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Corps picks Seabee unit for support award

Naval Mobile Construction Battalion 28, a Navy Reserve Seabees unit whose headquarters is on the East Reservation of Barksdale Air Force Base, will receive a choice national honor from the Marine Corps in October.

The unit, created during World War II and about 600 members strong, recently deployed to Guam and to Iraq, service that led judges in the Marine Corps Engineer Association Awards Program to select the unit as Outstanding Engineer Support Battalion of the Year over more than 100 other contenders from the active and reserve forces.

The awards were established in 1998 to recognize outstanding engineer achievements of individual Marines and organizations on an annual basis, but the award to Seabees is now only in its third year. The unit was judged on performance from April 2007 through March 2008.

“There is a lot of competition,” said retired Marine Col. Ken Frantz, president of the Marine Corps Engineer Association, which sponsors the awards and vets the contenders before sending them on to the Marines for final awards determination. “We’re really proud of the Navy/Marine Corps team. Not coincidentally, for the last several years, every one of the units that has been nominated has had one or more tours in Iraq or Afghanistan in support of the Marines.”

Frantz said that as he and others go through all the nominating papers for the units and then read them at the presentations, “it is hard to get through all they have accomplished to become best of the best in their category. It is inspiring to read the write-ups and talk to the individuals and their commanders and master chiefs and sergeant majors and see what they have gone through and done to earn their recognition.”

The local unit’s designated representatives will receive the award, along with recipients of more than a dozen other awards for individuals and units, in ceremonies Oct. 16 at Camp Pendleton, Calif. Guest speaker will be Marine Corps Maj. Gen. Thomas D. Waldhauser, commander of the 1st Marine Division.

“We’re thrilled to get the award,” said Shawn Hinderberger, a 34-year-old Shreveport police detective who is a chief with the Seabees unit, serving with it on Guam and in Iraq. “All the men and women of NMCB 28 dedicated so much time to the projects over there. We worked a lot with the Marines, typically younger Marines right out of high school. The Reserve Seabees are generally older people, average age 35.”

Hinderberger pointed out that many of the people in the unit have construction or skilled trades jobs. While he now is a police detective, he earlier worked as a builder.

“We bring a lot to the table, based on our past military experience and civilian employment,” he said.

The Marine Corps Engineer Association is made up of former and current Marine Corps engineers, explosive ordnance disposal and sister service members who served with Marine Corps Air Ground Task Force engineers or in their support. It now has more than 1,100 members across the world.

The first Seabees award in 2006 went to Naval Mobile Construction Battalion 24, from Huntsville, Ala. The 2007 award went to the 3rd Naval Construction Regiment from Marietta, Ga.