Force Expansion Equals Seabees in Action

By Mass Communication Specialist 1st Class Russell Stewart

MAZAR-E-SHARIF, AFGHANISTAN (NNS) -- In the vicinity of Mazar-e-Sharif the Seabees of Naval Mobile Construction Battalion (NMCB) 4 have a challenging work, establishing Forward Operating Base Deh Dadi.

U.S. and international forces continue to increase their footprint in northern Afghanistan, and the Bee's of NMCB 4 have their work cut out for them, work that is both difficult and rewarding.

"The future vision for work we're doing here is that it will become an enduring Afghan National Army (ANA)military base. We are not just building a temporary camp for the force expansion but a long term military installation for the ANA," said Cmdr. Dean VanderLey, commanding officer, NMCB 4.

The purpose of the construction projects hinge largely on the requirement for more space, made especially urgent with the arrival of several Army units. The current area is not nearly enough, however, the projects underway will provide an area large enough to accommodate the footprint of incoming units where significant portions of the incoming forces can live in, and fight from.

With all the work comes opportunity and obstacles to overcome.

"It's great that we get to do a little bit of everything and get to see it go from the ground up!" says Utilitiesman 2nd Class (SCW/SW) Daniel Rodriguez. "We have to stay flexible, everything is always changing," said Rodriguez.

"Between the ever changing weather, getting to and from the job site, and the local children stealing our survey markers, we have had our share of challenges," said Engineering Aid 1st Class (SCW) Carolina Godoy, recalling some of the initial difficulties. "The best part though, was that I got to design a lot of the project," said Godoy.

We faced a number of other significant challenges while working here; the sheer size of the project is hard to grasp until you get on site and look at how massive it is. The weather and associated soil conditions created their own problems; the soil is fine clay that becomes very soft and sticky when wet. We had to work through a lot of wet conditions early on. Since the project site is not contiguous with any existing Forward Operating Base, security was a challenge. We essentially had to create what we called our own small "Fort Apache" and then expand out from that. NMCB 4's Seabees have done a great job putting their training into practice and operating an impressive and effective security force, said VanderLey.

"We trained for this in our FTX," said Equipment Operator 2nd Class (SCW) Michael Ivey. The Field Training Exercise is part of the Fleet Readiness Training Plan that assesses the capability of the battalion to deploy. "It's really neat to see it all unfold," said Ivey.

The design of the project was generally dictated by the requirements of the incoming units. The battalion coordinated closely with an Air Force Prime Base Engineer Emergency Force to create a master plan that accommodated the needs of the incoming units and that was also constructible with local resources. With so many considerations that influenced the layout and makeup of the project, the variety of jobs is astounding.

"There are so many opportunities to build," said Builder Constructionman Apprentice Tyler Turner. "It's more than just construction," said Turner.