HELMAND PROVINCE, Afghanistan – Seabees assigned to Naval Mobile Construction Battalion 11 celebrated Asian Pacific American Heritage Month with food, cultural videos, and static displays, May 26, 2012, while deployed to Afghanistan.

The battalion’s Diversity Committee hosted the celebration on Camp Krutke, Camp Leatherneck for a few afternoon hours. Those that were able to attend were treated to fried lumpia, videos of cultural dance from different countries in Asia, and displays containing notable Asian Pacific Americans as well as historic, cultural, geographic, economic, and demographic information.

This year, the theme for Asian Pacific American Heritage Month is “Striving for Excellence in Leadership, Diversity, and Inclusion.” It puts focus on increasing appreciation and understanding of the contributions of Asian and Pacific Americans to our nation.

The Navy promotes diversity throughout its ranks, including top leadership. Currently there are nine Admirals, 11 members of the senior executive service, and 191 master chief petty officers of Asian and Pacific American heritage leading the Navy.

NMCB-11’s Diversity Committee is made up of volunteer members who actively promote the Navy’s commitment to diversity through celebrations, observances, and other planned events.

Homeported in Gulfport, Miss., NMCB-11 is deployed to Afghanistan to conduct general, mobility, survivability engineering operations, defensive operations, Afghan National Army partnering and detachment of units in combined/joint operations area – Afghanistan in order to enable the neutralization of the insurgency and support improved governance and stability operations.

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