About 30 Seabees from the U.S. Navy Reserve unit in Des Moines are heading for active duty in Iraq.
Fort Des Moines Naval Reserve Center Lieutenant Commander Craig Foster says the Seabees are members of a Mobile Construction Battalion. "They do a lot of construction," Foster says, "so whatever construction projects are being worked in the area they’re going in, they’ll be involved in those kind of operations."
The majority of the unit members are based in Des Moines. The rest from units scattered across the state.
A few of the Seabees left last week, but most left Iowa on Sunday. "They go from here actually down to Gulfport, Mississippi, for at least for a couple of months of training," Foster says.
Then, the Iowa Seabees will ship off to Iraq.
The Seabees motto is "We build, we fight." Seabees units pave, bulldoze and build things and have helped in the reconstruction of basic infrastructure in both Iraq and Afghanistan.