By BU2 Charles Hormanski and EOCN Kohl Chrislock
SAN CLEMENTE ISLAND, Calif. – Seabees filled 20 boreholes on Sept. 24 with 580 pounds of primed and loaded explosives at the Mid-Island Quarry on Naval Axillary Landing Field San Clemente Island.
The rock aggregate produced will be collected by the quarry crew and they will crush the rocks that are up to one foot in diameter into three quarter inch and smaller material to repair roads on ranges throughout the island. Access to the ranges is critical to meeting Third Fleet training and readiness requirements.
This was the first quarry blast the Seabees executed since 2009. That year the San Clemente Island quarry closed due to the high demand for Seabees in Iraq and Afghanistan. The quarry remained closed until Naval Mobile Construction Battalion (NMCB) 3 returned to the island in late 2013 to set up and re-establish quarry equipment and operations.
San Clemente Island is the only quarry the Naval Construction Force (NCF) has re-opened and it took nearly a year to get the quarry and equipment ready for the first blast.
Chief Equipment Operator Mark Lykins is the head blaster for NMCB 4 and brings a wealth of experience. Prior to reporting to NMCB 4 he was the Blasting and Quarry School director for the Center for Seabees and Facilities Engineering detail China Lake. There he taught the Blasting and Quarry Technician School, which allowed Lykins to gain expertise in blasting and quarry operations even during the years when operational Seabee units were not conduction this mission.
“It is a great feeling to be the first battalion in years to execute blasting operations,” said Lykins. “And an even better feeling to put what was taught at the school house to work in an actual NCF Quarry. The US Navy blasters we have on board NMCB 4 are a great bunch and are skilled in their unique craft; the work they are putting in on this island will pay for itself tenfold to all future Seabee blasters to come.”
Equipment Operator 2nd Class Matthew Westcott, a member of NMCB 4’s blast team, received his blasting qualification in 2009 but this is his first blasting operation outside of a training environment.
“[This is an] excellent opportunity to showcase our technical knowledge in a skill set that is not normally available to Seabees,” said Westcott. “The best part of this blast was doing it in the real world without an instructor watching over your shoulder. Wedge Donovan would be proud of us.”
On blast day the blast team placed blastex explosive into twenty pre-drilled holes that averaged 14 feet deep, then the blasters and observers moved to a bunker 1,500 feet away. Cmdr. Jeff Lengkeek, commanding officer of NMCB 4, initiated the detonation.
An event that took over a year of preparation was over in 237 milliseconds, the time it took for the explosives in all of the holes to detonate.
Seabees are once again performing blasting and quarry operations.
They are reviving one of their specialty skills that have been used in combat operations throughout their 71-year history to create runways and roads in remote, yet strategic locations; which is often a key component to operational success.
| Date Taken: | 09.26.2014 |
| Date Posted: | 10.20.2014 21:27 |
| Story ID: | 145583 |
| Location: | SAN CLEMENTE ISLAND, CA, US |
| Hometown: | PORT HUENEME, CA, US |
| Web Views: | 210 |
| Downloads: | 0 |
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