The United States Navy Seabees combat training in Spain

The Rota Naval Base in Cadiz, Spain, is a huge joint military installation with an area of ​​2,594 hectares.

The only annual raising of the United States flag that is allowed at the Rota Naval Station
The vehicles of the US Military Police guarding the Spanish naval base in Rota

The base was built as a result of the Madrid Pacts signed between Spain and the United States in 1953. The base is used jointly by the armed forces of both countries, mainly by the Spanish Navy and the US Navy and Air Force. Today, this base is of great strategic importance and hosts a NATO anti-missile shield, consisting of several American Arleigh Burke-class guided missile destroyers.

In Rota there is a detachment of the Naval Mobile Construction Battalion (NMCB) 1, deployed under the 22nd Naval Construction Regiment (NCR), a unit that is part of the famous United States Navy Construction Battalions, popularly known as Seabees or Sea Bees (from the unit's initials: CB).

As their name suggests, Seabees perform construction and engineering duties for the U.S. Navy. They have detachments at nearly every U.S. naval installation and are also responsible for construction work in combat zones, as well as demolition missions.

In December, Rota Seabees attended a course to acquire basic expeditionary skills. It should be noted that this unit is not a combat force, but when working in combat zones, it is important that its members are prepared to use weapons to defend themselves.

This course was taught by Gunnery Sergeant Saul Tellez of the U.S. Marine Corps, seen in these photos wearing the MARPAT pixelated uniform in its woodland version. This camouflage pattern, exclusive to the Marines, is very similar to the AOR2 used by the U.S. Navy (it’s the one worn by the Seebees in the photos), albeit with more brown tones.

In the images we see Sergeant Tellez explaining to the Seebees the use of plate carriers, in this case coyote brown, the color used by the Marines in all their accessories, since it combines well with both the woodland version and the desert version of MARPAT camouflage.

Here we see aerial photos of Camp Mitchell, located in the southeastern part of the base is Camp Mitchell. The Seabees took over this part of the Rota base in 2021, after seven years deployed in Kuwait, in the face of increased US Navy operations in Europe and Africa.

This training used simulated versions of the M-16 rifle, which has been used for decades by the US Armed Forces. Here we see these replicas in red. If I'm not mistaken, they are replicas of the M-16A2, although with the retractable stock of the M-4A1 carbine.

Camp Mitchell has a wooded area that is ideal for this type of training. You can see here some more photos from this series that were published yesterday by the US Navy on the multimedia portal DVIDShub.net.