CAMP 93, Kuwait -- Normally, a Seabee will work at one spot for an entire six-month deployment. But Seabees from Naval Mobile Construction Battalion 5 instead have hit several continents during a deployment that has already stretched to more than seven months.

They split up and went all over the globe to build medical clinics, parking lots and airfields. Most are now in Kuwait, where they have trained to build bridges. But even with a possible war on the horizon, they are packing their bags and putting them on their Army-green cots as they prepare to return home to Naval Base Ventura County, Port Hueneme, and their families.

"Our deployments are always busy," said the battalion's commander, Capt. David Fleisch. "What's been unique about this deployment is the number of times we've moved people from one place to another."

The 650-person force has been yanked from one project to another, one base to another, one continent to another, and then back again. Throughout the sometimes trying seven months, morale has been good, Fleisch said.

"I'm proud of the attitude and willingness of the Seabees to do whatever they needed to do despite all the moving," he said.

They traveled to Kuwait to build ammunition supply points, airport landing facilities and airplane refueling areas. As part of a humanitarian mission, they built a health clinic in Dominica, an island in the Caribbean. They went to Morocco for training exercises and built a train facility for U.S. and Moroccan troops.

In the Andros Islands in the Bahamas, they built a 10-unit housing complex for workers at the underwater Navy test facility. In Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, they repaired roads, installed pier guard shacks, and worked in a quarry operation. Among the projects and renovations in Souda Bay, Crete, Greece, were bathrooms and a security building.

At Camp Mitchell in Rota, Spain, they constructed and repaired 26,846 meters of security fencing at 16 sites, made a parking lot, changed a restaurant into a food court, and installed security lighting. At an airbase in Sigonella, Sicily, they created a two-story addition to an electrical shop, repaired a water system and installed a lighting system at a sports field.

Fleisch said leaving Kuwait is difficult for him professionally, but not personally.

"Professionally, it's hard to be here and do all the front end work and not participate in what we are training to do," he said. "Our motto is: We build, we fight."

"But like everyone else, I will be happy to be home with my family."

He noted, though, that just because they are leaving doesn't mean they'll stop working.

"What we will do when we return is train to deploy again," he said.

"We deploy again in December. And the cycle begins again."