Easy camaraderie as soldiers unite with masons

I suppose it makes sense there would be an affinity between people who wear hard hats and ones who wear helmets.

Construction workers and soldiers both are tough people doing hard, sometimes dangerous jobs. Out of that grows friendship and support for the people who work beside you and may have your life in their hands.

That camaraderie flowed last week as a group of cement masons played mentor to 11 young soldiers from Fort Lewis. Friday morning I watched the soldiers lay a strip of concrete at South Seattle Community College's Georgetown campus, while veteran masons called out instructions, their way of thanking the soldiers for their service.

Sgt. Travis Ross was keeping his men on task.

He said there is a lot of construction on the north side of the base. One day, "We asked if we could watch [the civilian workers] and get some firsthand knowledge of how you finished concrete."

The soldiers are combat engineers, but a lot of their time is spent training for the kind of work you do with a gun rather than a shovel. As soldiers, they learn the basics of concrete work but not always the finer skills.

The construction workers invited them to a job site, and conversations led to the unusual five-day intensive-training week in Georgetown.

Mark Maher, who directs the apprenticeship program for the Western Washington Cement Masons, made the arrangements and told me about the sessions.

Volunteers were easy to find. "The entire building is saying, 'What can we do to help these young men?' " he said.

Maher said four of the program's apprentices were recently called up and are deployed. And he pointed out instructors who'd spent time in the military themselves and were glad to give their time to the young soldiers.

"Look at their faces," Maher said, remarking on how young the soldiers are. One is 17.

Last week was a good time for them to learn the art of working with concrete.

It was hot in Seattle and it will be hot in Afghanistan, where they'll use their skills next spring, laying down concrete, making repairs and filling craters.

They learned to work quickly before the heat dried the mud.

Sgt. Ross, a barrel-chested young man from tiny Wilber, Neb., said working in 103-degree heat Wednesday was "interesting."

But Arturo Yanez, a private from Houston, said, "It was like home. I loved it."

He joined straight out of high school two years ago because "I didn't have anything going for me."

Yanez said the training is giving him skills he can use in civilian life later.

Brandon Giblin, a private from Sissonville, W.Va., said, "I figure if I come in and learn to run heavy equipment, I can go back and get work in the mines."

For a lot of people, the military is a path to a better life.

One of the civilian instructors, Al Blouin, who served in Vietnam, said working with the soldiers reminded him of the things he liked and missed about the military.

The discipline, team work and the relationships, thinking ahead — "all those things apply to what we do," he said.

Blouin said people who do construction "will tell you some of the best relationships they have is with the people they work with. And the military is that way."

There are some differences, though.

Blouin said, "They'll have to do what we do while dodging bullets and mortar shells, and they do it for a lot less than union scale."

A much younger man might dwell on other things.

Sgt. Ross has spent time in Afghanistan already. "I'd rather go off post and do the job," he said, "It makes things more interesting."

I hope their time in Afghanistan isn't too interesting, and that they come home safely, use what they've learned to build schools and houses, and pass on the love they've been shown.

Jerry Large's column appears Monday and Thursday. Reach him at 206-464-3346 or jlarge@seattletimes.com.