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GULFPORT, Miss. - Wars, just like those who fight them, evolve
with time. They advance with each generation to incorporate tactics,
tools, and lessons learned from previous conflicts. But as wars
evolve, so does training. For Seabees, some of the best training
they can receive occurs every year with the annual field exercise,
or FEX.
The FEX gives a naval construction battalion the
opportunity to test its skills in a simulated combat environment.
The battalion is evaluated at the group level; in the case of Naval
Mobile Construction Battalion Two Five (NMCB 25), they were
evaluated by Naval Construction Group Two (NCG 2) during their most
recent FEX at Camp Shelby, Mississippi. Virtually every field of
expertise in the battalion is tested during FEX, all with the goal
of maintaining a deployable and war-ready organization.
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From left, Logistics Specialist 1st Class Travis Thompson,
Master-at-Arms 1st Class Timothy Marti0n, and Legalman 1st Class
Christopher Newham, of Naval Mobile Construction Battalion Two Five
(NMCB 25), provide cover during a mass casualty drill at the NMCB 25
field exercise (FEX) March 14, 2014. The FEX gives the battalion
members an opportunity to test their skills in a simulated combat
environment. NMCB 25 is training for an upcoming deployment in
support of Operation Enduring Freedom. (U.S. Navy photo by Petty Officer 1st Patrick Gordon)
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“The FEX is the first opportunity a battalion has to sit
down as a coherent, congruent, total unit executing the full
spectrum of missions that are expected by a combatant
commander of a Seabee battalion in theater,” said Marine
Capt. Robert Kent Wallace, NCG 2 military training officer.
“The goal of FEX is to exercise to some extent all of those
different tasks to ensure that a Seabee battalion is capable
of fulfilling that mission and a full spectrum of operations
once they reach theater, wherever that is. There's really
nothing that isn't evaluated.”
Evaluators test,
critique, and scrutinize every department of the battalion
to ensure technical expertise is maintained. On top of that,
combat scenarios are thrown at the Seabees to test their
tactics and how they operate under pressure.
“We
reacted to a variety of scenarios,” said Master-at-Arms
Timothy Martin, NMCB 25 battalion Master-at-Arms and Quick
Reaction Force team leader. “Things like civilians at the
gate, whether they were hostile, looking for help, or just
curious. We also responded to any enemy action throughout
the camp — intruders in camp, enemy action attacking our
front lines. We responded to pretty much any type of
emergency situation. It was an eye-opener for some of these
guys. It's pretty high-speed stuff.”
From the
outside, the scenarios may seem like petty harassment at
times. But every training evolution is rooted in real life
scenarios that the battalion may face while overseas. These
scenarios are conducted by trained staff who bring their
respective fields of expertise to the exercise, ensuring
that their knowledge — both professional and operational —
is passed on to those in training.
“Across the
spectrum of rates you have everything from safety, to intel,
to communications, tactics and training, camp maintenance —
all of those individuals bring a wealth of information as
respective authorities within the doctrines that they're
evaluating, and that gives you 150 experts putting a very
critical eye on the battalion as it goes through,” said
Wallace. “So from my perspective, it exists as a vast pool
of knowledge from which the battalion can draw for two
straight weeks to ensure they're going forward with the best
information possible, and to ensure the exacting standards
of a Seabee battalion are met down range.”
Other
scenarios are outside the control of the evaluators, but no
less important to plan for. During NMCB 25's FEX, a powerful
storm ripped through their training area and threatened to
cancel the exercise. In some parts of the camp, water was
knee deep, and mud quickly turned parts of the camp into a
quagmire. The battalion was ready though, and faced the
storm head on, weathering the wind and rain, and dewatering
the camp within hours.
“We had to trench everything
to prevent any further damage or flooding,” said
Construction Mechanic 1st Class (SCW) Wayne Treat, of NMCB
25. “It required a lot of trenching through the camp and
around the tents we had, just to get that ponding water out
of there. A lot of man hours, a lot of effort, but once that
was done it drained out pretty well and dried out fairly
quick. It was a successful effort, but moreover, it was a
needed effort — there was really no other option but to
drain the camp and carry on. In the long run, it worked out
well.”
The efforts of the battalion proved it was
ready for any challenge faced down range. But for the amount
of training presented, it's all for nothing without the
spirit of each Seabee to take what they've learned and bring
it to the fight.
“Everything's dependent upon the
initiative each individual Sailor takes, the responsibility
they take to be involved, and how they engage themselves
throughout the entirety of the evaluated period,” said
Wallace. “And if they're not, then we replay the scenarios
over and over and over again in the course of five, seven,
14 days — however long it takes — until it's done right,
because that stuff matters; if you don't train to the
standard, then you never have that capability.
So our goal
is to train them to the standard, and that forces them to
grow in their capacity to execute that mission once they get
downrange and are facing possible life-or-death pressures.
Those things are cumulative; the process we try to put these
individuals through is to generate some of those stressors
to ensure that their reactions to the stressors are such
that they're going to come away with mission accomplishment,
troop welfare, and hopefully bringing everyone home alive.”
NMCB 25 will carry the lessons learned at FEX with them
overseas, using them to maintain a high measure of
performance and safety. Once they return, they will bring
with them the knowledge of the battlefield fresh in their
minds to provide to future generations of Seabees before
they go overseas, ensuring that the tactics never get old or
outdated.
“You can't beat the lessons learned and the
experience that you can get from this,” said Capt. David
Marasco, commodore, 9th Naval Construction Regiment (9 NCR).
“We've been fortunate to be able to take data from real
world scenarios down range in Afghanistan and implement and
employ it into these scenarios which help our units better
understand the tactics and procedures that are going on down
range, and to have a good understanding of what to expect
when they get there. To do what you're going to do, there's
no better preparation than that.”
By U.S. Navy Petty Officer 1st Patrick Gordon
Provided
through DVIDS
Copyright 2014
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