Photo By Chief Petty Officer Stephane Belcher | 220427-N-PG340-1230 PORT HUENEME, Calif. (April 27, 2022) U.S. Navy Seabees with Naval...... read more read more
Naval Mobile Construction Battalion (NMCB) 5 completed Command Post Exercise 2 (CPX-2) onboard Port Hueneme and Point Mugu, Naval Base Ventura County, California, April 29.
CPX-2 is a critical portion of the Fleet Response Training Plan to prepare for the command’s next deployment. It demonstrates the battalion’s ability to set its battlespace in a tactical field environment—while maintaining expeditionary command, control, communications, computers, and intelligence capabilities.
Lt. Cmdr. Nicholas Sweet, NMCB-5’s training officer, explained how the Seabees are in classes throughout homeport. However, the classes are often singular events, so exercises like CPX-2 are an opportunity to integrate all the skills from the courses into one culminating event.
“The [Navy Expeditionary Combat Command] has certain requirements they need in the Pacific Theater,” said Sweet. “Everything we do in homeport develops skills to support those requirements.
“It’s crawl, walk, run. We get to integrate these skills that we’re learning in homeport, that we will be expected to have and utilize when we deploy or when we’re called upon, whether it’s for major combat operations or disaster relief.”
This exercise consisted of 24-hour operations, which also trained the Seabees in immediate action drills, mass casualty drills, and solely setting up and running their base camp. It’s part of the workup to the certification. A significant portion of this exercise has to do with the ability to be self-sustaining.
“We have our own logistics built-in so we can get the things we need. We have our mobility built-in so that we can move ourselves. We have our defenses, so we’re capable of defending ourselves,” added Sweet. “And these are all supporting aspects of, you know, our core purpose, which is that construction.”
While the Seabees’ expertise is building to support the fleet, this environment is critical for sustainment and survivability operations. They set up cover and concealment, execute their local operations security procedures, and are responsible to set the appropriate Force Protection Conditions based in intelligence they receive.
Construction Mechanic Constructionman Christian Martinez, one of the entry control point watch standers, spoke about the value he experiences in CPX-2.
“For the most part, it’s good for unit-driven training in terms of mass casualty drills or learning your position on the entry control point lines or in the tactical operations center,” said Martinez. “It’s small stuff like that, very unit driven.”
Now that CPX-2 is complete, the battalion will have another unit-driven training event, the Embark Exercise. They will self-assess their ability to mount out their personnel and equipment. Once that is complete, they can move on to certification with a Mount Out Exercise, Field Training Exercise, and the Final Evaluation Problem assessed by Naval Construction Group 1.
The U.S. Navy Seabees with NMCB-5 are currently homeported out of Port Hueneme, California. They train on high-quality construction, expeditionary logistics, and combat operations to execute construction and engineering projects for major combat operations, disaster response, and humanitarian assistance.
| Date Taken: | 04.29.2022 |
| Date Posted: | 05.02.2022 14:08 |
| Story ID: | 419753 |
| Location: | PORT HUENEME, CA, US |
| Web Views: | 404 |
| Downloads: | 0 |
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