Photo By Petty Officer 1st Class Heather Salzman | 181105-N-MW964-1022 VANDENBERG AIR FORCE BASE, Calif. (Nov. 05, 2018) Explosive...... read more read more
PORT HUENEME, Calif., (NNS) -- Sailors assigned to Naval Mobile Construction Battalion (NMCB) 4 and Explosive Ordnance Disposal Mobile Unit (EODMU) 11 conducted expeditionary rapid airfield damage repair (R-ADR) as part of Operation Bearing Duel 02-19 onboard Vandenberg Air Force Base, California, Nov. 10.
During R-ADR the Units revisit what they learned over the course of their training cycle and are evaluated on both newly acquired and refined skills.
Lt. j.g. David J. Brown, with Naval Construction Group (NCG) 1 and the lead for the exercise control group and evaluator team, explained the value of the exercise.
“The synergy developed working alongside EODMU-11 and other counterparts allows us to properly execute mission requirements within the R-ADR training aspect in a way that cannot be expressed through simulation,” said Brown.
As part of the damage assessment team, seven EODMU-11 explosive ordnance disposal technicians conducted the initial site walk down of the damaged runway identifying potentially dangerous ordnance.
“My team knows what they are doing,” said Senior Chief Explosive Ordnance Disposal Technician Bryan Carrier, the team lead. “We work together, I have their backs and they have mine.”
Upon completion of the airfield assessment, the damage information is relayed to the emergency operating center in order to quickly develop a plan to repair the damage in the safest, most expeditious manner. This creates a real-time map of repairs needed be made by the Seabees.
Forty-three Seabees assigned to NMCB-4 repaired the damage using a combat track loader with saw attachment to cut out damaged segments of the runway creating a cubed hole in the ground. The Seabees then hand mixed concrete and filled in these holes, eventually leveling and smoothing the concrete to meet airfield requirements based on the aircraft flying and landing on it.
R-ADR is not new to the Seabees. Since its origin in the beginning of World War II, R-ADR, or rapid runway repair (RRR) as it was previously known, has been one of the Seabees' core competencies. Today, their ability to execute this mission is aided by the ability to strategically work with counterpart units to guarantee tasking can be done expeditiously and accurately, ensuring safe and usable runways are ready whenever and wherever they are needed.
Bearing Duel is conducted biannually with NCG 1. They are responsible for ensuring the prepare, maintain, train and equip objectives are executed for ten subordinate commands home ported in California.
NMCB-4 is based in Port Hueneme, California, and provides general engineering, disaster relief, humanitarian assistance and civil support to Navy, Marine Corps and joint operational forces through planned deployments and contingency response.
EODMU-11 is based in Imperial Beach, California, and provides operational explosive ordnance disposal capabilities as required for location, identification, rendering safe, recovery, field evaluation and disposal of all explosive ordnance, including chemical and nuclear weapons.
| Date Taken: | 11.14.2018 |
| Date Posted: | 02.27.2019 12:13 |
| Story ID: | 301796 |
| Location: | VANDENBERG AIR FORCE BASE, CALIFORNIA, US |
| Web Views: | 369 |
| Downloads: | 0 |
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