Seabeas Support CNE DET MAST

By MCSN Triniti Lersch, NAS Sigonella Public Affairs

Seeing Seabees around Naval Air Station Sigonella is nothing new, as they are a big part of our Public Works Department. However, visitors from a distant hive are tucked away, diligently swarming and toiling—five Seabees from Naval Mobile Construction Battalion (NMCB) 11 of Gulfport, Mississippi, here on deployment with Commander, U.S. Naval Forces Europe Detachment Maritime Ashore Support Team (CNE DET MAST).

CNE DET MAST is a mobile communication detachment that stands ready to support full mobile command, control, communications and computer capability wherever needed. It provides Commander, U.S. Naval Forces Europe, Africa and U.S. Sixth Fleet an expeditionary scalable command and control capability ashore.

“They are a communications team that goes out in support of exercises and real world operations covering North Africa and Europe,” explained Utilitiesman 1st Class Steven Steinle, one of the five Seabees from NMCB 11.

Steinle acts as the leading petty officer of the four other Seabees deployed to NAS Sigonella, and part of his job is to integrate his team into the DET MAST team.

“It’s a very small command, very close knit,” said Steinle. “You get to know everybody that you work with and it makes the teamwork side of it a lot easier.”

“We here at DET MAST can’t say enough great things about this team from NMCB 11,” said Chief Warrant Officer 3 Andrew Beuck, the assistant officer in charge of CNE DET MAST. “They have made an exceptional impact on our readiness and they will be missed when they head back home.”

The deployed Seabees’ main task here in Sigonella is to ensure the infrastructure, including generators that provide power to expeditionary camps, is ready for possible real world missions. “Right now we’re performing maintenance on everything, getting everything back up in case you have to deploy on short notice and everything has to work as advertised,” explained Steinle.

“CNE DET MAST has been very welcoming,” said Construction Electrician (CE) Constructionman Cheyenne Hernandez. “The people are cool and I enjoy it a lot.”

NMCB 11 is Hernandez’s first command, and though she didn’t know what she was getting into, she has enjoyed becoming a Seabee.

“When I went for this rate I didn’t know what I was getting into,” said Hernandez. “My recruiter said undesignated airman or CE, and I didn’t want to do undesignated anything, so I went with CE. I did not know it was its own community within a bigger community.”

Construction Mechanic 2nd Class Jim McCrery, another deployed member of NMCB 11, agrees.

“Seabees are great,” he said. “The training that we get sort of sets us up for success in the trades later. It’s a nice spring board for later down the road.”

After a month-long deployment to Germany, the five NMCB Seabees are back in NAS Sigonella and enjoying the rest of their time here.

“They’ve all been just crushing it,” said Steinle. “I couldn’t ask for a better crew.”