U.S. Army Lt. Cols. Thomas Nguyen and Daniel Ooley

U.S. Army Lt. Cols. Thomas Nguyen and Daniel Ooley inventory the new desks purchased for the Sir Asyab Girls High School Jan. 17. Behind them are piles of the splintered and broken desks being that are being replaced. The school’s principal and teachers requested new desks from the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers as they were completing an eight-month project to add a fourth school building. The new building will be used in concert with the three existing buildings at the start of the new school year in March to accommodate more than 3,600 Afghan students. Originally, the project requested by the Afghan Ministry of Education called for a two-story building, but the plans were scaled back to a one-story design due to earthquakes in the region. The one-story building incorporates a safety corridor that will provide the students with a safe escape should the building experience an earthquake or fire.