Photo By Jessica Dupree | U.S. Navy Reserve Seabees assigned to Naval Mobile Construction Battalion (NMCB) 14...... read more read more
NCBC GULFPORT, Miss. – Seabees assigned to Naval Mobile Construction Battalion (NMCB) 14 conducted a Command Post Exercise (CPX) at Camp Shelby, Mississippi, July 18-20.
“In preparations for our field training exercise next year, NMCB 14 established a crawl, walk, run training approach,” said Lt. Rory Alfree, the battalion operations officer and the exercise officer for this evolution. “The July CPX was our run phase, focused on establishing command control within our battalion in a simulated contingency environment.”
NMCB-14 Seabees who participated in the three-day evolution practiced facilitating communications between the combat operation center (COC) and an air detachment. This CPX was a self-graded evolution designed to identify and correct shortfalls before performing the graded field exercise, which is scheduled for February 2020.
“The Seabees are unique, because not only do we perform contingency construction, we can self-sustain while doing it,” Alfree said. “It takes a lot of coordination to ensure all facets of our battalion can integrate, communicate and execute fluently.”
The air detachment was set up on the first full day of the exercise. A squad of Seabees performed a patrol, secured a perimeter, and set up their command post. Graders at the evolution challenged the battalion by making them react to a variety of contingency scenarios.
“The indirect fire scenario was my favorite one,” said Builder 2nd Class William Serrano, a grader for this evolution. “There was a lot of moving pieces, and we were able to practice what to do with everyone moving at the same time. We learned a lot, even I learned a lot while grading them.”
Alfree said that ultimately, the goal of this CPX was to make mistakes so we can learn from them and then correct them.
“Sometimes we got it all right, and sometimes we got it all wrong,” he said. “This is the practice before the big game.”
The battalion field exercise, which is scheduled for February 2020, is the final exercise required before NMCB 14 will be deemed eligible for deployment.
| Date Taken: | 07.22.2019 |
| Date Posted: | 08.27.2019 21:45 |
| Story ID: | 337664 |
| Location: | CAMP SHELBY, MISSISSIPPI, US |
| Web Views: | 258 |
| Downloads: | 1 |
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