Engineer Basic Officer Leader Course, class 04-17, volunteered their time to give BlackJack Bar and Grill's back patio a facelift.

Over the course of their 19 weeks at Fort Leonard Wood, this class completed construction of horseshoe pits, a fire pit and stone benches.

Col. Dale Snider, 1st Engineer Brigade commander said he hopes these renovations will give the community more reasons to visit BlackJack Bar and Grill and to check out all that Pershing Community Center has to offer.

Snider said funding for this project came from Family and Morale, Welfare and Recreation, with some materials being provided by the Directorate of Public Works. He said the project fit well with EBOLC training and helps improve the post at the same time.

According to Snider, this project was initiated by a previous EBOLC class and passed on to class 04-17 with 2nd Lt. Chad Perkins volunteering as the project leader.

Perkins said there were more than 500 hours volunteered, collectively, to complete this project.

He said there was "great effort put forth by everyone," and he "appreciates the support" received throughout the project.

Perkins gave credit to 2nd Lt. Luke Daly with creating a "unique and abstract" addition for the project.

Daly saw potential in a piece of steel high beam, which had been disfigured at a demolition range during training.

"I had no idea, at the time, what I was going to do with it," Daly said. "It sat in my trunk for a few weeks until I came up with the idea for this project."

When the project was nearly complete, they had extra building materials, which the class used to construct a base. The piece of steel was painted "engineer red," decorated with brigade, battalion, and class coins and mounted on the base. Daly said he was glad it found a home at BlackJack Bar and Grill.