Photo By Jennifer Villalovos | Petty Officer 1st Class Jason Shurtz, builder, shows Master Chief Petty Officer of the...... read more read more
On Sept. 16, 30 Seabees from Naval Mobile Construction Battalion 74 successfully completed their mission in Kandahar, Afghanistan. NMCB-74's Detail Kandahar was sent to bridge the gap between the departure of NMCB-11's Air Detachment and the arrival NMCB-22's main body.
On Aug. 9, directed by the 30th Naval Construction Regiment, Det-KAF arrived in Kandahar to assume control and responsibility of over 3.2 million dollars worth of building materials and Civil Engineer Support Equipment from NMCB-11. The turnover with NMCB-11 lasted one week.
"We were a very small detachment. We took over from NMCB-11, a 120 man Det, and turned over to NMCB-22 a month later, which had 287 people in its main body. We did an excellent job maintaining control and accountability of all the equipment and material," said Lt. Adnan Ahsan, Det-KAF officer in charge.
Immediately after their turnover with NMCB-11, Det-KAF began working on their first project, a 20 by 40 foot Southwest Asia Hut that will serve as a humanitarian aid operations center for Joint Sustainment Command - Afghanistan. The structure was completed ahead of schedule and passed all building inspections.
"The inspector said that it was the finest troop built structure at KAF," said Ahsan.
The second project, which arose unexpectedly, was to relocate the entire Alfa yard lay-down area in preparation for the arrival of NMCB-22. All CESE, tools, construction materials, and work space had to be moved and reassembled safely to a new location about a half a mile away.
"We had to move over 100 pieces of CESE, 40-50 cargo containers, over 100 pallets and two huge metal structures. It was very challenging logistically," said Petty Officer 1st Class Trevor Griffin, builder, quality control petty officer.
NMCB-22 arrived in Kandahar September 8 and completed the turnover with Det-KAF September 15, 2009. NMCB-22's Operations Officer, Lt. Cmdr. Daniel Wiegrefe, had nothing but good things to say about the turnover.
"It went really well. 74 had a good lay-down for us when we got here. They had a good plan going forward so we just fell in, provided some more labor and made a few minor changes for what we wanted. I couldn't have been happier with the teamwork we received from 74," said Wiegrefe.
For their service with the International Security Assistant Force in Kandahar the detail was awarded the NATO Service Medal. September 18, Det-KAF joined NMCB-74's main body site on Camp Leatherneck, Afghanistan.
"Being the Det OIC was a very challenging and rewarding experience," said Ahsan. "I believe we accomplished our mission 100 percent."
| Date Taken: | 09.20.2009 |
| Date Posted: | 10.12.2009 00:34 |
| Story ID: | 39963 |
| Location: | ON SEPT. 16, AF |
| Web Views: | 533 |
| Downloads: | 396 |
This work, Naval Mobile Construction Battalion 74 KAF Detail Completes Mission in Kandahar, by CPO Michael Lindsey, identified by DVIDS, must comply with the restrictions shown on https://www.dvidshub.net/about/copyright.
No keywords found.
