Military

By 1st Lt. Kelly Jeter

458th Air Expeditionary Group Public Affairs

OPERATION IRAQI FREEDOM (USAFENS) - It's a 20-meter by 30-meter tent with bare wood floors designated for fitness equipment, but there's more than just a deployed gym here at Constanta, Romania. There's a story about Americans and Romanians working together to accomplish just one of many joint missions at the Mihail Kogalniceanu Air Base.  

Romanian workers, pulled from the laborer pool on base, were asked to assist with the assembly and positioning of a quarter of a million dollars worth of equipment for the new gym.  And they excelled at the task before them in a way no one would have expected, much less asked for.

"Normally in stateside bases, when we get new gym equipment delivered, we move it into place with pallet jacks.  Here, we don't have any, so these guys moved every bit of it by hand," said Staff Sgt Eric Heavrin, the 458 Air Expeditionary Group  NCO in charge of fitness.  "Most of these pieces weight 300 pounds or more."

The Romanian laborers lifted the fitness equipment at the edge of the platform, and often moving it 50 feet or more to put it in place.

Then, the REAL work began.

"The fitness instructions were all in German, and no one knew how to read them," said Heavrin.  The eight elliptical machines, eight treadmills, thirteen stationary bikes, and five stair steppers were all in pieces with a lot of assembly required.

Heavrin, who normally hangs his hat at the 375th Services Squadron, Scott Air Force Base, Ill., was amazed at the hard work put into the endeavor and the great success that came out of it.  "We plugged in the equipment, and all of it functioned the way it was supposed to."

"This is the guy who did it all," said Heavrin, with a companionable smack on the shoulder of Epure Bogdan-Cristian, the Romanian workers' foreman.  Nicknamed Zaiet, and commonly called "Z," Bogdan-Cristian modestly smiled and acknowledged that the German instructions were a challenge, but they sorted through it to make it all work.

Col. Steven Dreyer, commander of the 458th Air Expeditionary Group here, cut the ribbon for the grand opening of the new fitness center April 15.

"We want to thank you for the hard work you all put into this," said Dreyer. "It couldn't have happened without the creative problem-solving you employed to get this all together."

A soldier dressed in a PT uniform all ready to work out, helped Dreyer cut the ribbon on the new facility.  Within five minutes of opening the fitness center, seven airmen and soldiers were breaking a sweat, thanks to the sweat of our Romanian friends.