Students at Haiti’s National School of Bardon Marchand playing soccer using miniature goal posts constructed by 716th Engineer Company Soldiers, May 31, 2011. The engineers observed a need for the goal posts while constructing a nearby medical clinic...

Lance Cpl. Meredith Bregal, Belizean Defense Force, slices a metal “concrete form- support” at a medical clinic construction site, Upper Poteau Haiti, June 1, 2011. Bregal and a team of Belizean engineers teamed up with 58 members of the 716th Engine...

Staff Sgt. Neal Hastings, 716th Engineer Company, smooths the edges of a metal “concrete form-support” at a medical clinic construction site, Upper Poteau Haiti, June 1, 2011. Fifty-eight Reserve Soldiers from the 716th deployed to Haiti to help buil...

Pfc. Joseph Waters, 716th Engineer Company, with help from a Belizean Defense Force engineer, marks the point where his fellow engineers will hang a ceiling fan in a medical clinic that is under construction at Upper Poteau Haiti, May 28, 2011. Fifty...

716th Engineer Company Soldiers and members of the Belizean Defense Force construct a three room school at Upper Poteau Haiti, May 28, 2011. Fifty-eight Reserve Soldiers from the 716th teamed up with the Belizean engineers in Haiti to help build two ...

(From L-R) U.S. Army Maj. Gen. Bennett C. Landreneau, adjutant general of the Louisiana National Guard, 1st Lt. James Gagne, 716th Engineer Company, and Lt. Marlo Rodriguez, Belize Defence Force, during Landreneau’s visit to the Task Force Bon Voizen...

Army Maj. Gen. Bennett C. Landreneau, adjutant general of the Louisiana National Guard (L), greets Staff Sgt. Neal Hastings, 716th Engineer Company and non-commissioned officer in charge of a medical clinic construction site at Upper Poteau, Haiti, J...

Air Force Maj. Gen. H. Michael Edwards, adjutant general of the Colorado National Guard, observes Lance Cpl. Meredith Bregal, Belize National Defence Force (L), and Sgt. Daryl Ayers, 716th Engineer Company (R), working at a medical clinic constructio...

Lance Cpl. Domingo Cal, Belize Defence Force, makes minor repairs to the roof of a school construction project at Upper Poteau Haiti, June 1, 2011. Cal and a team of engineers joined 58 members are working with the 716th Engineer Company to help buil...

Spc. Scott Martin (L), 716th Engineer Company, & Pvt. Nathaniel Hinds, Belizean Defense Force, observe their level to make sure that the cabinet they’re installing is stable at a medical clinic construction project site, Bardon Marchon, Haiti, May 29...

Spc. Robert Page places weather stripping underneath the ridge cap of a three room school currently under construction at Upper Poteau Haiti, May 28, 2011. Fifty-eight Reserve Soldiers from the 716th deployed to Haiti to help build, the school, two m...

Spc. Brandon Watson (L) & Spc. Brandon Sousa, 716th Engineer Company, prepare a ceiling fan for mounting in a medical clinic under construction at Upper Poteau Haiti, May 28, 2011. Fifty-eight Reserve Soldiers from the 716th deployed to Haiti to help...

Spc. Leland Patterson, 716th Engineer Company, prepares a light fixture for mounting in a school currently under construction at Upper Poteau Haiti, May 28, 2011. Fifty-eight Reserve Soldiers from the 716th deployed to Haiti to help build, the school...

Spc. Leland Patterson, 716th Engineer Company, prepares a light fixture for mounting in a school currently under construction at Upper Poteau Haiti, May 28, 2011. Fifty-eight Reserve Soldiers from the 716th deployed to Haiti to help build, the school...

Spc. Robert Page, 716th Engineer Company, and Pvt. Nathaniel Cadel, Belizean Defense Force, discuss the best course of action for applying a ridge cap to the roof of a three room school currently under construction at Upper Poteau Haiti, May 28, 2011...

Sgt. Cory Syvinski, 716th Engineer Company & non-commissioned officer in charge of a three room school construction project at Upper Poteau Haiti, discusses his plan of action to his unit’s engineers, and members of the Belizean Defense Force, May 28...

First day on the job; Staff Sgt. Neal Hastings a member of the 716th Engineer Company, & non-commissioned officer in charge of a medical clinic construction project at Upper Poteau Haiti, briefs the engineers of his unit prior to the start of the wor...

(L-R) 1st Lt. James Gagne, officer in charge of the 716th Engineer Company in Haiti, Staff Sgt. Neal Hastings, non-commissioned officer in charge of a medical clinic construction project in Upper Poteau discusses the day’s course of action regarding ...

(L-R) 1st Lt. James Gagne, officer in charge of the 716th Engineer Company in Haiti, Staff Sgt. Neal Hastings, non-commissioned officer in charge of a medical clinic construction project in Upper Poteau discusses the day’s course of action regarding ...

Promoted to the rank of specialist while deployed to Haiti with Task Force Bon Voizen, June 4, 2011. (From L-R) Jia Wei Wu, Justin Coomes, Brian Hackett, and Adam Dugauy. Fifty-eight Reserve Soldiers from the 716th deployed to Haiti to help build two...

Pvt. Mario Marin, Belize Defence Force, operates a circular saw while Lance Cpl. Domingo Cal, BDF (center), and Spc. Robert Page observe at a school construction site, Upper Poteau, Haiti, June 4, 2011. Fifty-eight Reserve Soldiers from the 716th tea...

Pvt. Chauncey Edwards, 716th Engineer Company, paints window bars at a medical clinic construction site Upper Poteau, Haiti, June 4, 2011. Edwards and 57 other 716th members deployed to Haiti to help build two medical clinics, a school, and one latri...

Lance Cpl. Meredith Bregal, Belize Defence Force and Spc. Brian Hackett, 716th Engineer Company, working at a medical clinic construction site, Upper Poteau, Haiti, June, 4, 2011. Fifty-eight Reserve Soldiers from the 716th teamed up with the Belizea...

Pvt. Mario Marin , (L) and Lance Cpl. Domingo Cal, Belize Defence Force, work on the roof of a school that BDF and 716th Engineer Company engineers are constructing at Upper Poteau, Haiti, June 4, 2011. Fifty-eight Reserve Soldiers from the 716th tea...

GONAIVES, Haiti - What motivated the United States to send its Army engineers to Haiti to help?

Jeean Babtiste Moncleste asked the question after observing the progress the 716th Engineer Company had made on a medical clinic construction project that the Reserve Soldiers were working on in Bardon Marchand with their counterparts from the Belize Defence Force’s Light Engineer Company.

Moncleste is the principal of the National School of Bardon Marchand, and the construction was taking place next to his institution. He said that he was looking forward to the project’s completion, because of the need for such a facility.

“Some of the kids come in with sicknesses, [and] there’s no other clinic nearby,” Moneleste said. “I can just send them right over here. I’m happy that you guys put the clinic here.”

“Being able to provide something…that make their lives easier, to me, is the greatest thing we can do,” said Sgt. Joao Daluz, 716th Engineer Company and noncommissioned officer in charge.

Approximately 35 minutes away, another team of 716th and BDFLEC engineers was helping to build a three-room school, a latrine and a second medical clinic.

The 716th and the BDF engineers augmented Task Force Bon Voizen, which means Good Neighbor, to help build the three facilities as part of exercise New Horizons Haiti 2011. The exercise is a humanitarian and training effort, so the first-line leaders of both organizations seized the opportunity to cross train many of their Soldiers.

“Plumbers ended up doing something electrical, and electrical guys ended up doing some plumbing,” said Staff Sgt. Neal Hastings, NCOIC of the medical clinic project at Upper Poteau. “I had one guy who knew how to put in a drop ceiling, now I have four…, because he trained them.”

Cpl. Alejandro Canelo, a welder with the BDFLEC, did masonry and carpentry at the Upper Poteau medical clinic, and he was able to use a tool that had always appealed to him.

“Back in Belize I’d seen carpenters using jigsaws, and I always wanted to use one,” Canelo said. “I got to that here. It wasn’t as hard as I thought.”

Spc. Robert Page, a 716th plumber and New England native, acclimated the hard way to the tropical climate when he worked on the roof of the Upper Poteau School project.

“I’d never worked on a metal roof before; it gives a whole new meaning to cat on a hot tin roof,” Page said. “The first day I was up there, it was about 100 degrees. I could actually feel the hot roof underneath my steel toe boots.”

The progress the 716th made on all three projects while working with the BDFLEC engineers is a testament to the working relationship they established during their two weeks together. The cohesion reached a point where some of the engineers exchanged addresses and discussed vacationing in each other’s hometowns.

“I don’t know why anybody would want to come to Maine, but it’s a vacation, right?” Hastings said referring to the climate differences between the two regions.

“These guys are hilarious to work with,” said Lance Cpl. Meredith Bregal, BDFLEC. “They’d be there just motivating you, having a laugh while working.”

Many of the engineers understood the critical nature of the mission, and took a level of comfort in knowing that the people they came to help appreciate their work.

“It makes us feel a little better about what we’re doing,” said Sgt. Cory Syvinski, 716th Engineer Company, and NCOIC of the Upper Poteau school project.” We’re actually helping people, and in some cases we can see right around the job site the people that we’re going to be impacting.”

“Only a handful of us got the opportunity to come here,” Bregal said. “Using my skills to do something good is something that I feel proud of.”

“The gratitude these people have…is pretty awe inspiring,” Page said. “You can see they’re genuinely happy to see us. It’s pretty hard to hide that, they smile, and they wave.”

At the Bardon Marchand site, the engineers built mini soccer goalposts for the NSBM students, and they fixed swing and seesaw sets on the playground.

Staff Sgt. Megan Moore, who on a few occasions received captured lizards as gifts from children, used chalking compound and tape to repair shoes that appeared irreparable on the students’ feet.

To date, it’s unclear whether Moncleste found an official answer to his question about the motivation behind the United State’s willingness to help his country.

“Your country loves God as much as our country [does], was it the Lord who motivated you guys to help us?” Moncleste asked rhetorically.

“It’s in your heart to help this country get better,” Moncleste concluded.