U.S. and Philippine Seabees Forge New Ties at Balikatan 2004

By Cmdr. Meg Reed, 1st Naval Construction Division Public Affairs

FORT MAGSAYSAY, Philippines (NNS) -- For U.S. Navy and Philippine navy Seabees, the March 2004 Balikatan exercise offered a chance for Seabees from both countries to forge new ties based on military cooperation, friendship and shared training.

"Future collaboration efforts in staff planning and organization are being planned to further a relationship that began in shared history and continues to grow from mutual training objectives," said Capt. Joe Furco, from the 9th Naval Construction Regiment (NCR) and lead for the naval construction element of Balikatan. "It's extremely important that we continue to maintain interest and involvement with the Philippine Seabees to meet the intent of our bilateral agreement."

The Philippine navy modeled its own Seabees after U.S. Navy Seabees during the Vietnam era. In the late 1960s, with a U.S. Seabee presence in the Philippines during the war in southeast Asia, senior Philippine navy officers believed a Seabee organization would benefit them, too. In 1967, the first Philippine naval construction battalion (NCB) was created after the American Seabee model. A few years later, a naval construction brigade was formed. In those early days, Philippine Seabees trained at Navy and Army bases in the United States.

Just as U.S. Navy Seabees do, the Philippine navy seabees support naval construction and combat engineering operations for the Philippine navy. Their organizational structure is similar to U.S. Navy Seabees, but on a smaller scale. There are about 1,000 Philippine Seabees led by a one-star admiral, with four battalions falling under their NCB.

Before arriving for the exercise, some U.S. Seabees had only just learned about their counterparts in the Philippine navy. They quickly discovered that they share more than a name and the classic Seabee logo.

NMCB 3 Engineering Aide 1st Class Kevin Taylor supervised some of the cross-training construction projects. "We've learned a lot from the Filipino Seabees," he said. "There are differences in our skill sets, but overall, we are both pioneers of the trade, hard-working and motivated."

Lt. Cmdr. Rigoberto Banta, operations officer of the Philippine NCB, expressed his appreciation for the training exercises. "We learned a lot from the U.S. Seabees and believe the training has been very useful for how we operate. We expect this to be the start of more common training."

The official exercise phase of Balikatan ended in March, but U.S. Seabees were to remain in-country for a few more months to complete exercise-related construction projects, including a full-scale reconstruction to a three-quarter-mile runway at Ft. Magsaysay.

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