Port Hueneme Seabees Aiding in Kenya Disaster-Relief Effort

A small team of Navy Seabees from Ventura County is pitching in to help with the disaster-relief effort at the U.S. Embassy bombed last week in Nairobi, Kenya.

Thirty-three Port Hueneme Seabees who were deployed in Guam traveled to Kenya on Tuesday and Wednesday, where they will help in demolition and reconstruction of the embassy building and any surrounding structures that may need work.

“I think part of it is that they [Seabees] wanted to go into areas [where] they are not sure about the safety,” said Cmdr. Bill Smith, who oversees the mobile battalion team in Guam.

Smith said the team includes steel workers, builders, electricians and utility men who are expected to help tear down and clear away the bombed building. Afterward, he said, the team will help repair damaged buildings and possibly build new structures.

The Seabees from Naval Mobile Construction Battalion 3, headquartered in Port Hueneme, were chosen because of their ability to respond to disaster situations and because they were stationed near Nairobi, officials said.

“They can be self-sustaining anywhere in the world and we can get them out of here [Guam] in 48 hours,” Smith said. “As it turns out, we were ready in 24 hours.”

Although the entire 89-person team was requested, only 33, including a medical technician, were sent because of limited lodging.

The effort, known as “Operation Resolute Response,” involves hundreds of Marines and other government security forces, including the FBI. The mission will keep the local Seabee unit in Nairobi for at least 30 days.

Bombings of U.S. embassies Friday in Kenya and Dar es Salaam, Tanzania, resulted in the deaths of 200, including 12 Americans.

Smith said his team was eager to get to Kenya but also felt a sense of anxiety about working in the tragic surroundings.

But a two-month mission to Thailand, where the team built a second story onto a hospice for acquired immune deficiency syndrome patients, helped prepare the Seabees for some of what they will encounter in Kenya, Smith said.

“They would tell you that they went from not being experienced at all with death. But by the end of it, they were able to say, ‘I can handle it,’ ” Smith said. “It’s not going to be easy, but I think these guys are all great people and they’ll work through it.”