Joint Task Foce East puts Army construction skills to work in Bulgaria.
By Air Force Staff Sgt. Jessica Switzer
SANATOGA PA – As a builder, Steve Kukulski can join wood and lay brick with the best of his peers, helping to raise schools in an area that desperately needs them. But as a soldier, U.S. Army Pfc. Steven C. Kukulski – the son of Deborah Piergrossi of 702 Walnut Ridge Estates, Pottstown PA – didn’t imagine he would also become a teacher.
Kukulski today is deployed in Bulgaria and adjacent Romania, about 5,000 miles from his mother’s home, as part of the Army’s participation in Joint Task Force East. He’s a carpentry and masonry specialist, and one of his many jobs in those former Cold War nations, along with others in his unit, is to teach the art of construction to Bulgarian troops with whom he works and trains.
It’s a challenging task. Despite the availability of interpreters, “I have learned that the language barrier is very frustrating sometimes,” says Kukulski, who has been in the Army for nearly two years.
Given cultural differences and the lack of a common tongue, how do American soldiers and their Bulgarian and Romanian counterparts understand each other? “Sometimes,” Kukulski admits, “we have to use hand signals and body language to communicate.”
The gestures work, as Kukulski’s unit helps the Bulgarian Army restore several schools in the area around Novo Selo, a three-hour drive north of the nation’s capital, Sofia. So do the soldiers’ mutual attempts to learn basic words and phrases. The result, Kukulski says, is successful. “We’re teaching them a lot about construction and they’re doing pretty well, considering some of them are not from construction career fields.”
Joint Task Force East is a multi-national operation intended, according to the Army, to make stronger allies of Romania and Bulgaria. Its focus is to help people living in some of the poorest areas of the two European countries. A side benefit is that it also hones the skills of soldiers from all three nations.
Troops train side-by-side to hone their skills, including clearing urban combat areas.
European and U.S. troops train side-by-side in individual and company-level movements, as well as in armored vehicles, with a variety of weapons, and on combat life-saving skills. They also practice the coordination needed to go into and clear hostile urban areas.
As he travels with his unit across the face of southeastern Europe, Kukulski sees constant reminders of a different era, 40 years ago, when the Cold War made such joint efforts impossible. Cultural and historic references are everywhere. Near the Novo Selo training area, the Army private has seen the now flaking, faded and subdued murals that once depicted the glory of a former enemy, the Soviet military.
That was then. Now, “training with the Bulgarian army is a great experience,” Kukulski observes. “It’s an honor to work and train with them, and see how they handle business. Our great forces have much we can share with, and learn from, each other.”
Military training isn’t the only reason American service members are overseas with the task force. A group of doctors and nurses is traveling to villages around training bases in both countries. The team works with local health care workers and translators to provide optical eye and general health screenings. An additional team of Navy Seabees is helping renovate and upgrade local schools and medical facilities.
The rare time when a vehicle doubles as playground equipment.
There’s a public relations component, too. Soldiers take time to visit local villages and allow children to explore vehicles they use. Service members like Kukulski,the Army reports, are working to keep positive relationships between the nations going long after everyone returns home.
Kukulski, a 2005 graduate of Plymouth-Whitemarsh (PA) Senior High School, is a member of the 15th Engineer Battalion in Schweinfurt, Germany, and currently is stationed at Mihail Kogalniceanu Air Base, Romania.
Editor’s Note: This feature and accompanying photos by Air Force Master Sgt. Cecilio Ricardo were supplied to The Post by the Joint Hometown News Service.
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