledge of (the Marines working on this project) has definitely improved.”
Now that this project has been completed, the Marines will use their enhanced skill sets to continue to build bigger and better things, according to Panko.
“In a few short weeks we’re going to deploy to South America and build a bunch of buildings down there – schools for some of the kids,” said Panko. “The way we built this from the ground up replicates how the buildings are going to be down there. This is a good starter project for the Marines, and for myself, to catch back up with construction and do it the right way. When we get to South America, we’re not really playing any games. We can go there, build and get out of there.
After weeks of hard work, the engineers are satisfied with their end results.
“I believe that all the Marines that we had working on this worked very well together,” Jackson-Hisle said. “It just came out really good.”