· Millions in equipment ready for deployment stored at NCBC
· Home of Navy’s Expeditionary Combat Skills course
· Personnel from NCBC deployed worldwide
There’s something about the line of work of Seabees that seems a good fit for Gulfport. Seabees are blue collar workers who use their hands, muscle and sweat, and have a “can do” attitude to build whatever needs to be built. And they’ll fight, too.
The Seabees are the stuff of legend, thanks in part to the popular 1944 John Wayne movie, the “Fighting Seabees.” Their motto, “We build, we fight” is about as succinct as you can get, but so is the unofficial “can do.”
Seabees were created at the start of World War II when it was clear that having unarmed civilian construction workers in combat zones was impractical. So fighting became a mark of the Seabees, as much as building.
Today the Seabees call two places home: Port Hueneme in California, the West Coast Seabees, and the East Coast Seabees in Gulfport, also known as the Atlantic Fleet Seabees. Each center can support theaters of operation worldwide.
While the Seabee reputation is built around tough, hands-on kind of sailors, in today’s modern world they are equally adept at using the most modern technologies available to move personnel and machines wherever needed. They’re masters of logistics.
“The Seabees have been doing this since 1942. We know how to do the logistics. Some of the others are trying to solve today some of the things we’ve already solved,” said Mark Ashley, operations officer.
There’s reason to think the Seabee mission may increase over time.
“The nature of war has changed. It’s not all ships, subs and airplanes,” said Ashley. A lot of the work today involves community- and nation-building, especially in a contingency environment. “We think that’s going to continue.”
The base
The three missions for Naval Construction Battalion Center Gulfport are training, mobilization, and logistics to support expeditionary forces.
The Gulfport center is 1,168 acres, west of U.S. 49. It has more than 40 tenants in over 600 facilities and is home to Naval Mobile Construction Battalions 1, 7, 11, 74 and 133.
About 6,000 people work on the base, including 4,900 active duty, 900 civilians and 150 contractors, making it one of the largest employer in Gulfport. Another 1,000 family members live on the base.
NCBC has an annual financial scope – a term that includes operating budgets of the tenant commands and military payroll – of $150 million. Officials estimate its economic impact in the community as $350 million. And like other bases in South Mississippi, a lot of money has gone into construction in the wake of Hurricane Katrina – $450 million in recapitalization for NCBC Gulfport, officials said.
Training
About 20,000 students go through training at the base every year, though the numbers from month to month can vary widely. The training involves classroom and hands-on work in the entire range of construction fields, including heavy equipment maintenance.
“In training we’re starting to do a lot of work with simulators,” said Ashley, noting that simulators are common for pilots, but not so common for equipment operators and steelworkers.
One of the key training missions is something the Seabees have been doing for years: combat training.
“We’ve always had a Seabee 101 course. Every Seabee goes through that,” Ashley said about the combat training.
But now they’re doing the training for others. It’s designed for sailors whose primary duty when they go into war zones is not combat, but who may find themselves face to face with an enemy.
After the Navy Expeditionary Combat Command was established in 2006, the Navy placed the Expeditionary Combat Skills course in Gulfport. Sailors learn how to fire individual and crew-served weapons, administer combat first aid and other skills, including land navigation and small unit tactics. Some 3,000 trainees a year come to Gulfport for the combat school, said Ashley.
Mobilization
To get a sense of how big the mobilization role of Naval Construction Battalion Center Gulfport is, all you have to do is take a look at what’s stored.
Each battalion has 100 containers worth of gear and equipment needed to operate independently, along with 300 pieces of construction equipment. The “ship” for Seabees is that stuff, and NCBC is the “shipyard” that stores, maintains, packages it and turns it out for use.
“All these warehouses are filled with trucks and Humvees and bulldozers and cranes and chairs and office supplies,” said Ashley about the warehouses spread out over 500 acres, a portion of which a visitor sees when first entering the base.
The value of the warehouse assets is about $400 million, and additional materials stored for the 20th Seabee Readiness Group and other tenants with a combined value of $200 million.
The NCBC is a readiness center, and all that equipment and material is stored in Gulfport to support the warfighters. Some material is forward deployed.
“We basically have enough equipment and gear here to outfit five Naval Mobile Construction Battalion’s if needed,” said Rob Mims, public affairs officer for the center in Gulfport.
All this material requires a state-of-the-art, computerized, automated packaging system, and the Seabees have it.
“Within the military there’s probably not another state-of-the-art packaging containerization facility like we have,” said Ashley. “We have the largest, covered storage capacity in the Navy.”
It’s several million square feet.
Logistics
Call it great planning or call it serendipity, but Gulfport Seabees are positioned at the center of an intermodal system that provides it with access to a seaport, international airport, interstate highways and rail system.
“This is the best place to be from a dollar standpoint. The cost of doing business is less,” said Ashley.
The Mississippi State Port at Gulfport is a mile and a half to the south and Gulfport-Biloxi International Airport and the Air National Guard a short hop to the north. Interstates 10 and 59 are also nearby, and on base there’s rail access.
“This base is great for the Navy dollars. We are fortunate to have outstanding partnerships with other logistics agencies on the coast which provides flexibility to meet a variety of missions and share the infrastructure cost,” said Ashley. “It’s twice the base at half the cost.”
Local ties
The relationship between the Seabees and the local community runs deep. Ashley said that when Hurricane Camille hit in 1969, the Seabees were the first on the ground to help. And a month after Hurricane Katrina hit in 2005, there were 3,000 Seabees on the ground, a huge chunk of the 4,800 Seabees available worldwide.
“We have the can-do spirit. If you need something done, we can get it done,” Ashley said, whether the work is in Gulfport or elsewhere.
Ashley sees a lot of positives about being in Gulfport. He said it has a strong business climate, great logistics and a tremendous workforce. “There’s no place in the country like this,” said Ashley.
Although locals are certainly aware of the Seabees, Mims feels the bigger story about their work needs to be told.
“My point of view is, yes, we go and do the combat missions. However, other building projects – water projects, bridges, cafeterias, your Seabees are out there helping. We make it our mission to make the world better, one bridge at a time,” Mims said.
