100 Seabees bound for Haiti - Navy News | News from Afghanistan & Iraq - Navy Times

100 Seabees bound for Haiti

About 100 Seabees are gearing up for disaster relief operations in earthquake-stricken Haiti, and are expected to leave by Saturday morning, according to Navy officials.

More than 80 Seabees are from Naval Mobile Construction Battalion 7, based in Gulfport, Miss. They currently are prepping 690 short tons of cargo, which includes more than 40 pieces of civil engineer support equipment for road clearing and debris removal. Initial indications are the air detachment will be in Haiti for approximately six months.

Remaining battalion members are scheduled to deploy to Rota, Spain, the Horn of Africa and several other locations in Africa and Europe in less than a month.

Another 14 Seabee divers from Underwater Construction Team 1 will deploy Friday from Joint Expeditionary Base Little Creek-Fort Story, Va. They will inspect waterfront facilities such as piers and docks as part of efforts to help get relief supplies into the earthquake-ravaged nation, according to Seabee spokesman Daryl Smith.

“Seabees are well known for their humanitarian assistance and disaster recovery efforts around the world, having recently provided support for victims of hurricanes, earthquakes, floods and other natural disasters,” he said.

The Seabee divers will deploy with other Navy divers from Mobile Diving and Salvage Unit 2 and Naval Sea Systems Command, and engineers from Naval Facilities Engineering Command.

More on the Haiti relief efforts

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