Navy Petty Officer 3rd Class Nathan M. Smith recently began an almost five-month deployment to Afghanistan while assigned to Naval Mobile Construction Battalion 133, homeported at Naval Construction Battalion Center, Gulfport, Mississippi.

Petty Officer Smith is a 2006 graduate of Les Cheneaux Community Schools and joined the Navy in May 2007. He is the son of Nina McDonald and Randall McDonald of Cedarville.

The battalion’s primary mission on deployment will be providing construction support to improve the living and working quarters for the 30,000 troops in Afghanistan.