Some Navy Seabees are doing some great work over in Jinhae:

Playing with kids isn’t normally part of the job for combat construction workers and engineers. But it is for 26 Seabees with the Naval Mobile Construction Battalion 133. They’re spending the week repairing an aging orphanage near the U.S. naval base in Chinhae.

This “green detail,” so named because members wear green camouflage instead of their desert uniforms, is unusual for the Gulfport, Miss.-based Seabees, whose last deployments were to Iraq and Kuwait.

“Instead of just building concrete runways, we’re building interior walls and concrete floors,” said Petty Officer 3rd Class Ryan Sparks during a phone interview.

The Seabees are in Chinhae on a seven-month deployment and are scheduled to finish three major building projects before returning to the States in January. They will be installing better drainage on a dirt road that eventually will be paved, building a parking lot for a future barracks and rebuilding the shelter at a telecommunications site.

At the Jinhae Hope Children’s Home, they’re replacing two roofs and 225 feet of a rotted concrete wall, in addition to making other repairs.

“It’s a wonderful break. We’re still working hard, but it’s different work, and you get to see the kids come out and play. It’s a lot different from working on the side of a mountain all day long,” Sparks said, referring to the unit’s shadeless staging area at the base.

The orphanage was built in the 1950s and is home to 70 children from kindergarten through college-age. [Stars & Stripes]

I think the Seabees are doing great work and for servicemembers that do get involved with helping in the orphanages in Korea in some way it is a rewarding experience and definitely something you remember long after you leave Korea.