CORAOPOLIS, Pa. (AFNS) — A Pennsylvania Air Nationwide Guardsman with the 171st Air Refueling Wing led the development of seven properties for tribal members of Cherokee Nation in Tahlequah who’re at the moment experiencing homelessness.
Senior Grasp Sgt. Mark Nicolia, operations superintendent with the 171st Civil Engineer Squadron led the planning effort and the primary portion of the Cherokee Veterans Housing Initiative in the course of the spring and summer season of 2022. This initiative is a three-year effort and is a part of the Division of Protection’s Progressive Readiness Coaching program, which can assemble 21 properties for tribe members experiencing homelessness who are also U.S. armed forces veterans.
“Earlier than this mission kicked off, I didn’t know that native and indigenous peoples served within the navy at the next fee than most teams, however that in addition they expertise homelessness on an exponentially greater scale,” Nicolia mentioned.
The IRT program matches assist requests from neighborhood companions with navy items that require hands-on coaching in these kinds of tasks. This permits service members from all branches of the U.S. armed forces a solution to apply their engineering commerce abilities. The IRT strives to imitate deployed circumstances, which provides navy items sensible coaching whereas additionally offering long-lasting advantages for native communities throughout the nation.
“Having the ability to assemble new properties presents our service members a singular alternative to work on a number of phases of building whereas serving to others,” Nicolia mentioned.
From October 2021 to March 2022, Nicolia and the mission administration workforce coordinated coaching for over 300 service members from six completely different branches of the navy, which helped enhance their expertise and mission readiness whereas concurrently serving the folks of Cherokee Nation.
“We had been chargeable for the planning and execution efforts of this mission, from receiving and bedding down personnel to creating certain that supplies had been delivered on time in order that we may meet the expectations given to us by the housing authority,” Nicolia mentioned. “The housing authority and the tribal management have been terrific companions alongside us within the navy. Any time we had questions on design or wanted supplies or items of heavy gear on the fly, they responded in order that we by no means misplaced a day of coaching.”
The second yr of the mission, which simply accomplished on Aug. 27, completed over 25,000 coaching hours.
The work completed by the joint workforce offered the Housing Authority of the Cherokee Nation with labor and gear prices equal to $1.9 million. By the point the mission ends, 21 properties might be constructed at a price financial savings near $6 million.
“Our hope was that we may honor the service and sacrifices that native veterans have made,” Nicolia mentioned. “A easy factor like a roof over somebody’s head can save their life.”
