Story by Lt.j.g. Joshua Marks, NMCB 11
Seabees assigned to Naval Mobile Construction Battalion (NMCB) 11 Det. Guam completed their Table of Allowance exercise (TOA-EX) on board Naval Base Guam to ensure Naval Construction Force (NCF) readiness to respond to conflict or disaster in the Pacific region, March 12.
NMCB 11s TOA-EX consisted of inventorying and performing operational tests on equipment from 48 Tricon containers within the NMCB Table of Allowance (TOA) on Naval Base Guam. The NMCB TOA is composed of seven modules each designed to provide the material, equipment, and systems required to enable unit capabilities. This TOA-EX focused on one of the three Seabee Construction Modules as well as the Command and Control Module.
Some of the equipment setup and tested included tents and generators vital to a NMCBs operations as an expeditionary unit.
The TOA-EX removes any doubt we may have in the reliability of our equipment, said Lt. j.g. Ricardo Calvillo, Officer in Charge (OIC) of NMCB 11 Det. Guams TOA-EX. Its extremely important that we take the time and effort to correctly assess the condition of our TOA and address any shorts we may have. We do this to make sure when called upon that we, or any NCF unit, are able to carry out tasking independently in distributed maritime operations.
The purpose of the TOA-EX, which began on March 2, was to ensure the sustained, fully mission-capable status of equipment within the TOA to support Major Combat Operations across U.S. 7th Fleet areas of operation. Additionally, Seabees within NMCB 11 Det. Guam had the opportunity to further familiarize themselves with their equipment to improve their technical knowledge and enhance their expeditionary engineering effectiveness.
I am very proud of the work that our team did during this exercise, said Builder 2nd Class Laxman Dixitchhetri who served as the exercises lead petty officer. They came on time everyday giving a full days effort and completing everything we asked of them. Because of their dedication, we were able to finish the inventory a day early and show the high level of execution they were capable of. The COVID environment made things tough, but I am so grateful for our Seabees taking their PPE (personal protective equipment) seriously.
NMCB 11 Det. Guam is forward-deployed to execute construction, humanitarian assistance, theater security cooperation, and support Major Combat Operations in the U.S. 7th Fleet areas of operation.