Photo By Chief Petty Officer Scott Boyle | U.S. Navy Seabees with Naval Mobile Construction Battalion 26, depart a CH-47 Chinook...... read more read more
The U.S. Navy Seabees have a long history of success. Naval Construction Forces are assisting the people of Japan after the recent earthquake and tsunami, they are getting dirty in the rainforests of South America supporting humanitarian exercises, and they are building roads and schools in the deserts of the Middle East. The Seabees' ability to make more with less is legendary.
Afghanistan, one of the poorest countries in the world, requires all of the Seabees’ talents and then some – repairing roads, digging wells, building security outposts, pulling vehicles from the mud.
Brig. Gen Kenneth R. Dahl, Regional Command South's Deputy Commanding General for Support, said there is very high demand for the construction ability the Seabees bring.
"If you are going to do clearing operations, you want to follow it up with some kind of development or stability project and you need the people who can do that," Dahl said. "You need people who can look at the project from an engineering perspective, and then in a contingency environment, do the construction and make it happen."
Dahl said the Army has that capability, but not nearly enough of it to meet the requirements in Afghanistan.
"The Seabees bring that additional capability," he said. "We wouldn't be able to meet the requirements without them."
Projects in Afghanistan have wide reaching effects throughout the country. Building a road has the obvious benefits of allowing vehicles to travel from point A to point B, but the secondary benefits can have the most impact. One of those roads is named Route Trident.
Naval Mobile Construction Battalion (NMCB) 3, based in Port Hueneme, Calif., works primarily out of Camp Leatherneck in Southwest Afghanistan. The battalion’s Seabees work at as many as 30 different locations throughout the country, and Route Trident was one of their projects.
"It was a section of road that had not been completed and the contractors didn't operate in that area," says Cmdr. Patrick Garin, commanding officer of NMCB 3. "We were able to get in the community and improve the roadway by straightening it out and providing better soil stabilization so both the coalition forces and local population could move around better."
This improvement of access has a direct impact on the freedom of movement for the local Afghans.
"We are a quintessential example of counterinsurgency (COIN)," Garin said. "We were improving the quality of life for the local population and the British forces providing security."
A road is only viable if the population isn't scared to travel on it. Kandahar Province's Deputy Minister of Communication, Ahmed Javid Faisal, said safe roads like Route Trident and Highway 1 have played a significant role in helping Afghan farmers get to markets from remote areas, and those efforts are paying huge dividends.
"Most of the Afghans are best friends of the Seabees and thankful for their assistance," Faisal said. "Seabees have helped and decreased the number of terrorist attacks on the Afghan National Security Forces (ANSF) and all Afghans," he said.
Seabees are improving the Afghan people’s ability to support themselves and it's not just combat improvements making a difference. Most projects completed by the Seabees in Afghanistan are ultimately about self-sufficiency for the Afghans.
"We have improved the infrastructure," Garin explains. "We're not just here to eradicate the bad guys. We're also here to get the economy jumpstarted so the country can be self-sustaining. We're good guys out here," he said.
Tangi Valley is an agricultural area in the Uruzgan province, north of Kandahar City. NMCB 26, a Reserve battalion from Harrison, Mich., but based in Kandahar, built two security outposts on each side of the valley bringing stability to the people in the local community there.
"Tangi Valley was one of our earliest builds in Uruzgan," said Cmdr. Regina G. Marengo, NMCB 26’s commanding officer. "It gave the residents of that valley real security and a safe haven from insurgents."
Dahl said has spoken with leadership at Combined Task Force Uruzgan. He said these leaders go into the Tangi Valley communities and talk with the people there, asking them what they need.
"The first thing the Afghans say is security. Whether it is our security, or for the Afghan security forces or local police, they need some kind of tactical infrastructure and the ability to move freely," Dahl said.
Some builds as small as check-points, two-man towers or a few HESCO barriers can make a huge difference in the security for a village.
“Just a few structures like that not only communicate to the people that there is security there, but it actually puts our forces and the Afghan forces at a position of advantage,” Dahl said. “Frankly, when the Taliban and insurgents see that, they tend to go elsewhere.”
Marengo says it is important for the people living in the remote villages to feel safe as they work. She can see the success in their faces.
"There is no fear, just complete joy when we go out there. They are out on the streets waving and they don't see us as a threat at all," she said.
Farming is a necessity in a country as agriculturally rich as Afghanistan. Afghans rely on their crops to support not only their families, but entire villages as well.
"If you are a farmer and you can't get your produce to the market, then you are not a farmer, you are a gardener," Dahl explains.
The Afghan people grow more than they can eat, he says. If they can't get their goods to the market the produce will rot in the fields. If the Seabees complete a road or a bridge, it allows that farmer to take his goods to the market to sell.
"Now, that gardener has become a farmer," Dahl said. "He can not only take care of his own family and community, but he can also make money. That is freedom of movement."
The Afghan people cheer and wave when the Seabees come to their villages. Dahl says many villagers can’t read or write, but they associate the Seabee’s logo with projects rather than fighting.
“They know that when the Bee is around there are tangible changes to the community,” Dahl said. “I would say that would account for the positive reception Seabees get when they arrive. [Afghans] will very quickly attribute that to ‘those are the guys who bring something that’s good’ from their experience.”
Seabees also made a tangible impact on other Coalition forces. NMCB 26 was working on a project at a Romanian forward operating base (FOB) and the entry control point (ECP) was in bad shape. The Romanians asked the Seabees if they could do something to help, to try and fix it for them so they could be better protected. The Romanians understood this work would be in addition to the current project the Seabees were already tasked to do.
The Seabees helped. It is what they do.
“They did a complete overhaul of their ECP,” Marengo said. “They put in a yard and they strung HESCOs, all on their own time and in addition to the project they still had to do.”
It was extra work but it was important, so the Seabees stepped up.
“They are thinking outside the box,” Marengo said. “They aren’t thinking, ‘Well, this is what you told me to do,’ they are doing it better than you asked because they are thinking about what is going to make these guy’s lives better.”
The Seabees showed their flexibility during Afghanistan’s brutal rainy season, which bogged down most of Southern Afghanistan in thick mud.
“We were opening roads, unclogging culverts, going in to Afghan National Army (ANA) bases to make sure they had proper drainage,” Marengo said. “They were the littlest things, but they made a huge difference.”
Afghans and Seabees embrace each other as friends fighting for a common cause. The high point was Christmas 2010 in the Southern district of Shorabak, where the Seabees built border checkpoints with the Afghan Border Police.
“Talk about a relationship, it is fabulous,” Marengo said. “We were really just building a basic control point, but these guys were absolutely so appreciative, it was amazing.”
The Seabees were working through the holidays on the project, including on Christmas Day. In the time they were scheduled to complete one checkpoint, they had completed two.
“The border police were so happy. They knew we were working on Christmas and it was a holiday for our guys,” Marengo said.
The police were so happy, Marengo says they gave the Seabees a Christmas present they never expected.
“The Afghans went out and slaughtered a goat, and they made breakfast for them,” she said. “That night, they roasted this goat in celebration of Christmas. The Afghans sang to them and they had this major Christmas celebration that our guys will never forget.”
The Afghan Border Patrol made Christmas dinner for the Seabees.
“These are the moments in our deployment that our guys will never forget,” Marengo said.
The Seabees’ importance is also embraced by military and civilian leadership in Afghanistan.
“I understand there are budget constraints out there, and the Department of Defense is going to be asked to cut its budget…and I would ask the Department of the Navy that when they start examining what they cut, don’t cut the Seabees,” Dahl said. “Not only are they over here doing good work, but they are doing it in a hostile environment; they deserve credit not only for their construction, but for their courage.”
The Afghan government shares that opinion.
“The Navy Seabees have helped a lot of Afghan communities,” Faisal said. “Afghans didn’t have schools, clinics and asphalted roads in the past, but now they have all these things because the Seabees have sacrificed to bring them security.”
The Seabees are still working hard in Afghanistan. The 25th Naval Construction Regiment out of Gulfport, Miss., assumed control of Task Force Overlord, Feb. 15, 2011. The regiment and battalions continue with their engineering mission, changing the lives of the Afghan people, one road at a time.
| Date Taken: | 03.31.2011 |
| Date Posted: | 03.31.2011 14:00 |
| Story ID: | 68052 |
| Location: | AF |
| Web Views: | 2,429 |
| Downloads: | 2 |
This work, Seabees’ Make a Difference in Afghanistan, by CPO Scott Boyle, identified by DVIDS, must comply with the restrictions shown on https://www.dvidshub.net/about/copyright.
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