Seabees tapped to support Afghanistan surge

Seabees tapped to support Afghanistan surge
By Andrew Tilghman - Staff writer
Posted : Friday Jan 16, 2009 16:20:54 EST

About 660 Seabees will soon deploy to Afghanistan to provide expeditionary engineering and construction support to the coalition forces there.

The deployment orders issued Thursday will send about 80 sailors from the 25th Naval Construction Regiment to Afghanistan in February, said Lt. Cmdr. John Daniels, a Navy spokesman. The unit’s homeport is in Gulfport, Miss.

An additional 580 sailors from Naval Mobile Construction Battalion 11 will deploy in March. The battalion is based in Port Hueneme, Calif.

The Seabees from the 25th NCR were initially expecting to go to Iraq, Daniels said.

The two active-duty units will be assigned to Regional Command South in Afghanistan, Daniels said.


Rest of article at: http://navytimes.com/news/2009/01/navy_seabees_011609w/%2e