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Seabees, Trinidad Local Defense Force Team Up

Navy NewsStand

Story Number: NNS080430-23
Release Date: 4/30/2008 2:19:00 PM

By Mass Communication Specialist 3rd Class Alan Gragg, U.S. Naval Forces Southern Command Public Affairs

PORT OF SPAIN, Trinidad (NNS) -- Naval Mobile Construction Battalion (NMCB) 74 deployed 20 Sailors to Trinidad to support Beyond the Horizon (BTH) 2008, and work alongside engineers from Trinidad and Tobago Defense Force's first Engineer Battalion Construction Squadron.

The "Seabees" of NMCB 74's Deployment for Training (DFT) team has worked with approximately ten host nation engineers daily during every aspect of construction.

"I am enjoying the experience of working with the Trinidad engineers," said NMCB 74 project superintendent, Builder 2nd Class (SCW) Christopher Schweitzer. "I feel the relationship we are building with them is bringing our mission into perspective. We have shared our ideas and methods with them and they have shared theirs. We are all learning at the same time. We are not here to just build a clinic, but to work together for a greater cause, the children and staff of St. Mary's Children's Home."

NMCB 74 DFT Trinidad was tasked to build a new medical clinic for the children's home, and make minor renovations to the girls' dormitory there.

"The clinic that we are building is a Royal Building System, a PVC shell that is core filled with concrete," said Lt. Cmdr. Susanne Wienrich, NMCB 74 DFT Trinidad officer-in-charge. "The clinic will have a shower and bathroom facility, a waiting room, and two exam rooms. For the dormitory we are doing some cosmetic repairs to the building. We have rehabbed a staff bathroom, made repairs to a couple bathrooms, reinforced floor joists, and made electrical safety repairs."

NMCB 74, homeported in Gulfport, Miss., has scheduled to be complete the clinic and dormitory renovations in late May.

BTH is an annual multinational and U.S. joint service military exercise, sponsored by U.S. Southern Command (SOUTHCOM), which includes humanitarian and civic assistance projects in Trinidad and Tobago designed to foster goodwill and improve relations between U.S. and Caribbean nations in support of SOUTHCOM's Partnership for the Americas program. BTH 2008 Trinidad is planned, organized and supervised by U.S. Army South.

For more news from Naval Mobile Construction Battalion 74, visit www.navy.mil/local/nmcb74/.

For more news from Commander, U.S. Naval Forces Southern Command, visit www.navy.mil/local/cusns/.>