A team from Combined Joint Task Force – Horn of Africa deployed to Faza Village, Pate Island, Kenya, Sept. 13 to assess options in assisting the village after a Sept. 5 fire that consumed 350 houses and displaced more than 2,100 people.

The CJTF-HOA team, working in coordination with the U.S. Embassy Nairobi, deployed with 10 tons of tent supplies to provide displaced families with temporary shelter.

This mission was a response to an official request from the government of Kenya to the American Embassy in Nairobi, which was submitted to the Department of Defense.

U.S. Air Force Capt. Jeremy Oldham, the CJTF-HOA country engineer assigned to Uganda, Kenya and Ethiopia, discussed temporary relief options with representatives from Faza Village.

The supplies had to be unpacked and prepared for transport to Faza Village by hand. The team spent almost two days unloading the equipment and preparing it for transporation by a wooden boat called a dhow.

“Tides were a major logistical issue,” said Lt. Cmdr. Arthur Prevatte, team leader for Maritime Civil Affairs Team 207. “Arranging transportation that coincided with the high tide proved a challenge.”

After making transportation arrangements, the team of 10 moved the tent equipment to Faza Village Sept. 17. Kenyans met the team at the pier to carry the equipment to the set-up site.

“One of the tenets of the mission was to deliver the tents, and that went very well,” said Oldham. “It was a good opportunity to engage with Africans to show the friendship between the United States and the people of Kenya. We provided them a small means to help themselves.”

Navy Chief Petty Officer Travis Canaday, a construction electrician assigned to Naval Mobile Construction Battalion 3 and currently deployed to CJTF-HOA, worked with a group of residents, Kenyan Red Cross members and Kenyan civil servants to build the tents. After showing the construction of one tent, the group was able to set up another with only supervision from the Civil Affairs team.

“The Kenyans learned how to set up the tents almost instantaneously,” said Canaday. “Language and cultural barriers were not a factor when showing them how to set up the tents. The few people I was speaking with spoke English very well.”

Villagers toured the first tent after the team completed the construction and children took time to use the tent as a place to play out of the heat of the sun before families were moved into the temporary shelter.

“We accomplished the mission by working with the other elements from CJTF-HOA and having remarkable corporation from the local District Commissioner office,” said Prevatte.

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Story by Staff Sgt. Ronald Lafosse

Petty Officer 2nd Class Randall Davis and Builders Mate Constructionman Leslie Keen assigned to Naval Mobile Construction Battalion 11, Gulfport, Miss., measure rebar to be used to support a concrete pad at Douda Primary School on July 17. NMCB 11 is attached to the Combined Joint Task Force-Horn of Africa and began building this cantina at the school in March 2009 and have put in over 13,608 manhours in temperatures well above 100 degrees. Photo by Master Sgt. Loren Bonser

More than 300 students from Douda de Ecole primary school will no longer have to eat lunch outside under the hot African sun when school begins again, thanks to the Seabees from Naval Mobile Construction Battalion 11 from Gulfport, Miss.

NMCB-11 Seabees, assigned to Combined Joint Task Force-Horn of Africa, have laid the 2,100-square foot foundation and vertical columns for a new dining facility for the primary school.

Petty Officer 2nd Class Mark Lahey said before Seabees began building the cantina, the students ate their lunches wherever they could outside.

“We are providing a better and more sanitary area for the students to sit down and eat their meals, rather than eating them on the ground,” Lahey said.

For most NMCB-11 Seabees, this is their first deployment. The Seabees’ commander, Lt. Cmdr. Stephen Legg, said the Seabees are not only providing new facilities for local children, but these projects are also great on-the-job training experiences for the Seabees.

“I am very proud of our Seabees for the work that they have accomplished this deployment,” Legg said. “I mostly proud, however, of how they have grown as a team, and how they have grown in the relationships they have formed with the African people.”

The Seabees started the project in March when it was much cooler, but Petty Officer 1st Class Jeffrey Dwyer, NMCB-11 project operations mission commander, said even though it is hotter now, the heat hasn’t slowed them down or scorched their attitude.

“Seabees is a group that holds great pride and tradition to heart,” Dwyer said. “We still remember our forefathers and their accomplishments in the past 66 years throughout the several war campaigns and peacetime. We honor the sacrifices and acknowledge the hardships our brothers and sisters have endured. We know and understand getting the job done is our focus, regardless of the trials and tribulations before us.”

NCMB-11 will have poured more than 13,500 man-hours into the project before they finish their time in Djibouti and head back to Gulfport in about a month. They will turn the project, which will be about 50 percent complete, over to NMCB-3, from Port Hueneme, Calif.

NMCB-11 will have completed the site work, concrete footer and foundation, the concrete pad, concrete columns and half-wall concrete masonry unit block. NMCB 3 will complete the overhead tie beam, roof system, two CMU block rooms which will be the kitchen and store room, as well as installation of the doors and windows.

“Actions often speak louder than words,” Legg said. “So, as we work side-by-side with the Africans through our military-to-military programs in Uganda and Comoros, or build new school facilities here in Djibouti, our efforts speak volumes to the fact the American people care, and we are here to help Africans find solutions to African problems.”

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Story by Staff Sgt. Lesley Waters