NMCB 3 Completes Deployment Certification Exercise

Photo By Chief Petty Officer Jesse Sherwin III | A Seabee assigned to Naval Mobile Construction Battalion 3’s Bravo Company stands guard at the Entry Control Point with his .50-caliber machine gun during the battalion’s Field Training Exercise. Prior to every deployment Seabee Battalions conduct a 2-4 week FTX that tests all of their skills in a tactical environment before each deployment. NMCB 3 is an expeditionary element of U.S. naval forces providing construction, engineering and security services in support of national strategy, naval power projection, humanitarian assistance and contingency operations.  

FORT HUNTER LIGGETT, CALIFORNIA, UNITED STATES

12.14.2011

Story by Chief Petty Officer Jesse Sherwin III 

Naval Mobile Construction Battalion 3

FORT HUNTER LIGGETT, Calif. -- The Seabees assigned to Naval Mobile Construction Battalion 3 completed their annual Field Training Exercise, at Fort Hunter Liggett, Calif., Dec 13.

The FTX, called Operation Bearing Duel, prepared the Seabees to deploy to a combat zone. To do this, the exercise scenario included placing the battalion into a fictitious famine and drought devastated country called Menya in order to provide engineering support to the Transitional Federal Menyan government.

“All of the scenarios that we faced in Menya were to familiarize us with the culture of various deployment sites of our African deployment that is coming soon,” said Lt. Cmdr. William Wohead, NMCB 3’s Operations Officer.

During many of the scenarios, actual Kenyan and Ethiopian role players were hired to act as the Menyan locals in order to create more realistic training.

Some of the key things that a battalion is evaluated on during their FTX is their construction capability, mobility, command and control, and ability to defend itself in a tactical and hostile environment.

“We moved a lot during this FTX,” said Wohead. “We had ten detachments that had to go out and conduct construction and engineering assessment missions, and in order to do that, we had to be smaller, faster, and lighter”.

At the completion of NMCB 3’s FTX, Fort Hunter Liggett had four new South West Asia type huts, a timber tower, a timber bridge, a crow’s nest, and some concrete pads for future construction projects.

“I really didn’t expect to move so much and I didn’t think that we would be aggressed [simulated attack from an enemy] so much during FTX,” said BUCN Brett Mehl, a new member of the battalion who hailed from Long Beach, Calif. “Being in the fighting positions [foxholes] is sometimes boring, but it gets exciting when we get aggressed. It is also interesting setting up the fighting positions, especially when we have to get it done in less than an hour.”

“Two things made this FTX easy for us”, said Wohead. “We just came back from Afghanistan six months ago, so our construction and tactical skills are still fresh. Another thing that helped was that we conducted our RSO&I (receipt, staging onward movement and integration) back in Port Hueneme which enabled us to have better training facilities and support so that when we arrived in the field on D -6 [6 days before the official start of the exercise] instead of D -8 or D -10, as we normally would do, we could focus on operations instead of the training”.

The biggest challenges associated with this FTX was the lack of light which resulted in shorter work days and long hours in security positions in extremely cold weather. The temperature frequently dropped to 25 degrees Fahrenheit during the exercise.

Overall, the battalion’s FTX was a tremendous success and everyone in the command is far more proficient in their technical and tactical skills.

NMCB 3 is an expeditionary element of U.S. naval forces providing construction, engineering and security services in support of national strategy, naval power projection, humanitarian assistance and contingency operations.

• Date Taken: 12.14.2011
• Date Posted: 12.15.2011 14:36
• Story ID: 81444
• Location: FORT HUNTER LIGGETT, CALIFORNIA, US