RIONGO, Kenya — August 12, 2006 — U. S. Navy Rear Adm. (Select) Tim Moon, left center, chats with U.S. Marine Sgt. Jeremy Willett of Portland, Ore. about the improvements in the typical MRE. Command Staff from Exercise Natural Fire joined U.S. Marines from the 6th Engineering Support Battalion, based at Batttle Creek, Mich. for an MRE lunch at the site of an Engineering Civil Action Project (ENCAP). The Marines are working together with Kenyan Army Construction Engineers to put an addition onto a small school building and finish it with a roof. As a part of Exercise Natural Fire, U.S. forces joined with those from Kenya, Tanzania and Uganda to do a Medical Civil Assistance project at Riongo. Over 350 patients were treated for illness, injury, and parasites, among other issues.
Natural Fire 2006, a 10-day multi-lateral training exercise involving Kenyan, Tanzanian, Ugandan and United States servicemembers, runs Aug. 8-19 and is the largest combined exercise between Eastern African Community nations and the U.S. The exercise is set to provide medical, civil and engineering civic affairs programs to rural areas in Tanzania, Uganda and Kenya as well as hold military to military training exercises, which will help all participants better respond to humanitarian crises. (U.S. Navy Photo by Mass Communication Specialist 2nd Class Roger S. Duncan)(Released)