special commemorative double issue...

2 S E A B E E M A G A Z I N E SPECIAL COMMEMORATIVE DOUBLE ISSUE 2003

SPECIAL COMMEMORATIVE DOUBLE ISSUE 2003

S E A B E E M A G A Z I N E SPECIAL COMMEMORATIVE DOUBLE ISSUE 2003 3

“Don’t kid yourselvesby what you saw on TV.

— Rear Adm. Charles R. Kubic

This wasnot

an easy

fight.”


20

27 & 52

42

Bees CloseRoosey Roads

Return of theSeabee Jedi

Reach from the Beach:the ELCAS/M Solution

‘We’re not inKansas anymore.’

The end of an era: After morethan three decades as theNavy’s biggest Beehive inCaribbean, the Seabees tookdown Camp Moscript.

Working night and day, in hightemperatures and often MOPPgear, the Desert Bees becameRADM Charles R. Kubic’sown “Seabee Jedi.”

The Elevated CausewaySystem/Modular proved itsworth when Seabees extendeda high-capacity “highway”from the beach to the sea.

A reporter from trade journalEngineering News-Recordembeds with the Seabees inKuwait and Iraq — and getsthe drive of a lifetime.

34

46 The Desert Bees: “Let’s Roll”

48

58

ConstructingCamp PatriotTo work their missions, jointforces had to have bases. Seehow PhibCBs, UCTs and otherservices made freedom’sfootprint in the sand.

SERT5: The SeabeeShadow WarriorsIn Iraq, NMCB 5’s SeabeeEngineer ReconnaisanceTeam is believed to be the firstSeabee unit to face hostile firesince Vietnam.

Camp 93 arose from featureless desert to provide anotherbase for Operation Iraqi Freedom and commemorate thefirst strike back in the global war on terrorism.

47 The Desert Bees: SCW@WarEven while deployed in the fight to liberate Iraq, Amphibi-ous Construction Battalion 1 took time to train like it wouldfight, qualifying Seabees for Seabee Combat Warfare pins.

56 Baghdad Secured, the Real Work BeganIn perhaps the most “purple” environment ever, joint-combined U.S. and coalition forces worked side by sidesolving problems. First: Decide on common terminologies.

72 Neither Rain nor SleetSeabees from NMCB 23 deployed on their first-ever fullytactical exercise in Sharp Wedge 2003, which featured badweather and a pep talk from a Medal of Honor Recipient.

74 This School is a BlastStudents learn a lot about one of the most unique jobs in theSeabee inventory. And then they get to blow stuff up.

76 Seabee Recruiters Take Can Do! to the StreetsLooking for a challenging, fast-track new job? Seabeerecruiting is a different kind of “field assignment.”

77 The Case of the Sub Base StaircaseWhen Sub Base New London needed project help, Seabeesfrom CBMU 202 stepped up.

SPECIAL COMMEMORATIVE DOUBLE ISSUE 2003I N S I D E


E D I T O R I A LSEABEE Magazine (formerly Beeline) is publishedquarterly by the Naval Facilities EngineeringCommand public affairs office from the historicWashington Navy Yard, “the Quarterdeck of theNavy.” Letters and electronic mail are welcome onall Seabee-related topics and, if published, aresubject to editing for length and clarity. Written andphotographic submissions that show active dutyand reserve Seabees safely at work and at playare strongly encouraged. We prefer to receive allwritten and photographic submissions by e-mailto [email protected]. Film ordigital images should include captions, be unmod-ified, and digital files should measure at least 300dpi at 5x7 inches. All submissions must includethe author’s full name, rank/rate, postal address,duty contact telephone number(s) and e-mailaddress. Submissions by regular postal mail arestrongly discouraged due to security precautionsthat may damage fragile contents. If necessary,send all postal mail to:

Naval Facilities Engineering CommandAttn: Editor, SEABEE Magazine (Code PA)

1322 Patterson Avenue SE Suite 1000Washington Navy Yard DC 20374-5065

Contents do not necessarily reflect the official viewsof the Department of Defense, the Navy, NAVFAC,the Civil Engineer Corps (CEC) or theU.S. Navy Seabees. Inclusions of or references toany product or service in our editorial content donot constitute an endorsement by the U.S. Navy,NAVFAC, the CEC or the Seabees. All trademarks,service marks or other symbols, names, imagesor logos are and remain the sole property of theirrespective owners. Address corrections, story andphoto submissions and requests for writer’s guide-lines may be sent to the magazine’s postal ore-mail addresses.

C O N TA C T SE-mail: [email protected]: (202) 685-9126 or DSN 325-9126Fax: (202) 685-1484 or DSN 325-1484

To learn more about the Seabees and Seabeeopportunities, discover us on the Internet atwww.seabee.navy.mil. For information on Navyjobs, see www.navy.com. To learn more aboutthe technical Civil Engineer Corps and the globalactivity of the Naval Facilities EngineeringCommand, we invite you to visit the NAVFAC web-site at www.navfac.navy.mil.

Stay Navy. Stay Seabee.

D E P A R T M E N T S

6 TopsideAn anniversary year of tough challenges.

8 Kubic SendsSeabees in Iraq excelled — once again.

10 ForewordFrom the Master Chief Petty Officer of the Seabees.

11 1NCD CMDCMDispatches from desert: Seabee Can Do! spirit is alive and well.

12 In Memorium: BU3 Doyle W. Bollinger, 1982-2003A Seabee shipmate is killed in the Arabian Gulf.

14 Commemorating a Seabee Legend: Seabee Betty, 1934-2003The “Seabees’ grandmother” in Guam passes away.

16 Reporter’s Notebook: Inside the Lion’s JawBees and SEOs protected the president of Afghanistan.

18 NewsbreakThe Seabee/CEC/NAVFAC Anniversaries; Christilaw chosen for 2003 Shields; LittleCreek has a mysterious visitor; honoring those who served; “bee-tainer” backload;enlisted Bee helps prep Iraqi plant for SECDEF inspection; “kids are kids”; raising theFreedom Chapel; 40 kicks off PRT; honoring Bloody Nose Ridge on Peleliu; NMCB 4hammers together new order in Iraq; Return of the Seabee Jedi, Part I; boxers wow;Naval Facilities Expeditionary Logistics Command debuts; Seabee Memorial sculptor deWeldon dies; SCW program updated; reserve CEC awarded Bronze Star.

78 AfterwordTake the plunge — enter the first SEABEE Magazine photo contest.

MASS CONSTRUCTIONMASS CONSTRUCTIONMASS CONSTRUCTIONMASS CONSTRUCTIONMASS CONSTRUCTIONMAMAMAMAMASS SS SS SS SS CONSTRUCTIONCONSTRUCTIONCONSTRUCTIONCONSTRUCTIONCONSTRUCTIONWEAPONS OFWEAPONS OF33333000003333300000

S U B S C R I P T I O N SSubscriptions to SEABEE Magazine are availablefrom the Superintendant of Documents, U.S.Government Printing Office, Washington, DC20402, or call (202) 512-1800 and ask for thepublications order desk. The best method forsubscribing is to point your Web browser tohttp://bookstore.gpo.gov and enter the Searchterm seabee. This returns a means to enter asubscription via a secure credit card transaction.Subscription prices are $25/year $7/issue FPO/APO/domestic and $36/year $9.80/issue foreign.

M I L I TA R Y R E C I P I E N T SUnits or organizations with Seabees assigned areauthorized no-cost subscriptions to SEABEEMagazine. Send requests on official letterheadsigned by the commanding officer or officer incharge, and citing number of Seabee personnel,to the editor at the magazine’s postal address orfax number shown below.

P O S T M A S T E RSend address corrections to the editor at themagazine address shown below.

A U T H O R I Z AT I O NThe Secretary of the Navy has determined thispublication is necessary in the transaction of busi-ness required by law of the Department of theNavy. Funds for printing this publication have beenapproved by the Navy Publications and PrintingCommittee.

VOLUME 2, NOS. 1 & 2

64 SPECIAL: SEABEES REMEMBER KOREAJuly 2003 marked the observance of 50 years since the end of the Korean War, and

the nation paused to give thanks to its veterans. Like they had been in the World

War immediately prior, Seabees were in the thick of this conflict, too. An informal

history, including accounts — and imagery — from Bees who were there.


t o p s i d e

Commemorating the accomplishmentsof everyone who contributed to thesuccesses in Afghanistan and Iraq wouldtake a book (and someone probably iswriting one right now). We’re trying to doour part with this extraordinary SpecialCommemorative Issue of SEABEEMagazine that overlaps the Winter andSpring periods in one publication.

An enormous amount of time and efforthas gone into preparing this specialcollector-sized magazine, and we hopeyou enjoy reading all about the exploits ofour Seabees as they built schools, roadsand expeditionary airfields, restoredelectricity – and restored hope – to Iraqipeople terribly oppressed for decades.

It was against this sobering backdropthat we celebrated the 2003 Seabee/CEC/NAVFAC Anniversary Ball this year. Weofficiated our combined Washington-areaevent only a short walk away from thePentagon, in Crystal City; meanwhile, inthe Gulf area, the celebration was led byRADM Chuck Kubic, Commander of theFirst Naval Construction Division/NavalConstruction Forces Command and alsoCommander of the 1st Marine Expedi-tionary Force (I MEF) Engineer Group(MEG). A story on the anniversary eventsis included in this issue.

I was truly honored and pleased to hostour celebration of the 161st birthday ofthe Naval Facilities Engineering Com-mand, the 136th anniversary of the CivilEngineer Corps and the 61st anniversaryof the Seabees. Our special guest speakerwas the Vice Chief of Naval Operations,Adm. William J. Fallon.

We were honored to have ADM Fallonat our head table, where we were alsojoined by current Acting Secretary of theNavy, the Hon. H. T. Johnson. We wereadditionally honored to share this specialoccasion with a large number of distin-guished veterans and retirees, areaSeabees, CEC officers and our civilianemployees.

Our command’s history is long, diverseand fascinating. NAVFAC began in 1842as the Bureau of Yards and Docks, buttoday we do much more than build andmaintain shipyards and Naval stations. Inour 161 years, Team NAVFAC hasbecome the premier facilities authorityamong all the military services — withthe effectiveness provided by speaking inand working with “One FacilitiesEngineer Voice.”

We’ve taken the lead in adopting Web-based technology and advanced businesspractices, providing creative engineering

and construction solutions, and keepingour commitments to all our DoD clients.

But most importantly, the Navy andMarine Corps Combat Team trusts us tobe their provider of choice when it comesto facilities engineering support. No otherfacilities engineering organization canmatch our accomplishments.

We will continue to lead in technicalinnovation, facilities engineering,acquisition and construction, whileenhancing Naval readiness ashore — andimproving the quality of service for ourmilitary members, our civilian workforceand families into the 21st century.

Our talented team, comprised ofdedicated Civil Engineer Corps officers(active and reserve), other militarypersonnel, civilians and contractors workaround the world pioneering engineeringapplications and leading the Seabees inpeace and war.

The Seabees came into being in WorldWar II under the leadership of Adm. BenMoreell to perform then as they still dotoday — build anything, anywhere, anddo it in hostile conditions if necessary.

Then 50 years ago, in Korea, theSeabees went to war in a cold, harsh land.They led the way into battle positioningthe pontoons for the landing at Inchon,the first major success of that war. Theythen went behind enemy lines and stolesome trains to get the supply linesmoving. And they built the runways thatgave us the air superiority necessary toprosecute the enemy.

At the end of the Korean War, theSeabees could look back with pride intheir accomplishments and that, onceagain, they proved they could do any jobin any weather at any time.

As we celebrate the 50th anniversary ofthe end of that terrible war this July, thebrave men and women of our Seabees,

WASHINGTON NAVY YARD —With CEC officers, Seabees andmany of our civilian corps at workon the war in Iraq or battling thethreats of terrorism, 2003 hasshaped up as a time of significantchallenge as well as opportunity.Our challenges in Iraq and else-where in the world are many, butAmerican and coalition forces inthe Middle East are today literallymaking the world a safer place inwhich to live.

S E A B E E M A G A Z I N E SPECIAL COMMEMORATIVE DOUBLE ISSUE 2003 7SEABEE Magazine is the publication of the

United States Navy Seabees, active duty and reserve,celebrating 61 years of proud Seabee service.

NAVAL FACILITIES ENGINEERING COMMAND

Michael R. JohnsonRear Admiral, CEC, USN

COMMANDERChief of Civil Engineers

Robert L. PhillipsRear Admiral, CEC, USN

VICE COMMANDERAssistant Chief of Civil Engineers

Harrell T. RichardsonCNOCM (SCW)

MASTER CHIEF PETTY OFFICER OF THE SEABEES

Sean P. KellyLieutenant Commander, USNPUBLIC AFFAIRS OFFICER

Naval Facilities Engineering Command Public Affairs

FIRST NAVAL CONSTRUCTION DIVISION

Charles R. KubicRear Admiral, CEC, USN

COMMANDER

James M. McGarrahRear Admiral, CEC, USNRDEPUTY COMMANDER

Kevin C. TimmonsCMDCM (SCW)

COMMAND MASTER CHIEF

Daryl C. SmithPUBLIC AFFAIRS OFFICER

STAFF

Daniel Charles RossChief Journalist, USNR (Active)

EDITOR IN CHIEFNaval Facilities Engineering Command Public Affairs

Special Issue Bureau ChiefsLCDR Meg Reed, PAO, I MEG

JOC(sel) Joseph Krypel, PAO, Camp PatriotJO2 (AW) Traci Feibel, PAO, Camp Commando

Senior ContributorsJOC Siegfried Bruner, USNR

JOC Kevin Elliott, USNRPHAN Lamel J. Hinton, NMCB 40

C O N T R I B U T O R SAndrew G. Wright

Richard Coulson, Charles A. GodshullConrad Lawlor, Steve McCombs, Pat Morris, Fred Simon

CAPT Larry G. DeVries, USNR (Ret.)LCDR Ronald Hill, USNR

LT Lila Bakke, LT Eric Brietenbach, LT Eileen D’AndriaLT Mike Chucran, LTJG Trent Jessup, ENS Matt Barnes

CMDCM(SCW) Kevin J. EichmannEOCS(SCW) Art Messer, EOC(SCW) Tom Kuntz

EOC(SCW) Timothy “DZ” Dziergas, EOC Kenneth TorianJOC Daniel Pearson, SWC Bryan Bliss, LNC Tim Taylor

JO1 Brigette Barnes, CE1(SCW) Chris BeckEO1(SCW) Phil Cuzzetto, EO1(SCW/AW) Kevin Cullen

JO1 Landon Mason, JO1(SCW) Michael D. MitchellJO1 Michael B. Murdock, JO1(SCW) Andrew Scharnhorst

JO1 Stan Travioli, PH1(SW) Arlo K. AbrahamsonPH1 Brien Aho, PH1(SW) Aaron Ansarov

PH1(SCW) Ernest Terry, PH1(SW/DV) Eric J. TilfordSSGT Quinton T. Burris, Coleen R. San Nicholas-Perez

Luis Torres-Torres, Keely West, Karen YoungEO2 Lisa Kimak, JO2 Farrukh Daniel

PH2 Jacon Johnson, PH2(AW) Chris PerkinsPH3 Aaron Pineda

and every Seabee everywhere, everyday.

SEABEE

together with their counterparts through-out the Department of Defense, areworking to build and preserve peace anddefend freedom against tyrants andterrorist forces, and those who wouldharbor them.

One doesn’t know where they will becalled next, and whether it will be to builda bridge, an airfield — or the trust ofsome downtrodden people who need thatspecial Seabee humanitarian work youprovide so often and with distinction.

Trouble across the globe today remindsus of our obligation to safeguard theprecious legacy of our military, our Navy,our Civil Engineer Corps and our Seabees… a legacy of freedom, justice andliberty.

Right now, our Seabees and CivilEngineer Corps officers are stationed anddeployed around the globe, some in waror hostile-fire zones, others offering aidand humanitarian assistance. They arewriting American history as they aredeployed with construction battalions,mobile and amphibious; UnderwaterConstruction Teams; and at State Depart-ment offices around the world.

With the uncertain state of currentevents and change always in the wind,you are all doing superlative,

MICHAEL R. JOHNSONRear Admiral, CEC, USN

Commander, NAVFACand

Chief of Civil Engineers

first-class, history-making work. I couldgo on and on, of course, about the manymarvelous accomplishments of TeamNAVFAC, the Civil Engineer Corps andthe Seabees, but in this forum, at least, Iknow I’m preaching to the choir.

For now, though, we still have a lot ofwork to do.


kubic sends

As I survey the unusual surroundingsand reflect upon how much Seabees havedone in such a short time, I am astoundedand filled with pride. Seabees havealways done great things in war andpeace, but wow — look what Seabeeshave done this time! From the standup ofthe First Naval Construction Division(1NCD) less than a year ago, to thewartime mobilization of Seabee reserves,to the campaign to liberate Iraq, to thecivil-military operations we areconducting here right now, Seabeescontinue to write new chapter afterchapter of our proud history.

During Operations Enduring Freedomand Iraqi Freedom, Seabees of the FirstNaval Construction Division formed thecore of the 1st Marine ExpeditionaryForce (MEF) Engineer Group (I MEG).Stand up of the MEG enabled us tointegrate fully with the Marine Corps, andto execute a highly innovativeinteroperability doctrine that had neverbefore been tested in combat.

The I MEG was organized as a jointforce of Navy, Marine and Armyengineers formed into three regimentaltask forces. The I MEG force structure

included four Seabee battalions, threereserve Seabee heavy air dets, a NavalConstruction Force Support Unit, aConstruction Battalion Maintenance Unitdetachment, an Underwater ConstructionTeam, two Army engineer battalions and aKorean engineer battalion. I MEG taskforces were configured to focus onmobility, construction and sustainment,and were arrayed in echelon across a67,000 square mile battlefield to respondwith unbelievable agility and speed —engineer speed was key to winning thewar in Iraq.

The I MEG Command Element (CE)included active and reserve Navy, Marineand Army officers and enlisted from 24commands. The CE directed theoperations and forward deployment of IMEG forces and enabled joint/combinedengineers to fulfill a broad range ofmissions successfully in support of I MEFobjectives.

Not only did I MEG organizationalstrategies come together seamlessly, butSeabees also employed innovativeengineering techniques for bridging, roadrepair and maintenance, troop bed-downand force protection projects. SeabeeEngineer Reconnaissance Teams (SERTs)were employed for the first time in directcombat operations. These 10-man teamsincluded two CEC officers, a chief andseven petty officers. They performedadvanced route surveys to assess bridges,road conditions and maneuver obstacles,and provided real-time digital pictures,information and analysis directly from theforward edge of the battlespace.

“Seabee Jedi” from I MEG Future Opsthen crafted expeditionary engineersolutions by exercising engineer reach-back capability, which linked SERTs withthe I MEG CE and highly dedicatedprofessional engineers working in their

offices at PACDIV in Pearl Harbor andLANTDIV in Norfolk — a truly amazingeffort.

The Order of Battle in this Iraq Warplaced SERTs and lead MEG elementsdirectly behind the Marines, in theforward area, as the 1st Marine Divisionand Task Force Tarawa (from 2nd MarineDivision) attacked north. Seabees havenot been this close to the fight sinceVietnam. More importantly, Seabeeperformance in this war demonstrated thatwe are no longer simply a rear-areadefensive force. Seabees advancedquickly, supported themselves with theirown combat logistics convoys, andtraversed nearly 400 miles in close followto and direct support of Marines on theattack.

As the war unfolded, it becameapparent that the Seabee effort would befocused on road and bridge work toensure major supply routes were clear andin good shape for continuous flow oflogistics and troops. Seabees built bridges— big, 70-ton bridges. Standard 40-to-60meter Mabey-Johnson bridges wereconstructed, using highly innovative earthmoles to narrow the wet gaps. Seabeesonce again used their Can Do! ingenuity,and, in effect, made the Iraqi rivers andcanals fit their standard length bridges.

Seabees also worked nonstop on manyother projects, such as connector roads tobypass hostile areas, large-scale dustsuppression on roads and airfields,construction of Patriot battery positionsand force protection berms, and campQOL upgrades for U.S. troops. Mostimportantly, Seabees worked day andnight prior to D-Day completing majorforce bed-down projects, including hugemunitions storage areas, fixed and rotary-wing pads and support facilities, and theirsignature project — a 20-acre concrete

AL HILLAH, Iraq — I write thisgreeting for SEABEE Magazinefrom Saddam Hussein’s BabylonPalace. The Palace grounds arelocated near the site of the ancientcity of Babylon and its infamoustower, and now host our Seabeeforward command post in Iraq.


C. R. KUBICRear Admiral, CEC, USN

Commander, 1NCD/NCFC/I MEG

parking apron for the F/A-18s that rockedSaddam’s regime on opening night andthroughout the MEF’s air-ground attack.This pad included enough concrete topave a road from the nation’s capital toDulles airport and it was built in a littleover 90 days.

The I MEG task force configurationenabled Seabees to shift direction quicklyto wherever the Marines needed them,and to respond heroically each and everytime. Seabee achievements during theattack were nothing short of miraculouswhen you consider the I MEG wasconstantly moving thousands of troopsand hundreds of pieces of CESE throughdozens of locations, and advancing nearly400 miles from Kuwait to Baghdad inonly 22 days.

Seabees were combat-ready throughoutthe war. Our convoys were hard and alert,and Seabees returned fire with deadlyaccuracy when our ability to fight waschallenged.

When hostilities ended, the Seabeemission was just warming up. As I writethis, the I MEG remains fully engaged incivil military operations, currentlyworking to rebuild city infrastructure; torepair and construct bridges for localcommunities; to restore power and water;to repair public buildings and schools;and to clean debris from city streets.Iraqis from all walks of life had truly beenbrutalized for over three decades by theSaddam regime, but Seabees are findingthe Iraqi people to be warm, friendly anddeeply appreciative of their liberation.

Although the war in Iraq hasnecessarily been the Naval ConstructionForce’s primary focus this year, Seabeeshave continued to perform their globalmission at many other locationsthroughout the world, and thisoutstanding work has not gone unnoticed.

From exercises in the Balkans to CobraGold in Thailand, to continuing ops inGuam and Rota — and everywhere inbetween — Seabees have proved on adaily basis that they are invaluable in waror peace.

Fellow Seabees, it is with great prideand awe that I recognize all of you, yourexceptional accomplishments and yourunselfish sacrifices. You have alwayssucceeded beyond my high expectations.Thanks for your heroic achievements andthanks for being Seabees.


HARRELL T. RICHARDSONCNOCM (SCW)

Master Chief Petty Officer of the Seabees

f o r e w o r d

I am extremely pleased to be the Master

Chief Petty Officer of the Seabees right

now. It has always been my pleasure and

personal honor, of course, to hold such a

title, but these days it is even more special

to be a leader of Seabees.

In my travels to sandy locations in

recent months, I have seen first-hand what

wonderful work is being accomplished by

our dedicated Seabee community.

Whether you are assigned to the Public

Works Center in San Diego or a battalion

detachment in Spain – or building

airfields and providing humanitarian

comfort in Baghdad and Afghanistan –

Seabees of all stripes continue to play a

decisive, forceful role in keeping America

free and people safe.

Just as no one can deny the superlative

work Seabees are doing, it’s equally

undeniable that the workload is increasing

across the board. This is a fact of life.

Seabees are working literally all across

the globe, but the most recent and visible

jobs have occurred in the context of

Operations Enduring Freedom and Iraqi

Freedom. Often working seamlessly in a

joint-forces environment, Seabees in Iraq

have become essential to the restoration

of adequate public works, such as reliable

fresh water and electricity. The job in Iraq

will be long and complex, by all accounts,

and the challenges are certain to be many,

but as we always have, Seabees will

answer with a characteristic “Can Do!”

This Special Commemorative Double

Issue of SEABEE Magazine – the same

page count as the combined regular

Winter and Spring issues it replaces – is

full of reports on what miracles a “Can

Do!” attitude can create. Even though

much of the coverage describes events

now history, many of our stories here are

reported in a compelling “you are there”

style that underscores their immediacy.

Our Bees have been crucial to getting

important river crossings restored; they

have hammered together new furniture to

replace that looted from Iraqi schools;

and they have fulfilled the needs of

coalition forces in the region by building

countless camps, unloaded countless

cargo ships and provided the few creature

comforts that could be had in a wind-

blown, sand-covered, war-time location.

There is so much war news to report to

you, in fact, that more of it will be

included in the Summer issue coming out

next.

July 2003 also marked the national

recognition of the 50 years elapsed since

the Korean War. In this issue,

appropriately one commemorating new

good works by Seabees, we also take time

to celebrate the selfless actions of Bees

during the Korean War. Then as now,

Seabees were constructing roads, airfields

and more where none had previously

existed, and making life easier for their

fellow troops in the process.

I’m extremely proud of you all, past

and present.


History in the making can only explain

how we were successful in this heroic

campaign to liberate the people of Iraq —

and there was no finer force to do that

than U.S. Navy Seabees.

For the first time in history, while

completing supernatural construction

projects, Seabees moved more than 400

miles with Marine maneuver forces

contributing to campaign success. A rare

breed of men and women, Seabees

always succeed no matter what

challenges lie ahead and they do it with

their own Can Do! style.

As RADM Kubic said up forward here,

the I MEF Engineer Group was made up

of Navy, Marine Corps and Army

components, both active and reserve.

They performed flawlessly and became a

force to be reckoned with. I am very

proud of each and every Sailor, Marine

and Soldier for the sacrifices they made

— and for the families back home that

have given us all so much support.

Without that support, our successes

would not have been possible. You have

all given new meaning to the phrase

“service with honor.”

During Operation Enduring Freedom,

Seabees completed aircraft parking

aprons, ammo storage areas, hot refueling

points, helicopter parking pads, tent

camps and numerous other projects.

Without the completion of these construc-

tion projects the coalition forces would

not have been able to move so swiftly

through the battlespace.

And elsewhere on the Seabees’ global

playing field, Bees active and reserve

came up to full speed on every task

presented to them. The quality of work

performed at a time of the greatest tasking

in modern memory has been unequalled

in the history of the Seabees.

When Operation Iraqi Freedom kicked

off, again the Seabees jumped into action

with dedication and efficiency.

They provided expedient construction

projects comprised of building bridges,

maintaining MSRs and ASRs, EPW

camps, rapid runway repairs, forward

operating bases and resupply of front-line

forces all the way from Kuwait to the city

limits of Baghdad.

When areas became somewhat secure,

the humanitarian missions started and our

Seabees wasted no time in winning the

hearts and minds of the Iraqi people.

They repaired local schools, hospitals,

restored power generation and water

treatment plants, and even put local Iraqis

back to work.

Seabees are truly a national treasure

and are the force of choice. In Afghani-

stan, in Iraq, and all around the world,

Seabees continue to exemplify our motto

of “With Compassion for Others, We

Build, We Fight.” Ooh-Rah!

KEVIN C. TIMMONSCMDCM (SCW)

First Naval Construction Division

1ncd cmdcm


Builder 3rd ClassDoyle W. Bollinger

STORY BY LT ERIC BRIETENBACH, NMCB 133

AND KEELY WEST, POTEAU (OKLA.) DAILY NEWS

1982-2003

‘We have to do this,’ he had told his mom. ‘We’regoing to have another 9/11 if we don’t. We have tokeep families safe.’

Seabee Builder 3rd Class Doyle“Wayne” Bollinger, a 21-year-oldSailor from Poteau, Okla.,

assigned to Naval Mobile ConstructionBattalion 133, was remembered withfull military honors June 13 duringfuneral services held at 2 p.m. in thePoteau High School’s gymnasium, theSherman Floyd Fieldhouse.

Bollinger was killed June 6 in Iraq,the victim of an accident when unex-ploded ordnance detonated in the areawhere he was working.

He had been hand-selected to be amember of the battalion’s air detach-ment for its 2003 deployment. Heserved as rifleman number two for thefirst fire team, second squad of thevertical construction platoon.

A Seabee air det is the “tip of thespear” for the battalion and generally isthe first responder for a contingency.Bollinger’s selection for this importantrole was motivated by his excellenthistorical performance.

He was key to many of the air det’saccomplishments, including crossingthe border into Iraq on the second dayof the war to help construct a 14,000-person enemy prisoner of war (EPW)camp.

Establishing the EPW holding areawas critically important to prevent thecombat force from being slowed by the

administrative handling and processing ofprisoners. The construction of thecomplete facility took just 96 hours,finishing an impressive two days ahead ofan already tight schedule.

Bollinger was then selected to be acrew member of a detachment of Seabeesdefending a key river crossing in Iraq.

While a member of this defensive team,he also participated in the removal of fourmedium girder bridge (MGB) supports.An MGB is a bridge that Naval Cons-truction Force Seabees are trained toassemble over a river and then disas-semble, if needed, for reassemblyelsewhere.

The completion of this project playedan integral role in maintaining andimproving the main supply route formovement of critical supplies to forwardcoalition force units.

The Seabee was later chosen to join therunway repair team sent to Al Jarrahairfield outside of Al Kut, Iraq. The teamplaced more than 1200 cubic yards ofconcrete in two 3000-meter runways and ataxiway intentionally damaged by Iraqiforces to prevent coalition forces fromusing it after the outbreak of hostilities.

Bollinger’s contributions to repairingthe airfield proved vitally important,because they provided civilian aidorganizations a base of operations foressential humanitarian assistance to the

people of Iraq.At a June 12 afternoon press confer-

ence, Bollinger family members sharedsome of their memories of the young manwho lost his life in Iraq, and their feelingsof pride and sense of loss.

“I told him the last time I talked tohim on the phone that he’d be okay,” saidhis father Doyle Bollinger Sr. “He waswith the Seabees, and they’re morebehind the lines.”

Bollinger’s brother, Clendon, said thathe and his Seabee brother had their upsand downs while growing up, but theygrew closer as they got older.

He said Bollinger was doing what heloved from the time he was very young —construction — and he talked about howfriendly Wayne was to everyone.

“Everybody in the neighborhood knewWayne,” Clendon said. “He loved to talkand he wasn’t afraid of anything. He’dwalk up to strangers.”

In Memorium:In Memorium:In Memorium:In Memorium:In Memorium: LOST SHIPMATE

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Bollinger was also generous. The lasttime his mother, Evelyn Bollinger, talkedto him on the phone, about 10 days beforehis death, he told her that he loved her, thathe was okay and that she should be expect-ing a letter.

Bollinger had sent his mother a list ofabout 40 guys who, he said, neverreceived “care packages,” or anythingfrom home, in hopes that she could help.

“Wayne was just Wayne,” Mrs. Bol-linger said, and he had a great sense ofhumor. She told Wayne he couldn’t go toIraq, that he’d have to call his command-ing officer and tell him that his mom hadgrounded him.

“He pulled out his cell phone like hewas going to call and said, ‘Sorry mom— phone’s broken.’”

Family members said it had been a verydifficult time, but they had received atremendous amount of support from boththe community and the Navy.

“He knew [the Navy] was better forhim,” Mrs. Bollinger said of her Seabee.She said he also believed in the actionsthe United States took in Iraq.

“We have to do this,” Bollinger hadtold his mother. “We’re going to haveanother 9/11 if we don’t. We have to keepfamilies safe.”

Mrs. Bollinger also told reporters sheknows her son would rather have diedthan for any of the others who wereinjured to have died instead of him.

She encouraged everyone to continuetheir prayers and support of the troopsserving overseas.

“They need our support and they needto be remembered when they come home,and be treated with respect,” Mrs.Bollinger related.

In the tradition of a U.S. Navy Seabee,Bollinger was notably dedicated toservice and the welfare of others. He hadhelped to construct SEA huts at variousMarine Corps units to provide relief fromthe blistering heat of Iraq. These huts arestill used by the Marines for rest andrelaxation while not on duty. Bollingerwas a genuine team player and consis-tently impressed by contributing toimproving the lives of those around him.

Even while assigned to food serviceattendant duty, a job not envied anywherein the Navy, he was always thinking of hisSeabee shipmates.

He led an effort to purchase sodas,case by case, until enough werecollected and could be served coldduring evening meals. He was alwaysthinking of ways to make the lives ofthose around him just a little better.

The greatest accolade of all? He washighly respected by his fellow Seabees.

Bollinger was preceded in death byhis grandfathers, a sister and an uncle.

Survivors include his mother, EvelynBollinger of Poteau; his father, DoyleWayne Bollinger Sr. of Haltom City,Texas; brothers Clendon Bollinger andMichael Bollinger, both of Poteau;sister-in-law Penny Bollinger of Howe;nephew Caleb Walston of Poteau; hishalf-brother Timothy Bollinger ofGreenwood, Ark.; grandmothers ElsieLemmons of Poteau and NormaBollinger of Spiro and numerous otherrelatives.

The Rev. Jim Parsley officiated at thePoteau services. Interment followed inOakland Cemetery. �


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She was born Vicenta ChargualafPeredo, but to the U.S. NavySeabees, she will be forever

remembered as “Seabee Betty.”Born Sept. 10, 1934, in the

village of Yona, Guam, Seabee Betty wasa surrogate mother for generations ofSeabees until her death June 9.

“She will be fondly remembered bythousands of her Seabee-Sailor ship-mates, Marines and Airmen around theworld, whom she befriended on Guamover the past 50-plus years,” said RADMMichael R. Johnson, Commander, Na-val Facilities Engineering Command.

As a young woman growing up inpost- World War II Guam, Seabee Bettywas known for her goodwill and love ofhumanity. Her job on the Navy base atClub Mocambo introduced her tothousands of Soldiers, Sailors, Marines,Airmen and, of course, Seabees.

In 1952, she took a strong interest inthe Seabees stationed on or deployed toGuam. Recognizing the sacrifice ofbeing so far from home, Seabee Betty tookit upon herself to welcome the hard-work-ing men of the construction battalions andintroduce them to the native Chamorroculture of Guam.

“Going to Seabee Betty’s house wasalways like going home for the holidays,”said CAPT Joe Ludovici, commandingofficer of Public Works Center Guam.“Seabee Betty reminded me of my owngrandmother, very sweet and engaging,but also the firm matriarch of a largeextended family.”

For more than 50 years, Seabee Bettycared for each battalion deployed to

‘My Seabees need attention. I am the Seabeegrandmother on Guam, you know?’

STORY BY JO1 (SCW) MICHAEL D. MITCHELL

AND COLEEN R. SAN NICOLAS-PEREZ

Vicenta Chargualaf Peredo1934-2003

Guam by hosting hundreds of fiestas,attending official functions and planningseveral Chamorro-style weddings overthe decades.

Every service member she met instantlybecame a long-lost member of her familyand was welcomed with a kiss on the cheek,a friendly hug or a kind word.

What most people now call communityservice, Seabee Betty called friends help-ing friends. She worked for decades to bringher “two families” closer together.

For her devotion, she was recognized overthe years by numerous chiefs of navaloperations, U.S. senators, admirals andgenerals, President Ronald Reagan and,more recently, President George W. Bush.In 1991, she was inducted into the SeabeeMuseum at Port Hueneme, Calif., only thesecond civilian to be bestowed this honor.The first was actor John Wayne, who starredin “The Fighting Seabees.”

As each new group of Seabees arrived inGuam, they were welcomed with the sameaffection and enthusiasm as the battalionthat came before. RADM Charles Kubic,Commander, First Naval ConstructionDivision, discovered this truism when heintroduced his son to Seabee Betty.

“When I visited, I took Charlie and [his]photo down to visit Betty — she was abso-lutely thrilled that yet another generationof Seabees was coming of age,” Kubic said.

Seabee Betty wasn’t paid for her manycontributions, but she was compensated bythe recognition of her good deeds, by mili-tary members of all ranks, and that wasenough for her, her daughter said.

Vicenta Chargualaf Peredo was laid torest in the Guam Veterans Cemetery June

20, surrounded by her family, friends andthe Seabees she loved. She is survived bynine children, 40 grandchildren, 38 great-grandchildren and the thousands of Seabeesshe cared for.

Seabee Betty was and remains an institu-tion in the annals of the Seabees and CivilEngineer Corps. The CEC and the Seabeesare soliciting ideas for a Seabee Bettymemorial that will seek to capture andcommemorate her limitless and selfless con-tributions to the welfare of Seabees overmany decades.

To submit your suggestions, and foradditional information about how to makea memorial donation for this worthy cause,contact the Seabee Betty Memorial Fund [email protected]. �

Commemorating a Seabee Legend:Commemorating a Seabee Legend:Commemorating a Seabee Legend:Commemorating a Seabee Legend:Commemorating a Seabee Legend: SEABEE BETTY


For decades, whenever U.S. NavySeabees deployed to the smallSouth Pacific island of Guam, they

knew where to find their home far awayfrom home.

In the village of Yona sits a small, single-level house on a cramped yard owned by awoman named Vicenta Peredo, but that’snot what most Seabees called her. From thehighest-ranking Civil Engineer Corpsofficers to the youngest constructionmenand equipment operators — to all who havedeployed to Guam for 50 years — she wasaffectionately known as “Seabee Betty.”

Seabee Betty hosted get-togethers forSeabees since 1951. Back then, someparticularly heavy storms had damaged hermodest wooden house, especially herkitchen. She worked at the Navy Exchange(NEX) then aboard Naval Station Guamand she knew many of the Seabees whowere on the island. Upon hearing whathappened to the house, Vicenta’s oldestdaughter remarked, “I heard your kitchencaved in. Maybe by tomorrow the Seabeeswill put it up.”

Well, it actually took a little longer thanthat, Seabee Betty said. “Two days later,my kitchen was back up.”

To show her gratitude, Vicenta threw aparty for the Seabees, serving all mannerof native Chamorro cuisine to her Ameri-can benefactors. In return, she earned themoniker she held so dear.

Red Jones, then commanding officer ofthe 30th Naval Construction Regiment,told her, “You may be Vicenta to the rest ofGuam, but you’ll always be ‘Seabee Betty’to the Seabees.”

Since then, Seabee Betty has hostedseveral parties each year for deployedSeabee battalions.

“I love all my military, but my heartgoes for the Seabees more,” she said.

Seabee Betty hosted fiestas coincidingwith the birthday of each of the saints towhom she prayed throughout the year.During these periods of fervent prayer, shealso began cooking all the food for thefiesta party.

“I say my nine days’ novena, and then Icook, and then I invite my Seabees,” shesaid. “I invite my Seabees because they areaway from home. I pray nine days with myfamily, and then after the nine days wehave all this food.”

More than just hosting fiestas, SeabeeBetty offered a place for the Bees to getaway from the camp and the Navy forawhile — and she has even been known tohelp get a Seabee or two out of jail.

“That’s because my Seabees … needattention,” said Seabee Betty, ever thedoting matriarch. “I am the Seabeegrandmother on Guam, you know?”

CDR Michael L. Blount, commandingofficer of Naval Mobile ConstructionBattalion (NMCB) 1, was a lieutenant withNMCB 40 when he first met Seabee Bettyin 1987.

He said that even before arriving inGuam from Gulfport, Miss., he’d heardstories about the legend of Seabee Betty.

“Within the first month, I saw SeabeeBetty on camp,” Blount remembers, “andwithin the first three months, we had ourfirst fiesta at Seabee Betty’s house.”

He quickly found the tales he’d previ-ously heard to be no exaggeration.

“I had to provide the transportation, andI was dumbfounded that one person wasgoing to host the battalion,” Blount said.

Little changed over the years.When NMCB 1 returned to Guam again,

Blount, Executive Officer LCDR MarkJackson, Command Master Chief CUCM(SCW) Danny Duval and ENS JeffreyDupart were invited to her house for “asnack.”

“We arrived and the spread was [amaz-ing],” with enough food for about 50people, Blount recalled.

“I haven’t had the local food before, buteverything you can possibly imagine ishere, [and] it was really good,” said first-time visitor CECN Michael Bavlnka, 23,from Dallas. “It’s just outstanding.Whoever hasn’t shown up, I don’t see whythey wouldn’t want to come out here. It’sjust nice and relaxed. Good people.”

“Her generosity is known throughoutthe Seabees, and I’m glad [I was there],”Blount added.

Seabee Betty had no plans to stop caringfor her Seabees anytime soon.

She once said, “Until God put me sixfeet under, I’ll be continuing.” �

Remembering Seabee BettySTORY BY JO1 (SCW) ANDREW SCHARNHORST

This story was adapted from an originalpiece appearing on the NMCB 1 Web site.


KABUL, Afghanistan — Hanzala ofBadghis, a Dari poet, once wrote, “If leader-ship rests inside the lion’s jaw, so be it. Gosnatch it from his jaws.”

You don’t have to be a Dari poet to viewthe lion’s jaw as a metaphor for the dangerof leadership in Afghanistan.

For a more recent specific example, wehave Seabees aiding the Bureau of DiplomaticSecurity in the challenge of protecting AfghanPresident Hamid Karzai, a responsibilityassumed unflinchingly and with breathtakingswiftness.

There are many worthy stories here involv-ing multiple elements of Diplomatic Security,and major contributions by Information Re-source Management, the Bureau of OverseasBuildings Operations and others. Here is ours.

We were pleased to be part of the KarzaiProtection Mission, providing enhancedphysical and technical security for the Presi-dential Palace here. Everyone knew from theoutset that this task would be a huge under-taking. Multi-level, multi-bureau andmulti-agency working groups were formedto develop a plan. Contracts were awarded,equipment was procured, staged and shipped,

and a team of Security Engineering Officers(SEO), Seabees and physical securityspecialists was formed, trained and launched— all under painfully short deadlines.

Once on the ground, the team of SEODarren Hushour, SEO Luis A. Torres-Torres,Chief Builder (SCW) Miles Cross, Construc-tion Electrician 1st Class (SCW) Chris Beckand Physical Security Specialist Ray Riverafaced the daunting task of getting 90 tons ofcargo unloaded from a Russian Antonovcargo aircraft. Orchestrating Pakistani truckdrivers, Turkish Air Force forklift operatorsand Russian air cargo crew — and gettingthe equipment to the palace compound —became a two-day event. The usual glitchesand miscommunications were overcome,however, as we quickly grew accustomed tooperating in our new environment.

With the equipment in hand, we facedanother challenge in securing sections of a130-acre compound enclosed by 35-foot-tall,400-year-old walls and structures. Picture acrumbling medieval castle compound.

Rebuilt in 1873 after being destroyed bythe British, the Arg (citadel) is a collectionof palaces added to by subsequent Afghan

rulers. Like almost every building inwar-torn Afghanistan, the heavily fortifiedpalace complex bears its scars, with old shellholes in walls and slabs of concrete lying inpiles in its gardens.

As the compound had no reliable sourceof electricity, the first order of business wasto build a power distribution system. Theteam installed four generators, fuel tanks,transfer switches, an uninterruptible powersupply, four load distribution centers and rannearly four miles of power and signal cable.With power newly available, security light-ing was placed strategically throughout thecompound.

Next came the Emergency NotificationSystem. About a dozen closed-circuit tele-

vision (CCTV) cameras were in-stalled to provide the new SecurityControl Center with coverage of thesurroundings. Anticipating the longdistances between the cameras andthe control center, the team was thefirst in the history of the BDS to in-stall such a large-scale wirelessCCTV system — which performedflawlessly, much to our personaldelight and professional relief.

To improve physical security, theteam and local Pakistani laborerected a 12-ft high by 80-ft longwall made from Hesco barriers. A

Hesco barrier is a security device (like a hugesandbag made of wire mesh filled with rocks)that makes it easier to build a substantial wallin less time than one made conventionally.

Three strands of razor-sharp concertinawire adorned the top of the wall for addi-tional intruder protection. In addition, manyhundreds of sandbags were used to fill inwindows and other openings in thecompound structures and walls.

The team adjusted to bunking six personsto a 40-foot Conex shipping container andshuttling between the American Embassyand Afghan Palace compounds in ChevySuburban “Fully Armored Vehicles”(FAVs), plus working from 35-foot laddersand eating new and interesting food.

Almost every day saw President Karzai ashe moved from the residence to his office.He invariably acknowledged us with a waveand a smile in appreciation of our work. Itwas both inspiring and humbling to realizethat the hopes and expectations of theAfghan people were embodied in this cheer-ful personage we helped protect.

President Karzai’s undeniable personalcourage and grace — in the face of constantthreat — meant that to be with him, evenfor six weeks, was truly to be “inside thelion’s jaw.” �

STORY BY LUIS TORRES-TORRES AND CE1 (SCW) CHRIS BECK

The Afghan presidential palace (above and right) hadseen better days by the arrival of the SeabeeTechnical Security Team (top, left to right), with members SEO Luis Torres-Torres, BUC MilesCross, CE2 Chris Beck and SEO Darin Hushour shown with President Karzai (center).

R E P O R T E R ’ S

NOTEBOOK:

Inside the Lion’s Jaw:Seabees Protect the President of Afghanistan

PHOTOGRAPHY BY CE1 (SCW) CHRIS BECK


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Scenes From a Ball 2003This year, the world itself was the stage for the annualcelebration of Seabee, CEC and NAVFAC birthdays

All over the world in 2003, celebrantsgathered to observe the 161st anniversaryof the Naval Facilities EngineeringCommand (NAVFAC), the 136th anniver-sary of the Civil Engineer Corps and the61st birthday of the Seabees.

Hosted by RADM Michael R. Johnson,Chief of Civil Engineers and CommanderNAVFAC, and his wife, Terry Johnson,the headquarters celebration was heldMarch 15 in the Marriott Crystal Gatewayin Crystal City, the node of hotels andoffice complexes only walking distancefrom the Pentagon, in Arlington, Va.

More than 650 attendees includedSeabees, CEC officers and other servicemembers, veterans and retirees from mostof the eastern seaboard.

Special guests included ActingSecretary of the Navy, the Hon. H.T.Johnson, and special guest speaker, theVice Chief of Naval Operations, ADMWilliam J. Fallon.

Capt. William McKerall, Commander,22NCR. The special guest was U.S.Marine Corps Lt. Gen. James Conway,Commander of I MEF.

The active duty and reserve Seabeeswere deployed in the Gulf region toprovide construction support to I MEFengaged in Central Command area ofoperations, including Operation IraqiFreedom.

Kubic reminded the Seabees that theywere celebrating their birthday in muchthe same way Seabees did the first yearthey were formed — in harm’s way —when they provided contingency con-struction support to U.S. Marines duringthe battle of Guadalcanal.

He encouraged the Seabees to continuewith the same valor as their predecessors.

Turning to Lt. Gen. Conway, heremarked, “The Seabees have never leftyou — and we never will.” �

Led by Commanding Officer LCDRDale Uyeda, Construction BattalionMaintenance Unit 202, from NavalSubmarine Base New London on Groton,Conn., hosted its well-attended SeabeeBall at the Mystic Marriott March 1.

The event’s special guest was RDMLMichael C. Tracy, Commander, NavyRegion Northeast and Commander,Submarine Group 2.

Naval Mobile Construction Battalions5, 74 and 133, Naval Mobile ConstructionForce Support Unit 2, the Twenty SecondNaval Construction Regiment and staffmembers of the 1st Marine ExpeditionaryForce (I MEF) Engineer Group (MEG)gathered at Kuwait’s Camp MoreellMarch 1 to mark the three-way birthdays.

The host of the desert event wasRADM Charles R. Kubic, Commander,First Naval Construction Division/NavalConstruction Forces Command andCommander, I MEG. He was joined by

In the US and in the sand, Seabees and CECofficers, active duty and reserve, paused tocelebrate and commemorate the three-wayanniversaries.

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From top down: Seabees in Kuwait host asandy celebration of their anniversary. Atthe NAVFAC event in Crystal City, thetraditional MIA table is set with care. Alsoappearing was the US Marine Band,which brought down the house.


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Seabees say farewellto famed ‘RooseyRoads’ beehive

After 34 years of service to Naval Sta-tion Roosevelt Roads (NSRR), the Seabees who deploy to Camp

Moscrip here said farewell this spring. “It’s sad, really,” said Master Chief

Constructionman Pam Taylor, the assistantofficer in charge of Naval MobileConstruction Battalion (NMCB) 74,Detachment Puerto Rico, the last det ofSeabees to come to NSRR. “This is the endof an era.”

The first Seabee battalions began deploy-ing to NSRR in 1969 and they set up CampMoscrip, which would become a familiarhome away from home for Seabees ondeployment.

In 2001, NMCB 74 was the last battalionto deploy its main body of Seabees to thecamp. Since that time, 74 and NMCB 40have only deployed detachments of fewerthan 100 personnel.

More than 50 percent of 74’s Seabees atNSRR left for locations in Southwest Asiain February and March, while the rest werescheduled to leave in April.

“I think it’s sad to see Camp Moscripclose,” Taylor said, “but mission and task-ing priorities require our presenceelsewhere. With the realignment of ourdeployment schedule from seven monthsdeployed and seven months at home, to sixmonths deployed and 10 months at home,the Naval Construction Force is no longerable to support four main-body sites.

“Although Camp Moscrip will no longerbe home to the Atlantic Alert Battalion, itwill remain alive in the chronicles of Seabeehistory.”

In an ironic twist, Taylor’s husband is aretired Senior Chief Equipment Operatorwho was deployed to Camp Moscrip withNMCB 71 when it first opened in 1969. Hereturned with another battalion 16 yearslater, and more recently, last December ona visit.

“I was one of the first occupants of thoseshiny, brand new Butler Huts and I worked

temporary buildings barely larger than tentsthat served as barracks and an outdoortheater. Later growth of the camp broughtconstruction of permanent barracks andadditional support facilities. When NMCB74 left in 2001, the camp was almost self-sufficient. Units on the camp had their owngym, galley, chapel and mini-mart.

A little more than six months after NMCB74 departed, a detachment returned to closethe camp and bring the bee, which had stoodguard over the camp for 21 years, to its newhome at the First Naval Construction Divi-sion/Naval Construction Forces Commandin Little Creek, Va. With help from contrac-tors, Bees from NMCB 74 lifted thedisplay bee off its pedestal and prepared itfor shipping.

The last remaining Seabees from NMCB74 are scheduled to have left “RooseyRoads” by the time you read this. �

in the quarry behind where the base com-missary now stands,” Tom Taylor said.“Now my wife is one of the last Seabees todeploy there, turning out the lights andtaking down the bee. It brings closure to anera of my life in which Roosevelt Roadsplayed a significant part.

“I was very fortunate to be able to visitthe camp before it closed,” he continued. “Iknow many of the Camp Moscripplankowners had hoped to attend a formaldecommissioning ceremony, but circum-stances dictated otherwise. I suppose forthem, Camp Moscrip will always be here.”

Camp Moscrip was named in honor ofLTJG Arthur D. Moscrip Jr., a Seabee thenwith NMCB 1. He was killed in Da Nang,Vietnam Sept. 13, 1968, during thebattalion’s third deployment there.

In the camp’s early days, there wasn’tmuch in the quality-of-life arena, with only

Seabees from NMCB 74 and contractors from J.A. Jones carefully remove the historicdisplay Seabee from its pedestal in front of Camp Moscrip (top). The metal bee wasoriginally placed there by NMCB 4’s Bravo Company in June 1982. Steelworker 3rdClass (SCW) Daniel Ramirez (above, left) removes the bee’s wings with a cutting torchbefore it can be shipped to its new home at the First Naval Construction Division inLittle Creek, Va. Chief Equipment Operator (SCW) John Tyson (above, right) removesletters from the sign in front of the camp.

STORY AND PHOTOS BY

JO3 LANDON MASON


The Society of American Military Engi-neers (SAME) has selected Builder 1st Class(SCW) Nicholas E. Christilaw, USN, as therecipient of its prestigious 2002 MarvinShields Award.

SAME annually recognizes a Seabee whohas made exceptional contributions tomilitary construction, facilities mainte-nance, training or readiness.

Christilaw distinguished himself whileassigned to Naval Mobile ConstructionBattalion (NMCB) 3 as project supervisorfor the 22nd Naval Construction Regimentin Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, serving as airdet operations chief and the detail OIC.

Assigned to JointTask Force 160,Christilaw aggres-sively led a platoonof Seabees and Ma-rines to construct320 al-Qaeda deten-tion cells at Camp X-Ray, as well as 85Southeast Asia huts

for more than 1000 security force and fleethospital support personnel.

In addition, because of his thoroughknowledge of the mission and polishedcommunication skills, he was hand-se-lected to brief the detainee cell construc-tion in Spanish on CNN Worldwide.

Seizing CPO duties as air det operationschief for the battalion’s two-week fieldexercise at Fort Hunter-Liggett, Calif., hemotivated his detail to complete construc-tion of six complex projects without asingle mishap, despite “black flag” heatconditions.

While deployed to Okinawa, he waspicked to fill the CPO billet as detail OIC,supervising a 16-person crew working onthree remote, high-visibility and techni-cally challenging projects at the junglewarfare training center.

“Petty Officer Christilaw’s professionalachievements and dynamic leadership-by-example style mark him as an invaluableasset to the Seabees and the United StatesNavy,” RADM Michael R. Johnson, CEC, USN,Commander NAVFAC and the Chief of CivilEngineers said in his congratulatorymessage.

“He constantly demonstrates exceptionaltechnical skills, meticulous attention todetail and a motivated ‘Can do!’ attitude.He is most deserving of this prestigiousaward. Well done, Seabee!” �

Dig this: Seabees assist maritimecrew with a mysterious visitor

The normal calm of Naval AmphibiousBase (NAB) Little Creek’s beachline wasinterrupted when Seabees called fromConstruction Battalion Unit (CBU) 423brought a 36-foot Sei whale ashore, founddead by Coast Guard officials floatingnear Craney Island in the Elizabeth River.

Bulldozers were used to dig a grave forthe large mammal in the Little Creekbeach, its final resting place after beingheld at Naval Station Norfolk the nightbefore. They also set the stage formembers of the Virginia Marine ScienceMuseum’s Stranding Team to perform anecropsy to determine the whale’s causeof death.

“We hooked a towline to one of our D-7 bulldozers and essentially dragged thewhale onto the beach,” said ChiefSteelworker (SCW) Scott Hill, AlphaCompany chief for CBU 423. “Theevolution couldn’t have gone anysmoother — it went off without a hitch.”

An examination determined that thewhale died after being struck by the bowof a ship, possibly as long as a week

before it was found. There was no way ofknowing whether the ship was military orcivilian, but it was indeed a large vessel.

“We came to the Navy for help in this,and they definitely came through,” saidSue Barco, who lead the team performingthe necropsy. “This species is usuallyfound in the open ocean. The whale couldhave been carried by the ship into theharbor, then dropped off after the shipslowed. The examination is consistent witha ship strike while the animal was alive.”

The Navy has long been known toassist the civilian and maritime communi-ties in various search, rescue and salvageoperations — but whale carcass removal?

“Not since I’ve been here, but I knowthat NAB has assisted with dolphins andother water mammals who drift into theharbor,” said Hill. “It just goes to showyou that we’re up for just about any taskput before us.”

The whale’s actual time of death andphysical causes will ultimately be deter-mined after several days of tissue andblood analysis. �

Christilaw chosen forSAME’s 2002 Shields


T

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CAMP PATRIOT, Kuwait — As thousands of U.S. NavySailors, Marines and other service people prepared todepart the Central Command area of responsibility, Camp Pa-triot's joint-service shipping stronghold lent a hand loadingConex-style “Bee-tainers” full of returning equipment.

With the extraordinary Navy Elevated Causeway System/Modular (ELCAS/M) in the background (see story on page34), the 'Gator Bees' of Amphibious Construction Battalions1 and 2 provided beach management and loaded an ArmyLanding Craft Utility (LCU) vessel with military supply con-tainers using the Rough-Terrain Cargo Handler, sort of a fork-lift truck on steroids.

Camp Patriot and the ELCAS/M were a key backload pointin the North Arabian Gulf at the completion of primary com-bat operations. Camp Patriot's joint-service team was vitallyimportant in the movement of military supplies required tocomplete combat missions in Iraq. It was home to more than3000 Sailors, Marines, Soliders, Airmen and Coast Guards-men forward deployed since January.

— JO1 Joseph Krypel

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The rifle squad (above) of NMCB 1’sfuneral detail stands at parade rest duringa funeral at Biloxi National Cemetery. EO2(SCW) Levi McIntosh (left, below) salutesthe flag after passing it to BUC (SCW)Brian Coffee for presentation to theveteran’s family.

roops from all the armed forces feel pridein their service to their country, andrightly so. But a group of Seabees fromNaval Mobile Construction Battalion(NMCB) 1 has an additional reason to beproud of their Naval service. TheseSeabees provide military honors fordeceased veterans as members of theNMCB 1 funeral detail.

“We come out and pay our last respectsto servicemen who have passed on, bothactive duty and retired,” said ConstructionMechanic 2nd Class (SCW) Brent Maher.“It’s rewarding, because we get to renderhonors to people who have gone throughthe same things we have.”

A funeral with fullhonors requires a teamof 16 service memberswho perform acarefully orchestratedroutine, beginningbefore the arrival ofthe funeral processionthrough the folding ofthe flag, a 21-gunsalute, the playing oftaps and thepresentation of theflag to the next of kin.

“It feels good to beable to provide thisservice,” saidEquipment Operator2nd Class (SCW) LeviMcIntosh. “This givesus an opportunity tosee why things are theway they are with the21-gun salute and theflag folding. You feelbad for the family, buthaving them come upand thank you

afterwards gives you a good feeling.”“I enjoy it, and at the same time it

makes me proud to be in the service,”added Utilities Constructionman MarkCrubaugh. “I’m providing honors to thosewho have already given service to theircountry.”

The men and women of NMCB 1’sfuneral detail are proud of the servicethey provide, and it shows in theirprofessionalism. Few witness theirefforts, but the return on their timeinvestment makes the job worthwhile.

“It makes me feel good to give a last bitof respect to the servicemen who havepassed on,” said Maher. “The thanks andsmiles we get from the family are reallyrewarding.”

— JOC Daniel Pearson

NMCB 1’s Funeral Detail

Honors ThoseWho Served

“... any man who may be asked in this centurywhat he did to make his life worth while, I think

can respond with a good deal of pride andsatisfaction: ‘I served in the United States Navy.’”

— President John F. KennedyAddress to the United States Naval Academy,

Aug. 1, 1963


b r ie f ly noted

BAGHDAD, Iraq – Symbolizing the impor-tance of American special operations forcesto Operation Iraqi Freedom, DefenseSecretary Donald H. Rumsfeld arrived inBaghdad on an Air Force MC-130 less thana month after the fall of the Iraqi capitalcity.

“When one looks back on this effort, Ithink and pray, indeed, that what would besignificant is that a large number of humanbeings – intelligent and energetic – havebeen liberated, and that they are out fromunder the heel of a truly brutal, viciousregime,” he said in Basra.

In Baghdad, Rumsfeld met with coalitionleaders at the Saddam Hussein’s Abu Gharib

Palace and toured a power plant where Iraqicivilians were working with U.S. militaryengineers to reestablish the electrical,water and sewage systems.

Shown above, Iraqi water treatment facilityinspectors Army Lt. Col. Matt Gapinski, 358thCivil Affairs Team Leader, U.S. Marine Maj.Robert Carr, Civil Affairs Team Leader andSeabee Utilitiesman 1st Class Chyne Greek,with Naval Mobile Construction Battalion 7from Gulfport, Miss. assess damage sustainedby a water treatment facility.

UT1 Greek and his colleagues wereassigned to the 15th Marine ExpeditionaryUnit, working with city government offi-cials to restore order to the city. �

Gulfport Bee Helps Army, MarinesPrep Iraqi Plant for SECDEF Inspection

US AIR FORCE PHOTOS BY SSGT QUINTON T. BURRIS

Here to help EO2 Chris Amescua, fromStevensville, Mont., and EOCS (MDV) JohnGreen, from Alliance, Ohio, both Seabees fromUCT 2, carry an auto accident victim to anambulance near the city of An Aumaniyah,Iraq, April 30. Thewoman’s vehicleoverturned in front ofTask Force Charlie’sSeabee EngineerReconnaissance Teamconvoy, which immediately stopped to aid thewoman and her husband. The two Iraqissuffered only minor injuries. “Americans donice things, they didn’t come to hurt. Thankyou!” said one local ... Punkin Patch LandNav On a sunny fall 2002 weekend, NavalMobile Construction Battalion (NMCB) 4Seabees joined their children, known as“Kiddie SCWSWarriors,” for someland navigation atFaulkner Farms.Amber Baerwald andmom, ConstructionElectrician 1st Class(SCW) Tammy Baerwald (right), finallyreached an agreement on this pumpkin duringtheir visit to the pumpkin patch ... SOY-based Medina Machinist’s Mate 1st Class(SW) Marc Medina, assigned to NSA Naplesand attached to the Public Works Departmentas the LPO in the Seabee Division, was namedthe 2002 Regional Sailor of the Year at aceremony held Feb. 6 in the “Ciao Hall” atCapodichino ... Bee-hiving The worker Beesof NMCB 3 Detail Diego Garcia completed aChapel Entranceproject. The crewfinished demolition ofthe overhead concretecanopy and the existing concrete pad, placedfootings, columns and concrete pad and areinstalling the formwork for the concreteoverhead placement ... Bravo Zulu Only twoweeks after hauling in Sailor of the Year forNaval Station, Rota, Utilitiesman 1st Class(SCW) Joseph Ramos earned the same title forCommander, Naval Activities Spain ... BZ IIThe Naval Construction Forces Commandannounced the selection of active and reservebattalions for Atlantic and Pacific Battle ‘E’awards. Active duty battalion winners wereNMCB 133 for the Atlantic and NMCB 4 forthe Pacific; Reserve winners were NMCB 14 onthe Atlantic side and NMCB 28 for the Pacific.RADM Charles R. Kubic, Commander NCFC,said “With high intensity focus on militaryunit readiness and our global response tocalls for Seabees, the Naval ConstructionForce again performed miraculous construc-tion feats all over the world. I applaud thestrong motivation and outstanding achieve-ments by all Seabees.” �

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AL HILLAH, Iraq — The Seabees of NMCB15 had scarcely completed the playgroundjob at the Al Hillah West Primary Schoolwhen it was effectively overrun byexcited Iraqi school kids. This had been arelatively simple assignment for the battal-ion of Seabee Reserves from Kansas City,Mo., but it meant the entire world to theinnocent children of Al Hillah.

The school, which is a boys’ school in themorning and becomes Al-Azwar PrimarySchool for Girls in the afternoon, sits in theshadow of the ruins of ancient Babylon,whose history extends back to the beginningof recorded time. The location has been hometo several major empires, and the site ofcountless events that have affected the courseof history for most of the western world.

So, after several millennia, NMCB 15 alsobrought a historical first to this region. Theybuilt the children a playground. May 26,CAPT Albert Garcia III ceremonially brokethrough the 10-foot wall around the schoolto create a gate opening onto a brand-newcourtyard — filled with playground equip-ment the Seabees here built from scratch.

LTJG Daniel Niec said, “We just built it.We didn’t have any plans or blueprints, butone of the guys had built something similarfor his kids back home, so we got the mate-rial and put it together.”

Some of the material came from unusualsources. “Some of the pieces we used on theequipment came from a Republican Guardbase not far from here.” Niec said.

Once the wall was breached, the childrenjust poured through. And they did what kidsall over the world do — they swarmed theequipment, and they didn’t always formorderly lines to wait their turn.

“We’ve had to settle some disputes andmake them take turns, just like you would onany playground,” noticed Petty Officer

Dotson, a Seabee Reservist from Des Moines,Iowa. “Kids are kids wherever you go.”

NMCB 15 worked on renovating sixschools in the city. “Every school in Al Hillahwas falling apart,” Niec explained about thedifficulty of the projects. “They had beenlooted right down to the light fixtures, sinksand toilets, and the government had cut themain power line to a couple of the schoolsbecause they hadn’t paid their electric bills.

“We also had to deal with the fact thatsome schools had been used to store muni-tions before the war. That adds a whole newlevel to job-site safety,” he added.

The Seabees did more here than build aplayground. They refurbished the desks,rewired the electricity, installed new lights,ceiling fans and chalkboards. They applieda fresh coat of paint and painted murals onwalls all over the school.

According to Construction Electrician 1stClass Scott Cox, site supervisor for theproject, “We hired local citizens to do mostof the cleanup and the painting, so we couldput money back in to the economy rightaway. These guys worked very hard. This istheir neighborhood. They took a lot of pridein the work they did here.”

And obviously, so did the Missouri Bees.When asked to describe his wartime

contribution, Construction Electrician 2ndClass Daryl Dotson of NMCB 15’s Air De-tachment had a succinct reply.

“When people ask me what I did duringthe war, I can tell them that I made life betterfor these children,” he smiled. �

‘Kids are Kids’‘Kids are Kids’‘Kids are Kids’‘Kids are Kids’‘Kids are Kids’NMCB 15 Builds aPlayground, and Hope,for Iraqi children

STORY BYJO2 FARRUKH DANIEL

PHOTOGRAPHY BYPH1 (SW) ARLO K. ABRAHAMSON

BU3 John Steward (below right) pushes an Iraqi boy on a swing set that is part ofa newly constructed playground (above) designed and built by NMCB 15 Sea-bees. While her mother looks on (below left), a young Iraqi girl receives medicalattention from HM2 Jerry Stinson at the school in Al Hillah.


CAMP CASTLE, Kuwait —It’s rare for a Navy chaplainto ever experience the privi-lege of building a chapel. Thenagain, not too many chaplainshave the privilege of workingwith the Seabees.

I consider myself fortunate:I’m on my first deployment, atmy first duty station, and I’m theCommand Chaplain for NavalMobile Construction Battalion(NMCB) 7. Shortly after I ar-rived at Camp Castle, I was ableto assist my Bees in buildingwhat we have christened theFreedom Chapel.

The 26th chapter of the Bookof Exodus tells of how God dic-tated to Moses the “blueprints”for the first tabernacle ever builtby the Israelites. In 1 Kings,chapters five and six describe invivid detail the building of thetemple. Most chapels erectedduring times of war resemble,out of necessity, that biblicaltabernacle. In other words,

t h e y ’ r etents! However, the

Seabees of NMCB 7 had muchmore ambitious plans. With a true“Can Do!” attitude, they set outto build a structure that any chap-lain would be proud to occupy.

We built a 14-foot by 32-footstructure using 2x4s and ply-wood, topping it off with a whitecorrugated metal roof. Not yourtypical SEA hut, the chapel ismore noticeably distinct owingto its 20x12-foot porch and thegable roof over the front door.

Other noteworthyfeatures includesteel exteriordoors, a droppedceiling, electric-ity and air con-ditioning. In-side are twooffices, com-plete with

built-in desksand shelving, and a large

multi-purpose room.Located in the center of Camp

Castle, the wartime chapelserves many purposes. The bat-talion musters in front of itevery morning for quarters.

During the day, the chapel isconstantly occupied, serving asthe gathering place for Biblestudies and religious services,various meetings and training,as well as functioning as a col-lection point for care-packageitems, free religious materialsand the command library.

I’ll freely admit to swellingwith pride as several chaplainsand Religious Program Sailorsserving the Marine battalions atnearby Camp Fox recently gath-ered for a meeting at theFreedom Chapel. No otherbattalion around has a chapelthat can compare, and our visi-tors were clearly impressed.

Obviously, construction isn’tmy day job, but I was gratefulto swing a hammer, erect trussesand climb the ladders — withthe safety instructions that wentalong with each lesson. It madethe chapel even more special forme to know I had played a smallrole in building it.

But more importantly, thechapel will remain when wedepart — and I gained admira-tion and appreciation for whomy troops are and what they do;for how truly blessed I am to beable to serve such an excep-tional group of Seabees. �

NMCB 7 Raisesthe ‘Freedom Chapel’

The ‘Do Crew II: BU2 Marc Willett, LakeCharles, La.; BUCA Christopher Woods,

Jacksonville, Fla.; BU3 Raymond Rankins,Chicago, Ill.; SW1 Paul Donnigan, Sherman

Oaks, Calif.; LTJG Trent Jessup, Mt. Airy,N.C.; BU3 Jennifer Waltz, Randolph Center,

Vt.; and BU1 Ronaldo Reyes, Parma Heights,Ohio stand proudly in front of the completed

Camp Castle Chapel. Catholic and Protestantreligious services, Bible studies and more are

held here regularly.

STORY BY CHAPLAIN LTJG TRENT JESSUPPHOTOGRAPHY BY ENS MATT BARNES

NAVAL BASE VENTURA COUNTY, Calif. — Seabees of Naval Mobile Construction Battalion (NMCB) 40 — the "Fighting Forty" — conductthe 1.5-mile run portion of the Navy Physical Fitness Assessment Test. NMCB 40 is homebased at Naval Base Ventura County andcurrently deployed to Okinawa. US Navy photo by “Fighting Forty” PHAN Lamel J. Hinton.

Starting out strong ...


PELELIU ISLAND – BU1 Scott Heubler, from Naval Mobile Construction Battalion 74 Civil Action Team CAT 74-01, showsrespect at the Bloody Nose Ridge US Marine Corps Memorial. The Seabee battalion was on its regularly scheduled six-month deployment to the Republic of Palau.

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AD DIWANIYA, Iraq – Safe school build-ings, conducive to learning, are needed toeducate the young in any location; and ajudicial building and a police station thatenable the police to keep the peace are allpublic services many Americans take forgranted. Here in Iraq, the Seabees are jump-starting such important rebuilding projects.

Strong communities are the key for anation’s stability and Naval Mobile Con-struction Battalion (NMCB) 4 is providing

valuable assistance in rebuilding the infra-structure, one community at a time.

One Seabee crew that provides internaland external support for the rebuildingeffort is the Pre-Fabrication yard, or “Pre-Fab” for short.

“Safety, quality and production have beengreat,” said Builder 1st Class ClovesTennis of Kiowa, Kan., crew supervisor.“This crew is good! They require littlesupervision and come to work knowing what

they have to do,ready to work.”

The NMCB 4Seabees havebuilt more than600 pieces offurniture here,ranging fromdesks and tablesfor area schoolsto shave tables,showers andbenches for Ma-rines in the area.

Area schoolsd e s p e r a t e l yneeded the Pre-Fab yard’s sturdy — SWC Bryan Bliss

Desk set: NMCB 4 Bees Hammer Together Order in Iraqdesks and chairs. However, before furniturecould be moved in, a good cleaning of theschools was required — and it went farbeyond a little Windex and some sweeping.

Marines and Seabees combined efforts torecreate a positive environment for learning.Windows and electric ceilings fans wereinstalled, along with much needed electricalrepairs.

Now the schools are cleaned up, furnitureis replaced and the building is ready forclasses to start. The historic initial step inrebuilding a community is nearly complete.

Interestingly, none of the damage doneto the schools was a result of the war, butfrom looting that occurred during and afterthe war. Vandalism remains a problem.

Steelworker 1st Class Terry McCune ofTucson, Ariz., one of the project supervi-sors, said, “Vandalism is a big concern. Myguys have done a lot of work here and wewould hate to see anything happen to thework they have proudly put in place.”

NMCB 4 Seabees are fully committed toassisting Ad Diwaniya and the Iraqi peoplere-build their community. New school desksmay indeed be the foundation bricks inIraq’s future.

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As coalition forcespushed forward on mission-oriented tasks in the broadCentral Command area ofoperations in support ofOperation Iraqi Freedom,Seabee and Navy CivilEngineer Corps engineersservicing the 250-mile-longsupply line had to use speedand ingenuity.

To devise a crossing ofthe swiftly flowing Saddamirrigation canal in southernIraq’s Tigris-EuphratesValley, RADM Charles R.Kubic turned for expert

Return of the

Seabee Jedi, Part Ihelp to a coterie of engi-neers he fondly calls his“Seabee Jedi.”

See the extended story onpage 52 in this issue.

April 1, a day before ele-ments of the 1st MarineDivision crossed the Tigristo close within 18 miles ofBaghdad, RADM Kubicincluded the bridge site ona whirlwind inspection ofMarine Engineer Groupprojects and staging areasalong the main supplyroutes he commanded.

Below, members of Naval

Mobile Construction Bat-talion (NMCB) 74 quicklyand safely work all day andall night to complete amedium girder Mabey-Johnson bridge for a mainsupply road in central Iraq.

NMCBs 74, 21, 4, 133,Support Unit 2 and Under-water Construction Team 2worked bridge projects. OIFis the multi-national coali-tion effort to liberate theIraqi people, eliminateIraq’s weapons of mass de-struction and end the regimeof Saddam Hussein. �


NMCB 40 Fighter WowsCrowd in Olympic ThrillaSteelworker 1st Class (SCW/SW) KeithSpencer (left) of Newark, N.J., a memberof NMCB 40’s Charlie Company, repre-sented the Navy as a heavyweight divisionchampionship contender in the NationalBoxing Tournament held at the OlympicTraining Center.

Although Spencer outweighed and out-reached his worthy opponent, the USArmy’s Carlos Ibrerra, the judges declaredIbrerra the winner on points in a fourth-round decision. �

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NAVFAC ANNOUNCED a Seabee Combat Warfare (SCW) personnel qualificationreview. The goal was to update enlisted Personnel Qualification Standards (PQS)

and recommend revisions to the Seabee Combat Handbook and other SCW-related train-ing materials.

The PQS, Seabee Combat Handbook and Construction Battle Skills Guides neededrevision to reflect current operating practices and to align standards with the rest of theNavy. These publications were identified as requiring updates:

• NAVEDTRA 43904 common core PQS Sept. 1998• NMCB PQS Sept. 1998• PHIBCB PQS Sept. 1998• UCT PQS Sept. 1998• NCFSU PQS Sept. 1998• CBMU PQS Sept. 1998• Construction Battle Skills Guide p-1160, Book 1 (Aug. 2001)• Construction Battle Skills Guide p-1161, Book 2 (Aug. 2001)• Construction Battle Skills Guide p-1162, Book 3 (Aug. 2001)• NAVEDTRA 14234 Seabee Combat Handbook, Vol. I 1993• NAVEDTRA 14235 Seabee Combat Handbook, Vol. II 1996

To facilitate support and input from as many construction units as possible, reviewswere conducted March 3-7 at CECOS in Port Hueneme and April 21-25 in Gulfport. �

Seabee Combat Warfare Program Updated

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Sir Felix de Weldon, who sculpted the SeabeeMemorial located on the inbound side of theMemorial Drive entrance road into Arling-ton National Cemetery, died June 2 of con-gestive heart failure at a nursing home inWoodstock, Va. He was 96.

De Weldon reportedly created more than2000 monuments all over the world since1924, when he won a national sculptorcontest in his native Austria at age 17. Helater came to the US and served in the Ma-rines Corps and in the Navy in World War II.

His sculpture of Marines raising the flagon Iwo Jima is a well-recognized Washing-ton sentinel and one of the world’sbest-known memorials to valor. Inspired bya Pulitzer Prize-winning photograph byAssociated Press photographer JosephRosenthal, de Weldon’s Marine Corps WarMemorial took hundreds of assistants, andmore than nine years, to complete. �

Seabee Memorial SculptorDe Weldon Dies at 96

CBCPH Becomes NFELCOPNAV Notice 5450 of May 20, 2003,was a small document that marked a bigchange in the Seabee continuum. Hence-forth, the command CBCPH will becalled the Naval Facilities ExpeditionaryLogistics Center (NFELC). The postaladdress is unchanged.

The name change was implemented tobetter reflect the value proposition and themission of the command today. CBCPHalso doesn’t identify the business line andmarketspace that fits the functionsperformed by the command.

Renaming will better align the image ofthe command with its mission — andprovide a name that tells people thecommand is all about expeditionaryforces and their logistics needs.

Effective June 1, NFELC will be anEchelon 3 command reporting toNAVFAC, responsible to generate, fulfilland sustain the warfighting platform forthe Naval Construction Force and othernaval expeditionary forces. �


Bronze Star Awarded toLCDR Byron M. Hudson

MCB CAMP LEJEUNE, N.C. —LCDR Byron M. Hudson, AlphaCompany Commander for NavalMobile Construction Battalion (NMCB)14, was awarded the Bronze Star Medalby RADM James McGarrah, DeputyCommander, First Naval ConstructionDivision, during a field award ceremonyhere April 2.

Executive Order 9419, signed Feb. 4,1944 by President Franklin D.Roosevelt, established the Bronze StarMedal “with accompanying ribbons andappurtenances, for award to any personwho, while serving in any capacity inor with the Army, Navy, Marine Corps,or Coast Guard of the United States onor after Dec. 7, 1941, distinguishes, ordistinguished, himself by heroic ormeritorious achievement or service, notinvolving participation in aerial flight,in connection with military or navaloperations against anenemy of the UnitedStates.”

During OperationEnduring Freedom,from Dec. 26, 2001, toAug. 5, 2002, Hudson’smeritorious service directlyimpacted the success of combatoperations in the tactical area ofresponsibility. While assignedas the Coalition Forces LandComponent Command’s (CFLCC)airfield construction officer, he wasresponsible for assessments of fiveforward operating bases in Afghanistan,Pakistan and Uzbekistan.

As CFLCC’s recognized expert onairfield construction and maintenance,he personally crafted successful repair

courses of action andbriefed senior leadershipregarding the maint-enance and repair ofmission critical airfields atKandahar and Bagram,Afghanistan.

His efforts in identifying needed forwardoperating base perimeter defensiveimprovements resulted in the identificationof vulnerabilities, which were addresseddirectly by the Commander of the Task ForceRakkasan, 101st Airborne Division,Kandahar. This effort greatly improved thedefensive posture of this forward operatingbase.

On his own initiative, he followed up onthe vulnerability team assessment bydeveloping a $1.4 million militaryconstruction program for securityimprovements at a classified airfield location

in the CENTCOM AOR. This effort is nowscheduled for funding and execution.

During February 2002, Hudson led ajoint CFLCC/US Army Corps ofEngineers mission to assess and developrepairs to the Pasni Air Base, Pasni,Pakistan. This high-visibility project

required him to assess damage caused byUS aircraft, develop a complete repair

scheme and brief six flag officers,including those from the Pakistani

Air Force.During April 2002, Hudson was

instrumental in assisting coalitionpartners in developing defenses of Khowst

Airfield. His insight and recommendationsresulted in a reorganization of the perimeter.

When conventional repair methods failedat Bagram Airfield in July 2002, Hudsonresearched, selected and pressed for aninnovative repair solution, using a proprietary

product and troop labor. Expeditiousrepairs, completed in a previouslyunheard of timeframe of days versusweeks, allowed continued flights of AirForce A-10 Warthog attack aircraft andother fixed-wing close air support.

Without Hudson’s expertise, tenacityand skill, COMCFLCC and CJTF-180would have had to shut down airfieldoperations. This accomplishment hada singular significant impact oncontinued conduct of combatoperations and close air support.

CAPT(s) John Prien, CEC, USNR,commanding officer of NMCB 14 said,“The men and women of NMCB 14 arevery proud of LCDR Hudson and whathe accomplished while mobilized insupport of Operation EnduringFreedom.

“All of his accomplishments weremade under harsh conditions in areaswhere the threat of attack, unexplodedordinance and mines were a constantfactor in the conduct of operations.These successful efforts are a testamentto his professional dedication andattention to duty. He is a credit to theCivil Engineer Corps, the Navy Seabeesand to NMCB 14.” �

RADM McGarrah presents theBronze Star to LCDR Hudson.

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In the secret opening days of the war, Seabees from NMCB 74 were

STORY BY JO1 STAN TRAVIOLI AND JO2 (AW) TRACI FEIBEL

BEGINNING IN THE EARLY DAYSof October 2002, the Seabees of NavalMobile Construction Battalion (NMCB)74 arrived in Kuwait to undergo a 90-dayconcrete placing project. Working non-stop, the Seabees constructed a 12-inchthick aircraft parking apron nearly 20acres in size — the largest Seabee con-crete placing project since World War II.

What was once an open stretch of sandacross a portion of a jointly owned U.S.and Kuwaiti Air Force base became a

critical parking apron for fighter jets trav-eling between the sea and the war scene.

“We worked literally around the clockfor 84 days,” said NMCB 74 Command-ing Officer CDR Cliff Maurer. “In the first60 days, the only day the troops had thewhole day off was Christmas Day. OurChristmas holiday lasted just 18 hours,similar to a typical workday for Seabeeson deployment, although this particularjob site was running 24 hours a day, sevendays a week.”

PHOTOGRAPHY BY PH1 BRIEN AHO

WEAPONS OFMASS CONSTRUCTION


The Seabee crews had to move nearly oneand a half million cubic feet of earth. Someportions of the concrete pad had to be raisedmore than six feet to make it level, but theearth leveling work had to be done six inchesat a time.

In a laborious process, the Bees placed fillmaterial, rolled it flat, checked it for theproper compaction and then moved on toplace another six inches.

“We collapsed the local market’s fillmaterial,” said Chief Builder (SCW) WayneJensen, one of the site foremen.

The local concrete makers couldn’t keepup with the Seabees, either. The four localcompanies hired would bring as muchproduct as they could each day, but it wasnever enough. “We poured as much as theysupplied,” said Jensen.

“At one point, we actually had some downtime because they just couldn’t bring us thematerial as fast as we could place it,” ChiefBuilder (SCW) Ray Roberts echoed.

Working nonstop through dust storms,rainstorms and extreme desert winter with

bone-chilling temperatures, NMCB 74completed the largest single-battalion con-struction project executed in the last 30 years.

Exceeding a battalion’s normal tasking fora full six-month deployment, the project wascompleted in true Seabee fashion — usingonly a third of a normal-sized battalion, andin half the time.

Opening the pad to Marine Corpsattack jets, a ribbon-cutting ceremony washeld and attended by RADM Charles R.Kubic, Commander of the First Naval Con-struction Division and the 1st MarineExpeditionary Force (I MEF) EngineerGroup (MEG), accompanied by numerousKuwaiti dignitaries.

“That made it all worthwhile when the firstF/A-18 ‘Hornet’ pulled onto the pad,”beamed Jensen.

Essential aircraft now have a place in avital location to touch down and rest duringtheater flight ops. The project proved againthat Seabees continue to follow theirtradition: building something from nothing,with heart and sweat, anyplace on earth. �

S T O R Y & P H O T O G R A P H S

The

MODULARSolution

The Seabees’sophisticated newElevated Causeway

System/Modularprovided a

big helping handto a big job in

OPERATION IRAQI FREEDOM

BY JO1 JOSEPH KRYPELBY JO1 JOSEPH KRYPELBY JO1 JOSEPH KRYPELBY JO1 JOSEPH KRYPELBY JO1 JOSEPH KRYPEL

ELCASELCAS

CAMP PATRIOT, Kuwait — In the minds of

many here, the real “shock and awe” that will be most

remembered from Operation Iraqi Freedom won’t be

from any air campaign or the huge televised explosions

causing destruction to enemy troops and secret military

headquarters. Instead, the sharpest memories will be of

the awesome offload and backload of thousands of

Marines and the tons of fighting equipment and ammo

meant to supply all American military services. >>>>>>>>>>


CAMP PACAMP PACAMP PACAMP PACAMP PATRIOT SEABEES SAID TRIOT SEABEES SAID TRIOT SEABEES SAID TRIOT SEABEES SAID TRIOT SEABEES SAID ‘CAN DO!’‘CAN DO!’‘CAN DO!’‘CAN DO!’‘CAN DO!’ WHEN CALLED ON T WHEN CALLED ON T WHEN CALLED ON T WHEN CALLED ON T WHEN CALLED ON TTHEIR REACH ACRTHEIR REACH ACRTHEIR REACH ACRTHEIR REACH ACRTHEIR REACH ACR

In what is being called the largest amphibi-ous operation in the history of the UnitedStates, Camp Patriot, a “purple suit” joint-service, multinational base camp constructedin Kuwait by amphibious Seabees, was a keycontributor to bringing the fight to Iraq —and then it will help bring our people andequipment out again.

The methods and means of moving troopsand supplies in a war zone are varied, but oneof the primary tools built and used for themammoth effort is the Navy’s innovativeElevated Causeway System–Modular, orELCAS(M), which is owned and operated byAmphibious Construction Battalion (ACB) 2,homeported in Little Creek, Va.

The ELCAS(M) is an extraordinary blend ofingenuity and engineering, designed to supportlarge cargo offloads in areas where no pierfacilities exist or, as in the case of CampPatriot, where facilities or scheduling of move-ment need to be enhanced with additionalresources. It’s an expeditionary pier that bridgesthe surf zone, providing a crossing point be-tween lighterage, cargo vessels and the beach.

Used previously only in exercises, the“portable pier” is in a war operation for the firsttime, supporting combined-service JointLogistics Over The Shore (JLOTS) operations.

“This is pretty monumental,” explainedLCDR Timothy Cowan, operations officer ofACB 2. “This is the first time that the systemhas been put into use for a wartime operation,and as importantly, it was the effort of all thePhibCBs that made it a reality.”

Cowan explained that while the ELCAS(M)is an asset of ACB 2, it was constructed in ajoint effort with ACB 1, homeported inCoronado, Calif.

“We have trained together for years, andwhile we may own it, this was a Seabee project— not an East or West Coast project,”Cowan said.

The Navy has only these two hard-workingSeabee outfits responsible for amphibiousconstruction, one on each coast of the US —and both were at Camp Patriot, Kuwait.

ELCAS(M) construction began April 1 andthe 1400-foot pier was completed April 18.Among busy beaches and across limited realestate, crews of 48 Seabees per shift were hin-dered by equipment and weather delays, yetthe “Combined Can Do! Gator Bee Team” stillmanaged to complete its work three days aheadof schedule.

The ELCAS(M) is capable of a 3000-footpier length and has a roadway spanning 24 feet.It features two 175-ton cranes, two tractor-

Master Chief ConstructionUtilitiesman David Daniels, 41, aSeabee Master Diver from CampSprings, Md., surfaces from adive with his Kuwaiti counter-parts during a joint debris-clearing operation conducted atCamp Patriot. Daniels and themembers of UnderwaterConstruction Team (UCT) 1,homeported in Little Creek, Va.,worked side-by-side with theirKuwaiti hosts on a daily basis toreshore piers and clear underwa-ter debris that formerly heldbeaches hostage to tidalschedules. By removing thedebris, the coalition diveoperation led by UCT 1 ensuredthe safety of watercraft engagedin amphibious and offloadoperations. Camp Patriot washome to nearly 3000 active dutyand reserve Sailors, Soldiers,Marines, Airmen and CoastGuardsmen forward deployed insupport of Operation IraqiFreedom.

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trailer turntables and lighting for 24-houroperational capabilities.

Structural support is provided by 24-inchsteel piles that come in 30-foot-long pieces.The piles are welded together, then driven intothe ocean floor until they reach a sufficientdepth to support the load-bearing capacity.

According to Chief Steelworker CharlesBailey, the project’s leading chief petty officer,the soil survey at the ELCAS(M) site disclosedthe ground was very yielding.

“Because the soil was so soft, we had to usemuch longer lengths of pile than we’reroutinely used to,” explained Bailey. “All thepiles used were more than 76 feet long, andsome used were as long 95 feet.”

The pier can accommodate three-wide andfive-wide barge ferries, as well as Army andNavy Landing Craft Mechanized (LCM 8)vessels, Landing Craft Utility (LCU) vesselsand Logistics Support Vessels (LSV).

The causeway roadway and pierhead arecapable of handling heavy-hauling trucktraffic in both directions at once. Cargothroughput is managed on both sides of theexpeditionary pier.

According to Chief Equipment OperatorRicardo Hernandez, one of two safety officersassigned to the project, preparation and

construction of the unique ELCAS(M) werecompleted incident free.

“The site itself had to be inherently safe,”commented Hernandez, an ACB 1 crew mem-ber. “Everyone had to know the job, the safetyaspects and what precautions were necessaryto achieve this tasking safely. Everyone workedtogether to ensure that adequate safety precau-tions were continuously taken. We’re proud ofeveryone’s ‘safe-thinking’ work ethic.”

Even prior to the pier’s completion, busyNavy barge ferry operations had moved morethan 1500 containers in-stream, while CampPatriot personnel offloaded more than 15,000containers and pallets that were pushed for-ward to the fight.

It was expected that thousands more contain-ers containing military supplies and equipmentwould transit the ELCAS(M), while the‘single-service’ team — without regarding forthe military branch identification tape on auniform —continuously provided the supportto bring Operation Iraqi Freedom to its even-tual end. Partnered with the PhibCBs werenearly 2500 active duty and reserve Sailors,Soldiers, Marines, Airmen and Coast Guards-men. Providing the leadership as well as themeans to expedite the process are the hard-charging “ACBees” of the US Navy. �

Seabees assigned to ACBs 1 and2 smoothed the beaches for

future operations in preparationfor the completion of Camp

Patriot and the ElevatedCauseway System–Modular.

ELCAS(M) is an innovativeexpeditionary pier facility for use

where port facilities are dam-aged or nonexistent, or where

surf conditions preclude directdischarge of cargo and equip-

ment ashore. ELCAS(M)provided the capability to offloadcontainers from beyond the surf

zone to the shore via wheeledvehicles on the elevated roadway

structure. The Seabees weredeployed in support of OperationIraqi Freedom, the multi-national

coalition effort to liberate theIraqi people, eliminate Iraq’s

weapons of mass destructionand end the repressive, dictatori-

al regime of Saddam Hussein.

>>

TO O TO O TO MAKE MAKE MAKE MAKE MAKE A FOOTHOLD IN THE SAND — AND A FOOTHOLD IN THE SAND — AND A FOOTHOLD IN THE SAND — AND A FOOTHOLD IN THE SAND — AND A FOOTHOLD IN THE SAND — AND THEY THEY THEY THEY THEY EXTENDEDEXTENDEDEXTENDEDEXTENDEDEXTENDEDROSS THE BEACH.ROSS THE BEACH.ROSS THE BEACH.ROSS THE BEACH.ROSS THE BEACH.


The Nutsand Boltsof ELCAS/M

The remarkable ELCAS(M) is asystem of temporary pierheadand roadway made fromconnected, P40-series steelpontoons, elevated on pilesextending seaward across thesurf zone up to 3000 ft fromthe beach. The eventual systeminstallation length is deter-mined by the requirement toreach a maximum water depthat the pierhead of 20 ft [MeanHigh Water (MHW)].

The underside of the pierheadand roadway structure is in-

stalled a minimum of 15 ftabove the Mean Low Water(MLW) level, based on a maxi-mum tidal range of 8 ft. Theprimary function of the systemis to provide for throughput ofcontainerized cargo offloadedfrom lighterage at the pierhead,which is carried by trucks to thebeach.

The entire system is made upof the ELCAS(M) facility, themarshalling yard system and thebarge ferry system. TheELCAS(M) facility is defined as

an elevated modular pontoonstructure (or pier) that beginswith a beach ramp, transitionsto a variable length roadway,and extends to the seawardpoint of the pierhead. Itincludes the Pier System, aLighting System, Safety, Navi-gation and Cargo HandlingSystems.

The 24-ft-wide beach rampportion of the ELCAS(M) piersystem provides a transitionfrom the elevated roadway tothe beach, accommodating allnecessary military vehicles. Thevariable length roadway is also24 ft wide and is capable of sup-porting two-way truck traffic.The length of the roadway fromthe beach ramp to the pierheadcan be varied up to a total of67 pontoon sections (2,680 ft)to accommodate varying beachgradients to satisfy the lighter-age water depth requirement.

The system is normally in-stalled, operated and retrievedby an Amphibious Construction

Battalion (PhibCB). Standardassets required for the PhibCBto install the ELCAS(M) includeside-loadable warping tugs(SLWT) or powered causewaysections (CSP), required forbarge ferry propulsion.System Mission

The mission of the ELCAS(M)system is to provide logisticsupport to the Marine Corps andJoint Expeditionary Forces.Where port facilities have beendamaged or are nonexistent, orwhere surf conditions, beachgradient or other hydrographicconditions preclude direct dis-charge of cargo and equipmentashore, the ELCAS(M) providesthe capability to off-load con-tainers from lighters beyond thesurf zone and quickly move thecargo ashore via wheeled ve-hicles on the elevated roadway.

The majority of ELCAS(M)components have been de-signed to be either Interna-tional Standardization Organi-zation (ISO) compatible or arecapable of being stored andtransported in ISO containers.Once installed, the system is de-signed to be disassembled,repacked, and back-loadedaboard a T-ACS vessel or com-mercial containership.Operational Requirements

The ELCAS(M) assists MarineCorps and Joint Service Expedi-tionary Force logistic supportrequirements, specificallythrough Joint Logistics Over theShore (JLOTS), Logistics Overthe Shore (LOTS), or Amphibi-ous Assault Follow-on Echelon(AFOE) operations, by providinga suitable port facility for thetransfer of containerized cargofrom displacement-type light-ers.

To satisfy the requirementsfor timely delivery of resupplyand sustainment of supplies,


the complete 3000-ft ELCAS(M)facility must be installed within168 hours — only seven days.

For a satisfactory missioncompletion, the installationtime constraint requires tightscheduling and parallel opera-tions. Therefore, as equipmenton the first barge ferries beginarriving at the beach, themajor installation events havealready begun in parallel.

For example, off-load opera-tions, such as ship-to-shoretransportation and unloadingpontoon barge ferries, continuewhile receipt and stowage ofhardware, beach end and road-way erection, and installationof operating systems are inprocess.

The ELCAS(M) has been de-signed to interface with NavyLightered (NL) causeway bargeferries, Navy Mechanized Land-ing Craft (LCM-8), UtilityLanding Craft (LCU, 136.25 ftoverall length), Lighter AboardShip (LASH) barges and Seabeebarge lighterage. The ELCAS(M)cargo handling system iscapable of transferring fullyloaded 40-ft ISO cargo contain-ers (maximum weight of 67,200lb) from the above lighterage.

The ELCAS(M) facility cargohandling system is required toprovide a cargo throughput rateof 370 20-ft container equiva-lents (TEU) per day in modestSea State 1 weather conditions.

As weather conditions de-grade, the ELCAS(M) facilitymust remain capable of a cargothroughput of 330 TEU per dayin rougher Sea State 2 and 200TEU per day in Sea State 3.

In order to adequately sup-port these throughput rates, thefacility provides a pierheadarrangement outfitted with twocargo cranes and two vehicleturntable assemblies to allow

Using an ingenious system of interlocking segments not unlike the toyLegoTM blocks many played with as children, the ELCAS/M can beextended up to 3000 ft into the surf, far enough to reach cargo shipsunder all foreseen circumstances. The key to “throughput,” or volume ofcargo reaching the beach, is the turntable at the pierhead. An 18-wheelflatbed, for example, can drive head-in, be loaded to the gunwales withessential cargo, and the turntable rotates the package 180 degrees tofacilitate a straight-off departure. The ELCAS/M system is key to effec-tive JLOTS by providing a suitable port facility for the transfer of con-tainerized cargo from displacement-type lighters.

for cargo handling on bothsides.Lighting

Two mobile floodlight trail-ers provide temporary or mobilelighting for marshalling yardnighttime operations prior tothe installation of permanentlighting.

Following the installation ofpermanent lighting, and as nec-essary, these mobile lightingunits are used to provide night-time lighting to the barge ferryaccess area, the empty con-tainer stowage area and anyother areas of the operatingtheater having insufficientlighting.

The floodlight trailer is a self-contained, diesel engine-driven,portable generator set equippedwith four 1000-watt floodlightfixtures mounted on a versatiletelescoping tower.

The permanent or fixedmarshalling yard lighting is partof the ELCAS(M) general light-ing system. Six lightingstandards, each supportingthree 1000-watt lamps and theirballast, are provided for themarshalling yard permanent orfixed lighting.

The light standards are 36 fthigh and are mounted in emptypile bins. For installation intoan empty pile bin, a mountingbracket that clamps around abottom cross-beam of the pilebin is provided for each mar-shalling yard light pole.

Advantages of the ELCAS(M)facility over previous or com-parable systems include initia-tion of construction from thebeach vice the sea, in additionto important ISO compatibilityof all components (exclusive ofsupport vehicles) using thecontainerization methods, andextensive interchangeability ofthe pontoons. �


The Desert Bees: NMCB 74 – The ‘Do Crew


Left to right, top to bottom: UT3 Brian Campbell, BUCN Jason Bailey, BUCN Manual Colon, BUCN Eddie Rodriguez, BU2 Jeremy Grey, SWCN Michael Snider,BUCN Stormi Young, BU2 Nick Neeley, BUCN Bobby Williams, UTCN Brandon Belew. Brothers – and sister – in arms, somewhere in time, somewhere in sand.

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CONSTRUCTING

CAMPPATRIOT

SEABEE WORK TO E

A one-time quiet little spot in Kuwait was transformedinto a key naval base for the prosecution of the war.

US NAVY PHOTO BY PH3 AARON PINEDA

SCENES: SANDBAGS FOR FORCE PROTECTION; THE NIGHT GALLEY; GREET

CAMP PATRIOT, Kuwait – Withremarkable speed and dedica-tion to task, the $18 millionJoint Kuwait Naval Base (KNB)Enhancement Project andCamp Patriot build-out werecompleted in less than fivemonths.

US Navy projects focused oncontingency operations insupport of Operation IraqiFreedom (OIF) the creation ofCamp Patriot, and upgrade ofbase infrastructure to supportongoing operations for theNavy’s special warfare unitsworking out of KNB. Armyprojects were focused onestablishing Joint Logistics

Over The Shore (JLOTS)capability at KNB and creatinga more permanent presencein support of watercraftpre-positioning directives.The one-time quiet little basewas transformed into a keynaval base for the prosecutionof OIF.

The KNB EnhancementsProject was a joint servicesdevelopment. The Navyremoved landside and seasideobstacles, built staging areas,a ramp for Landing Craft AirCushion (LCAC), wash rack,and a new helicopter pad tosupport OIF and futureoperations. Army projects

included a 10,000-sq ft officeand parts storage building,35,000-sq ft covered storagebuilding for housing causewaysections, telephone/fiber-optic communications, forceprotection, as well as renova-tions to the Port OperationsCenter and Pier Security Towerat KNB.

In addition, Camp Patriotprojects included a gray-waterremoval system, fresh-waterconveyance system and anupgrade to base force protec-tion with security towers andentry control points tosupport a maximum popula-tion of 4500. Included werepower generation and airconditioning projects for thecamp that provided sixmegawatts of power for thebase camp and air condition-ing load. The AC provides2500 tons of cooling and wascompleted just in time for theonset of Kuwait heat. A totalof 27 projects at KNB made itthe premier base in Kuwait.

Key to the approval processwas a commitment by theNavy and Army to provide on-site construction managementand quality assurancethroughout the duration ofthe work. An early decision bythe Navy and Army to utilizethe NAVCENT Force CivilEngineer and ROICC offices as

a clearinghouse for allconstruction served tomaximize the use of availablesubcontractors and limitedconstruction materials withinKuwait.

One of the notable projectswas removal of obstacles onthe North Beach at KNB. Thisincluded the removal of 32concrete blocks of about 62

US NAVY PHOTO BY PH1 ARLO K. ABRAHAMSON


US NAVY PHOTO BY JO1 JOSEPH KRYPEL

tons each and the removal ofan old pier abutment and foursunken barges. Work wascompleted by Jan. 1, 2003, intime for the first offload ofequipment and personnel fromthe amphibious task forces.

Another project was thecompletion of 12,000 squaremeters of asphalt for theammunition staging area near

the South Beach. This projectwas completed in less than 30days to support the offloadand onward movement of USMarine Corps ammunitionduring the first week ofJanuary 2003.

Projects working simulta-neously with the constructionof staging areas and the LCACramp included renovations to

the Port Operations Center andSecurity Tower. The stand-upof the Combined JointLogistics Command Center(CJLCC) to direct ship move-ments and offload throughKNB was critical to the safeand successful offloads.

Managed by LT Jay Bieszkeof Amphibious ConstructionBattalion (ACB) 1, theconstruction of Camp Patriotwas also underway to supporta projected 4500 personnel.NAVCENT engineers aided ACB1 in the ordering and expedit-ing of the delivery of materi-als for strongback tentproduction and other forceprotection construction.

Seabees from ACB 1, ACB 2,and Construction BattalionMaintenance Unit 303 con-structed 267 strongback tents,expeditionary camp facilities,and all life support needed forthe Navy, Marine, Army, CoastGuard and coalition tenants.

To ensure efficiency andoperational effectiveness,projects were prioritized to sothat Navy and Army opera-tional commitments were metwhile optimizing the produc-tivity of subcontractors doingrenovations, demolition andplacement of concrete andasphalt.

During the build-up to OIF,many projects had to be re-prioritized to meet the needs

of Marines, Navy, Army andcoalition forces coming ashoreat KNB.

The NAVCENT constructionmanagement staff was madeup of LCDR John W. Johnson;LT Steve Stasick, ROICCBahrain; LT David Wilhite,field engineer; and TerryQuinn, ROICC Quality Assur-ance. Construction design andonsite management oversightwere keys to delivering thecustomers’ requirements,quality construction andmeeting operational deadlinesfor use of the projects.

Close coordination wascritical between CAPT DonaldCook, Naval Beach Group 1,the KNB bed-down manager;CAPT Vinny Racanelli, ACB 1commanding officer; theArmy’s 143rd TransportationCommand (TRANSCOM) and theconstruction managementstaff.

Army Lt. Col. Greg Maida of143rd TRANSCOM provided keycustomer acceptance stan-dards for the enhancements atKNB and provided a daily keyinterface with the KuwaitNavy.

Lt. Col. Maida’s directinvolvement in definingprojects that supported JLOTSoperations was instrumentalin the success of the construc-tion continuing duringoperations. �

US NAVY PHOTO BY JO1 JOSEPH KRYPELUS NAVY PHOTO BY PH3 AARON PINEDA

ESTABLISH THE BASE WENT ON 24/7

TING THE MASTER CHIEF PETTY OFFICER OF THE SEABEES; WARFIGHTERS


STORY AND PHOTOGRAPHSBY JO1 JOSEPH KRYPEL

BM2 Cecil McLaughlin fromDanville, Va., turned 50 whiledeployed in to the US CentralCommand region as part ofOperation Enduring Freedom.

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CONCEPTTOCOMPLETION:The PhibCBs makefreedom’s footprint

CAMP PATRIOT, Kuwait —“If you build it, they willcome.” That was themessage given to theamphibious Seabees(PhibCB) of the WestCoast months beforeOperation Iraqi Freedomever began.

“They” are nearly 3000joint-service permanentresidents and a rotatingstampede of US Marinesthat kept “it” — theamphibious Seabee-builtCamp Patriot — evolvingto accommodate apopulation increasingsince December 2002.

Naval Central Command(NAVCENT), forwarddeployed in Bahrain,tasked CAPT Donald P.Cook and Naval BeachGroup (NBG) 1,homeported in Coronado,Calif., to design a basecamp. When it came tothe architecture of acamp, Cook got experts.

The Seabees of Am-phibious ConstructionBattalion (ACB) 1, alsohomeported in Coronado,Calif., were the ones thathad to build it — andbuild and build they did.

“We spent monthspreparing for this,”

explained Atlanta nativeLCDR George N. Suther,operations officer for ACB1. “Our Seabees areaccustomed to building andmaintaining a beach campthat houses approximately1200, but we had to excelbeyond that and come upwith a plan that wouldaccommodate 4500.”

Suther, along with hisCharlie Company com-mander, LT Jay Bieszke,developed a site plan thatallowed for the phasederection of the camp.Suther and Bieszke ex-plained that concentrationwas placed on developing alimited amount of realestate, while continuing tofocus on force protectionand centralized amenities.

“We had a perceivedshortfall,” explained Suther,“and that was that ourbattalion wasn’t designedto handle such a largetasking.” Perceived was allit turned out to be.According to Suther, theleadership at the unit levelreally banded together andthat made the difference.

“We came together, wespent long hours togetherand we put together ourplan. When the order came

Equipment operators fromAmphibious ConstructionBattalions 1 and 2 constructeda new 300-meter weapons rangewithin the Ammunition SupplyPoint at Camp Patriot.

What started as an improve-ment to an existing 300-meterrange turned into the construc-tion of a new facility. Aftermeeting with the Kuwait NavalBase public works officer, adecision was made that a newrange facility adjacent to theexisting range would better suitthe needs of the Kuwaitmilitary and coalition forces.

The range was used initiallyto test HMMWV-mounted .50caliber machine guns thatbelong to the Kuwaiti military.

The project took 30 days andwas completed March 30. About1782 man-hours were spentmoving tons of earth, construct-ing two 300-meter berms each35 feet tall, and one 50-meterberm that is 45 feet tall.

Project supervisor EO1 JamesStreicher, of Spokane, Wash.,was onsite from Day One as64,000 cubic yards of earth werebeginning to be moved.

“This project was a goldenopportunity for the Seabees toshine,” Streicher said. “We tooka flat dirt field and createdthree small mountains in 30days, while giving our equip-ment operators a chance tospend quality time on the breadand butter of our profession.”

The workhorses throughoutthe project were the D7G bull-dozers. Three bulldozers workednonstop throughout the task.

This project afforded many ofthe company’s junior Bees asignificant amount of stick timein a bulldozer — and providedsenior petty officers with an im-portant leadership opportunity.

The new range was used for avariety of weapons, from9 mm pistols up to .50 calibermachine guns. �

ACBs Create New Range for Camp Patriot

STORY BY LT MIKE CHUCRAN, CEC, USNPHOTOGRAPH BY JO1 JOSEPH KRYPEL


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down, we were 100 percentready, and it’s apparent,”Suther admitted. “Ourbattalion is proud of thefact that we are a self-sufficient organization anddid not have to rely on a lotof outside contracts.However, where it madegood business sense, wecontracted out to eliminatethe stress of our compara-tively smaller work force,”said Suther.

First came tents, then theworking spaces, then thestrongback tents, andfinally — blissfully — newair conditioning. With areasdesignated first for ammu-nition, parking and harborassets, the people spaceswere placed where theycould be located safely.According to Suther, theplan went even better thanexpected.

“The men and women herereally put some sweat intothis place and it wasgrowing fast,” Suther said.“We were actually strugglingto find the real estate toput things.”

The PhibCB team under-stood that what they werebuilding was in directsupport of the warfighters,and they never complainedabout long hours.

“No one could be moreproud of the effort demon-strated here,” praisedSuther. “This was a labor oflove and it’s evident by thecraftsmanship you see.

“Everyone here, even ourfleet Bees of Bravo Com-pany, put in the sweat toerect strongback tents andbuild protective bunkers.”

Camp Patriot is built on200 acres of space sharedwith the Kuwaiti navalforces. �


‘LET’SROLL’Seabee Camp in Kuwaitnamed for Flight 93 heroes

CAMP 93, Kuwait — “Let’sroll!” had always signaled thebeginning of every family tripfor the Todd Beamer family.Sadly, it was the last words theoutside world heard fromBeamer, before he and otherpassengers took action inAmerica’s war on terrorism onthe United States’ second day ofinfamy.

Beamer was one of the cou-rageous people who steppedforward after their plane, UnitedFlight 93, was hijacked Sept. 11,2001. Via cellular phone, thepassengers had already learnedthe tragic fate of the otherhijacked planes earlier that dayand they decided it wouldn’thappen to them too. They choseto stand and fight.

On a barren stretch of desertin Northern Kuwait, out of thedust and sand, has emerged an

oasis of freedom. This place ina far-off land has a name, andit’s known as Camp 93.

Lonely winds blowing acrossdesolate wastelands are now methere with a 15-foot high earthenberm. This berm, in the shapeof a square, was bulldozed fromthe raw desert floor, and on topof it are brave men and womenstanding their watch manythousand miles away fromhome.

Inside the perimeter is avibrant tent city comprised ofmore than a thousand troops,hundreds of pieces of construc-tion equipment and millions ofdollars of construction material.

What is also present inside theberm is a buzz, much like thatof bees busy about their busi-ness around a hive. This buzzembodies a distinct sense ofpurpose and a noble cause.

A simple, even previouslytrite phrase a man had uttered athousand times before, has nowbecome a legendary new battlecry for a new generation ofwarfare.

We’ll never know for surewhat happened on the plane thatday — or how much more deathand destruction would haveoccurred if the terrorists hadbeen able to direct the airlinerto their intended target.

But we do know that somevery brave Americans forfeitedtheir lives so that many othersmight live.

That resolute spirit of fightingfor what is right, so bravely dem-onstrated by Todd Beamer and theFlight 93 passengers that day, wasalive and well here in Kuwait atthe namesake Camp 93, a newhome to the US Navy Seabees.Located here are members of the

Thirtieth Naval ConstructionRegiment, Naval MobileConstruction Battalions 5, 74 and133, and elements of Underwa-ter Construction Team 2.

Camp 93 is a constant workin progress. Seabees are train-ing for a wide array of missions,and they are always ready whenthey get the call. Here, thedefenders of freedom can beseen building with invincibleSeabee pride.

It’s with great honor Seabeesoccupy a camp featuring twoclassic slogans: “Can Do!” and“Let’s Roll!”

The two phrases may have de-rived from two wars separatedby more than half a century, butthey both stand for the samething: Peace with Freedom.

Camp 93 is on the front linesof the war on terror that ToddBeamer helped begin. �

STORY AND PHOTOGRAPH BY JO1 STAN TRAVIOLI


SCW@WAR

CAMP PATRIOT, Kuwait —“Never in the history of theAmphibious Seabees has it beenso important to learn and under-stand Seabee Combat Warfare.”

These were the words utteredby Camp Patriot EquipmentOperator 3rd Class (SCW)Justin Jeffers from Collinsville,Ill., upon receiving the SeabeeCombat Warfare designation —within two weeks after arrivalin Kuwait for Operation IraqiFreedom.

With warfare qualificationsbecoming mandatory for allenlisted personnel in thepaygrade E-5 and above on seaduty and assigned to a qualify-ing unit, the men and women ofAmphibious Construction Bat-talions (ACB) 1 and 2 displayedunprecedented intensity towardachieving Seabee warfare quali-fication, despite the initial big

construction effort of the build-ing of a 4500-person field campthat left many personnel dogtired at the end of the workday.Nevertheless, training for theSCW program began soon afterinitial construction began.

With the start of the war pend-ing, battalion Training OfficerLCDR Dale Tysor fromDouglasville, Ga., made amajor push to increase atten-dance numbers. Compiling a listof qualified personnel, heassigned subject-matter expertsto instruct key topics of the war-fare program, establishing arigid training regime.

Real-world contingencyoperations reflect the value oftraining for a Seabee CombatWarfare qualification. MessSpecialist 2nd Class (SCW)Robert Caesar from Yonkers,N.Y., said, “Tactical convoy

operations for resupply ofpotable water, Meals Ready toEat (MREs) and numerous otherlogistics for life sustainmenthave become a reality. Witheach convoy conducted, thethreat of ambush by enemyforces requires the immediateaction of all personnel in theconvoy for success. The SeabeeCombat Warfare program hasprepared me to perform thisvital mission.”

SCW training ranges fromgeneral military tactics tochemical, bio and radiologicalprotection and decontamina-tion. To be Seabee CombatWarfare qualified means aSeabee is certified to haveextensive knowledge in combatoperations pertaining directlytoward contingency missions.

As this is written, fiveSeabees have become Seabee

Combat Warfare qualified whiledeployed and another nine arepreparing for their formal quali-fication board and subsequentdesignation. Through an intensetraining program, these num-bers are expected to increase 10fold over the period of the unit’sdeployment.

As the Command MasterChief, it’s my responsibility tomanage the Seabee CombatWarfare program for the battal-ion. The program we haveinstituted is making a seriouspositive impact on the missionreadiness of this command, wellin keeping with the Master ChiefPetty Officer of the Navy’s phi-losophy of “mission first.” �

CMDCM (SCW) Eichmann isthe Command Master Chieffor ACB 1, homeported inCoronado, Calif.

STORY BY CMDCM (SCW) KEVIN J. EICHMANN

ACBs ‘train like they fight’while fighting.


KUWAIT — We’re definitely not in Kan-sas anymore.

About 15 camels saunter lazily across thehorizon several hundred yards from CampCastle’s perimeter concertina wire. Thecamp in central Kuwait is the operationsbase for Navy Mobile Construction Battal-ion (NMCB) 7. Based in Gulfport, Miss.,NMCB 7 is one of the original 10 Seabeebattalions commissioned by Rear Adm. BenMoreell during World War II.

During that war, the Navy deployed theunit to Espiritu Santo, New Hebrides;Iroquois Point, Hawaii; Mariana Islands andOkinawa. Then, as now, the median age ofpersonnel in all the U.S. armed forces was19 to 20. Not the Seabees, which were

stocked with skilled tradespeople. Theirmedian age was 38. Their mission: to act asthe Navy’s construction work force. NMCB7 spent that war in the Pacific, constructingbase camps, runways, hospitals and islandinfrastructure for advancing US Marineforces. Subsequent missions involveddeployments to Korea, Japan and theAtlantic and Pacific theaters.

The Seabee credo is “We Build, WeFight.” NMCB 7’s activities since WorldWar II illustrate this duality. The emphasiswas on military work at Guantanamo Bayduring the 1961 Cuban missile crisis andlater in Vietnam. The unit later turned topeacetime building efforts as well, byconstructing a LORAN station on Guam,restoring roads and sanitation services in theCaribbean after Hurricane Georges, supply-

ing humanitarian assistance in Haiti afterthe Duvalier regime fell and providingconstruction support for the ParalympicGames in Atlanta.

These days NMCB 7, one of eight Seabeebattalions under commission, is again in thefight. It is in Kuwait, as part of the 1st Ma-rine Expeditionary Force’s engineeringcomplement — the MEG, or Marine Engi-neer Group. The MEG is supplyingengineering and construction support tocoalition troops pushing into Iraq to toppleSaddam Hussein. NMCB 7’s ExecutiveOfficer, CDR Chris Lacaria says thatalthough he won’t receive specific directivesuntil he’s in the theater of operations, theunit’s role will possibly include rapid road

and runway repair and quarters construc-tion for refugees and/or prisoners of war.

At Seven’s invitation, I joined the finalflight from the homeport to join the major-ity of the battalion already in the Mideast.What was to be a day or two in Gulfportstretched to a week as the coalition’s com-mand grappled with an extremely fluidsituation in the field. Turkey’s refusal topermit staging there for the US Army’sFourth Infantry Division to open a north-ern front and push south to Baghdadcomplicated matters.

The coalition diverted material from theMediterranean through the Suez Canal andinto Kuwait. Iraqi-laid mines in the PersianGulf also backed up ships bringing food andother humanitarian supplies into the Iraqiport of Um Qasr.

As British, Australian and Americanforces pushed north to within 50 miles ofBaghdad in one of the fastest advances inthe history of warfare, Iraqi irregulars andthe special forces known as the SaddamFedayeen harassed the coalition’s extendedsupply lines in southern Iraq near Basra. Theland and sea bottlenecks in the theater’ssouthern supply line effectively kept thefinal complement of NMCB 7 on the groundin Gulfport — one unit, a few hundred coa-lition forces — out of tens of thousandsscheduled to flow into the area.

The delay gave the stateside Seabees timeto finalize arrangements. Finding timebetween more important tasks, ENS VincentPalrose took me to requisition field gear.

Web gear carries the minimal survivalgear that Seabees must wear or have at hand24-7 in Kuwait and Iraq: two canteens anda holstered gas mask. Two pieces of Kevlarare next: the “brain pan” helmet and body-armor vest. A desert camo backpackcarries the Mission Objective ProtectivePosture (MOPP) suit: lightweight fabricpants and tops lined with charcoal, two setsof overshoes and gloves. They’re designedto protect against “sliming,” or chemical,biological and radioactive exposure. Threemetallic charcoal filter canisters that attachto the gas mask complete the kit. Imanaged to squeeze in minimal CBR train-ing, which should enable me to don mymask within nine seconds, with canistersproperly affixed. “You don’t want to breathebad juju,” says Palrose.

‘We’re not in Kansas anymore.’A reporter from Engineering News-Record embedswith the Seabees and gets the drive of a lifetime.

STORY BY ANDREW G. WRIGHTLEAD PHOTOGRAPH BY PH1 AARON ANSAROV


Kuwait City.

We leave in the dark and fly east against

the sun, so by the time we land in

Amsterdam, we’ve gained seven hours and

the sun is going down. We gain two more

hours on the final leg and land at 7:52 a.m.,

completing a long night’s journey into day.

The plane is a Northwest 747-200 with a

civilian crew. Two of the pilots are military

veterans. Mark Ness, 51, flew cargo planes

for the Navy; and Bob Lewis, 49, flew

F-15s for the Air Force. Northwest partici-

pates in a government program called the

Civilian Reserve Air Fleet. Under CRAF,

the Pentagon requisitions commercial air-

liners to move troops during wartime. The

airlines are reimbursed, the flight crew says,

but Northwest is losing money on the deal.

“This plane is normally in the Pacific

trade, which is one of the few money-mak-

ing routes we have these days,” says Ness.

But on the approach to Amsterdam, the cap-

tain keys the intercom and tells his 310

passengers: “Ladies and gentlemen, it’s

been an honor and a privilege to serve you.

The laconic ensign, a 25-year-old native

of Las Vegas, was in Officer Candidate

School at Pensacola, Fla., when 9/11 hit.

“The attitude in training changed over-

night,” he says. “Now everybody knew we

had a job to do. A big job.” The event ulti-

mately disrupted Palrose’s personal plans

— he and his fiancée planned to marry in

April in Vegas. When deployment orders

came down, they had a Baptist minister

perform a ceremony in Gulfport March 16.

The plan was for her to head for Vegas to

meet his family for the first time and have a

formal ceremony upon his return.

She’s ambivalent at best about the war,

she says, but “he’s in the military and when

the time comes to go, they go. That’s just

the way it is. I just pray to God that he’ll

send my husband back home to me safe and

sound. And soon.”

Final muster in Gulfport is March 27

after dinner on a macadam parking lot

called, for some unknown reason, “the

grinder.” There is an atmosphere of equal

parts tension and anticipation, like being

backstage before the curtain goes up on

opening night.

A shore patrol detachment shows up to

take one young Seabee to say goodbye to

his wife, who’s having a panic attack. One

of the chief petty officers states the case

succinctly.

“Hug her, hold her, try to calm her down.

Make sure she knows that if she needs to

go to the hospital for medical attention,

we’ll see that she gets there,” the chief says

to the Seabee. “But make sure she also

knows that you’re going to be on that plane.”

On March 27, we are locked down in an

airplane hangar about 9 p.m., waiting for a

4:30 a.m. flight. The flight plan is eight

hours of air time to Amsterdam, deplaning

for two hours in a secured area in Schiphol

Airport, then reboarding with a new crew

for the final 7-hour, 15-minute leg to

We wish you Godspeed on your mission.

We and the rest of the country are proud of

what you’re doing for the people of Iraq.

Stay safe and come home soon.”

Not long after we arrive and disembark,

we don our chem-bio MOPP tops and pants,

then reclaim our checked gear. During the

wait on the tarmac, I strike up a conversa-

tion with an activated reservist, Petty Of-

ficer David Kripps, 40, from New Haven,

Conn. “Three weeks ago, I was working as

a facilities engineer for Winchester Arms,

back home. I got the call-up.” He was slated

to join the fleet hospital as a heating, venti-

lation and air conditioning specialist.

Then some of the contingent are sent to a

camp near a Kuwaiti military airfield; the

rest of us are off for a two-hour drive to

Camp Castle. After the long flight and

seemingly endless wait to depart for this

final ground leg, most of the people on my

bus are asleep.

The main highways, limited-access thor-

oughfares with four lanes divided by a

median, are sparsely traveled this Saturday


afternoon. Traffic seems to be an equal mix

of Kuwaiti civilian vehicles and coalition

military gear: Humvees, armored person-

nel carriers, tanks and lots of construction

equipment on flatbeds, some water and fuel

tankers, and two-and-a-half-tonners and

five-ton tandems.

There are checkpoints every few intervals,

manned by Kuwaitis. We are waived

through, but civilians must display identi-

fication. Later I’m told intelligence

reports indicate the fedayeen will try to in-

filtrate, blend in with the Kuwaiti popula-

tion and detonate suicide car bombs or per-

form other acts of sabotage.

Eventually we leave the four-lane for a

two-lane secondary road. The terrain is

desolate — waterless, flat and sandy, with

minimal scrub vegetation. We pass a few

herds of goats and their tenders. In places,

half the road is covered by large sand drifts,

remnants of a major sandstorm several

weeks earlier.

As we approach Camp Castle, olive drab

dozers and road graders clear drifts from

the road. Rollers are flattening the shoul-

ders in places. We squeeze past a line of

empty flatbeds, apparently owned by

contracted civilians who delivered supplies

to the tent camp. I note that most of the

tractors bear the Mercedes logo on their

grill. A few others are Renaults.

Inside the camp, we disembark and get

our check-out gear. I’m assigned a cot in a

headquarters company tent. I find it, drop

my laptop and CBR pack and am preparing

to get my backpack and ALICE pack. As I

come out of the tent, two Marines approach

and ask if I’m Andrew Wright from ENR.

Guilty as charged, I say.

“You’re to come with us,” says LT Aaron

Taylor. “We’ve got a berth for you at the MEG

at Camp Commando. We have to run an er-

rand, then we’ll head on up. We have space

for you in one of our SUVs. Get your stuff.”

The change in plans makes a long day a

few hours longer and suddenly snaps the

bonds I’ve forged in a week with NMCB 7,

but I regard it as my first battlefield promo-

tion. The MEG is the Marine Engineer

Group, assigned to the 1st Marine Expedi-

tionary Force. Tracing its roots to Opera-

tion Desert Storm, it aims to coordinate

battlefield engineering and synchronize

efforts among the Navy, Marine Corps and

Army units.

The MEG consists of several light, fully

integrated regimental task forces. Current

units include the First Naval Construction

Division (Seabees), the Marine Augment

Detachment 88835, the Marine Corps 4th

Combat Engineer Battalion, the Army 265th

Engineer Group and Georgia National

Guard.

At Camp Commando, orders flow from

RADM Chuck Kubic, commander of the

First Naval Construction Division. He has

a long list of impressive credentials, but the

one that may interest engineering readers

most is that he graduated at the head of his

class at Lehigh University in 1972 with a

BS in civil engineering.

The MEG he commands coordinates a

number of support activities: airfield

construction and repair, road upgrade and

maintenance, troop bed-down, specialized

bridging, force protection and the capabil-

ity to draw on expertise from rear area

engineers. The MEG prides itself on the

flexibility to take on specialized battlefield

missions with speed. The operation is

mobile, agile and, if necessary, hostile.

We finally reach the camp around 10 p.m.

I’m taken to the chow hall for a late meal,

then find a temporary berth in a tent. The

canvas tent, an A-frame set on a plywood

base about 12x24 ft, is set up for about eight

officers. I grab the bunk of a lieutenant who

is up north for several days on a mission. I

unroll my sleeping bag.

About midnight, on a day that began

nine time zones and 59 clock-hours

earlier, I finally fall asleep. �

Seabees drew a line in the Kuwaiti sand atCamp Commando (opposite). Left, theSeabee flag reads backwards through thefabric as Bees pound sand. How to tell?Gas masks are strapped to the left leg.


Return of the

Seabee Jedi


To keep traffic andvital materiel flowing

smoothly acrossrivers and canals in

Iraq, RADM Kubicleaned heavily onjunior people with

the right stuff —especially the civil

engineers andSeabees he calledhis “Seabee Jedi.”

Seabees from NMCB 133 rebuilt the Sarabadi bridge (left) across the Tigris river near Al Hillah, Iraq, in May. Seabeeunits rebuilt or replaced destroyed bridges in numerous locations, repairing war damage so that Iraqi citizens could usethem once again. Above, an alert EO3 Patrick Jenkins from 133 stands security watch as local citizens pass over theSarabadi bridge during Operation Iraqi Freedom, the multi-national coalition effort to liberate the Iraqi people, eliminateIraq's weapons of mass destruction and end the regime of Saddam Hussein.

STORY BY ANDREW G. WRIGHT, ENGINEERING NEWS-RECORD

PHOTOGRAPHS BY PH1(SW) ARLO K. ABRAHAMSON

MESOPOTAMIA VALLEY, IRAQ – Ascoalition forces pushed forward, militaryengineers servicing the 250-mile-long supplyline used speed and ingenuity. To devise acrossing of the swiftly flowing Saddamirrigation canal in southern Iraq’s Tigris-Euphrates Valley, RADM Chuck Kubicturned to a coterie of engineers and Seabeeshe fondly calls his “Seabee Jedi.”

April 1, a day before elements of the 1stMarine Division crossed the Tigris to within18 miles of Baghdad, the admiralincluded the bridge site on a daylong whirl-wind inspection of the 1st Marine Expedi-tionary Force (I MEF) Engineer Group’s(MEG) projects and staging areas along themain supply route.

The mission had many purposes: mail andpersonnel drops, and briefings with fieldcommanders about supplies, logistics andprogress. A quick check on a never-before-attempted bridging technique ranked high onKubic’s checklist. He is a registered engineerlicensed to practice in Pennsylvania andVirginia and a qualified Seabee Combat

Warfare officer. The MEG boss believed thestrategically important bridge was worth afirsthand look.

“What we’re going to see today representsa year of planning,” Kubic said. “Only theSeabees could do this.”

On his rapid inspection, Kubic tooksupport staff and a reporter into southern Iraqabout 100 miles north of the demilitarizedzone with Kuwait. The group left the MEG’sCamp Commando field headquarters incentral Kuwait shortly before 0900 local timein a pair of twin-rotor CH-46 Sea Knighthelicopters.

On each chopper, gunners manned twin.50-caliber machine guns, a standardsecurity measure that was not called intoplay on this day.

At the chopper’s first stop, a Seabeecontingent out of Port Hueneme, Calif., wasbridging an irrigation canal at a breakneckpace. The crossing will enable the supply lineto bypass several cities between Basra andBaghdad, removing an opportunity for theIraqis to bring the battle to an urban setting.

Naval Mobile Construction Battalion(NMCB) 4, supported by a small team ofdivers from Underwater Construction Team2 out of Port Hueneme, was constructing a61-meter-long, 16-meter-wide Mabey-Johnson bridge. “Really one of manyoffshoots of the Bailey bridge,” says Kubic.

While NMCB 4’s commanding officer,CDR Jim Worcester, briefs the admiral,officer in charge LT Marc Rouleau overseesa hive of Seabee activity. Assisted by a four-ton forklift with a hook attachment, one crewis busy sledge-hammering pins into place onthe bridge “nose.”

Each bay is 10 ft long and the assemblageis placed on 4x4-inch cribbing. As the spantakes shape, grillages and distribution beamsspread the load. The nose is angled upwardby about 10 degrees to keep the center ofgravity over the landward side duringlaunching. The fully assembled structure willweigh 135 tons with the nose and only 105tons once the steel proboscis is disassembledand removed, says Chief Petty OfficerGeorge Freese.


>> Seabees from NMCB 133 and NMCB 4 became aget the job done. Above, an excavator serves effectivinto place. Below left, a Bee welds angle iron roller-Johnson bridge erected in Sarabadi. The stops prevewhen the bridge is launched. Below right, a Bee hamNavy video, bottom, NMCB 4 Bees connect side rails

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The crew planned to ferry a four-ton fork-lift across the river a few hundred yardsdownstream to help disassemble the noseonce the canal was spanned. “We’ll jack itdown onto cribs, place a spreader beam anddisassemble it,” says Rouleau. “It shouldtake about 14 hours.”

As it turned out, the Seabees could nottransport the forklift across the canal, so theytook it apart manually.

Kubic would have preferred to buy aportable bridge from a US manufacturer, but“no one could really match the flexibilityand combination of configurations they of-fered us.” A mid-January site visit to theirISO 9001-rated, Gloucester, U.K., factoryreconfirmed the decision.

“Their quality control is excellent andtheir plant is state-of-the-art, with robotics,”Kubic says. A pair of Mabey-Johnson tech-nical advisors, a retired British commandoand a former U.S. Army combat engineer,came to Kuwait before the war started, butthe firm’s legal department ordered them toreturn home. The assembled bridge will beable to support between 70 and 80 tons.

“It will handle an M-1 Abrams tank,”Rouleau says.

A pair of Caterpillar D-7 bulldozersmoved rubble from a “borrow pile” about30 yards downstream, placing it on theearthen foundation abutment. “We’ve beensheep-footing the ground on the approachpath,” Rouleau adds. “It’s important to havethis bridge good to go ASAP.”

But what sets the project in a unique cat-egory is the substructure’s underpinning:sheet pile culvert modules (SPCM, pro-nounced “spickum”) that armor the earthenlaunching abutment upstream, face and toe.The canal, which is 73 meters wide and 3meters deep in places, flows at a rate of 3meters per second. The design team, headedby LT Dave McAlister, wanted to extend anearthen mole pier far enough to narrow thecanal’s width sufficiently to create an abut-ment. This enabled the bridge to span thechannel. At the same time they knew thatthey must contend with scouring that wouldbe induced by the increased flow velocity.

The standard solution would be sheetpiles, but they’re cumbersome and difficultto transport in a war zone, where everysquare foot of space on a convoy is precious.In addition, the team looked for materials

that would be in abundant supply for thisand other Seabee missions. Seabee Jedi teammembers McAlister, LTJG Eric Ulmen andLCDR Russ Seignious conceived the SPCMlate one night last December in a tent inKuwait.

In February, the MEG tapped availableSeabees to field-test the earthen pier-SPCMconcept, also dubbed a “Mac mole” inMcAlister’s honor. They trucked in stackedsections of corrugated culvert 72 inches indiameter and 12 ft long on a flatbed. Theteam first bolted together sections, thenlashed them together with wire rope ingroups of three. A backhoe operator, usinga wire rope hung from the bucket, pickedeach triangular assemblage, tilted it verti-cally and deftly wiggled it into place in thecanal sediment. A backhoe filled each SPCMwith dirt, providing mass and structuralintegrity. Interlocking overlapping place-ment provided additional strength to the toeand armors the earthen pier. Earth overtop-ping completed the substructure’s armor.

“If we want to make this permanent whenthe war is over, we’ll place sheet piling asrequired,” said McAlister.

The Seabees practiced assembly in thedesert in February. “Out here, I’ve got myA-team, my instructors on the job,” saysRouleau. “And the dirt is working better thanthe sand.” Pointing to the crimped tops ofthe first few Mac molds, he says, “Doesn’tlook very pretty, but we’re getting it done.”The goal was to have the crossing spannedand several kilometers of approach roadready to roll by the end of the following day.

Assured that all was in order on thejobsite, Kubic discussed security arrange-ments with his cadre before boarding the SeaKnights and heading for the next stop. “Idon’t think the Iraqi command knows we’rehere yet, since these guys started this morn-ing. But they’ll know, probably by tomor-row night. So these folks will have to de-fend the bridge after they construct it.”

He seemed confident that the Seabees’bridge defense would be as efficient as theirconstruction. Later, NMCB 4 reported April2 that the canal had been crossed success-fully and after minimal work to theapproaches, a convoy could roll by midnight.

It may have been a year in the planning,but executing the job took well under 75hours, from start to finish. �


“We are now moving into a period of‘civil military operations’ designed to stabi-lize the country,” Kubic said, “… makingexpedient repairs to basic infrastructure andsetting the conditions for a free Iraq tocreate a democratic governance system.”

The effort however, wasn’t without itschallenges. “Don’t kid yourselves by whatyou saw on TV,” said Kubic. “This was notan easy fight.”

During the opening moments of the war,an Iraqi Scud missile impacted only 200yards from Kubic’s command post. Duringthe first 48 hours of the conflict, Seabeestook shelter in their defensive bunkers 36times. Once mobile, they were peppered bysmall arms fire along main supply routes asthey pushed forward into Baghdad with U.S.Marine forces.

According to Kubic, the operationaltempo for Seabees remains high.

“The pace has not slackened sinceBaghdad fell and Iraq is still a very danger-ous country,” said Kubic. “Having won thewar, we must now win the peace,” he said.“In many respects, this will be much harder.There are still many Ba’ath party regularsand fedayeen thugs in Iraq.”

Kubic’s command of nearly 20,000Seabees throughout the Navy is joined by hiscommand of the 1st Marine ExpeditionaryGroup (I MEF) Engineer Group (I MEG), ajoint-service combat engineering componentcomprised of Navy, Marine and Army per-sonnel. It includes structural, mechanical, civiland electrical engineers who, unlike some oftheir corporate counterparts in the private sec-tor, don’t wear business suits, eat lunch at theclub or drive BMWs to the office.

They wear desert camouflage, eat MREs(Meals Ready to Eat) and drive tacticalvehicles. As engineers who love tacklingtechnical challenges, the MEG spends muchof its time evaluating options; it’s a prob-lem-solving body with a seabag full of

STORY BY EO1 (SCW/AW) KEVIN CULLEN

RADM Charles R. Kubic returned briefly from the front lines to conductbusiness with the Pacific Fleet and his Pearl Harbor Seabees. Kubic spokeabout the war, its aftermath and Seabee humanitarian efforts.

‘Don’t kid yourselves by what you saw‘Don’t kid yourselves by what you saw‘Don’t kid yourselves by what you saw‘Don’t kid yourselves by what you saw‘Don’t kid yourselves by what you sawon TVon TVon TVon TVon TV. This was not an easy fight.’. This was not an easy fight.’. This was not an easy fight.’. This was not an easy fight.’. This was not an easy fight.’

solutions for any number of scenarios.Whether it’s a contingency plan for an air-field modification, bridge constructionproject, or a roadwork problem for anadvancing army, the MEG not only has asolution — it often has 10 of them.

Working from secret messages and sche-matics forwarded to the combat operationscenter at Naval Facilities EngineeringCommand Pacific Division, engineers basedin Hawaii worked around the clock todesign six different bridges that were instru-mental in the rapid push into Baghdad.

One of their major projects includeddesigning a 70-ton two-lane bridge over theDiyala River. Seabees not only replaced theblown-out bridge destroyed by opposingforces, but they repulsed attacks during theconstruction phase and completed theentire project in just 190 hours.

“[In the civilian world], we couldn’t evenget the permits for a project that size in sucha short time,” said Kubic.

Most recently, Kubic’s Seabees returnedto a town that only weeks before had beencaught in the crossfire of Iraqi liberation.While the dust was still settling, Seabeeshelped put the ravaged town back together.

One of their projects included getting aschool back on its feet by repairing class-rooms and building playground sets for thechildren [See “Desk Set” on page 26 for thisstory. – Ed.]. At the rededication festivitiesfor the school, the town counsel selected alocal boy for the ribbon-cutting ceremony.

According to Kubic, the little boy hadbeen selected for his charm and charisma.Weeks earlier, his father had been forcedinto servitude with the Iraqi army and wassubsequently killed during the conflict.

“In many respects, it’s all about the kids,”said Kubic. “Ironically, the freedom andsecurity of our grandchildren could well betied over the next 10 years to the freedomand security of the children of Iraq.” �

adept at repurposing available tools and resources tovely as a crane to lift Mabey-Johnson support beams-bearing stops to the steel foundation of the Mabey-ent the roller-bearings from sliding off the foundationmers a pin into the bridge support. In two stills from as on the bridge spanning the Tigris River.


Some of the rear-guard Seabees inKuwait were disappointed thatthe retreating Iraqis had not beendestroying bridges.

Many expected to see the tactic em-ployed to slow coalition forces that sweptnorth across the DMZ and then fromBasra to Baghdad in less than two weeks.Rapid bridge replacement and repair is aSeabee specialty and the troops had beenlooking forward to strutting their stuff.

But turning the Seabees’ efforts awayfrom tactical bridging and toward roadrepairs, humanitarian relief and otherendeavors is not necessarily a bad thingto the King Bee in the theater ofoperations, RADM Chuck Kubic.

“If you win the Super Bowl 45-0,should you be disappointed because theoffense didn’t get to play very much?”Kubic asks.

Kubic earned hissecond star lastAug. 9 when hebecame command-er of First NavalC o n s t r u c t i o nDivision at LittleCreek, Va.

The move united 18,000 Seabees in theAtlantic and Pacific Naval ConstructionBrigades under a single command. In thecampaign to strip Saddam Hussein frompower, he was put in command last yearof the 1st Marine Expeditionary Force (IMEF) Engineer Group (I MEG).

As head of the I MEG, Kubic headed astaff comprising active duty, reserve and

National Guard units fromUS Navy Seabees, MarineCorps and Army.

Each branch of servicehas its own peculiarities ofcommunication. Makingsure everyone spoke acommon language was thefirst order of business;similar terms aboundamong the US military.

Take the phrase “target registration,” forexample. To a Seabee, that could meancompiling a spreadsheet of targets, similarto writing a construction project take-offlist. But to a Marine Corps or Army artilleryofficer, the term means firing at a target andrecording the coordinates of where eachround lands, says Marine LtCol. SteveDuarte, the I MEG’s fire protection officer.

After months ofdetailed planning andhard training together,the I MEG became afully integrated staffbecause its memberswere willing to focuson the same goals.

The end result wasa powerfully successful mission.

For Marines and Seabees, the relationshipharkens back to Guadalcanal in World WarII, said Marine Col. Michael C. Howard, amilitary historian and the MEG operationsofficer.

Howard was also commanding officer ofa Marine Corps reserve unit, the 4th CombatEngineer Battalion, 4th Marine Division.

At Guadalcanal, Marines took thebeachhead, with the Seabees close behind.Their task: to rebuild an airfield they hadearlier helped to destroy. The Sixth NavalConstruction Battalion was the first Seabeeunit to build under combat conditions. TheMarine-Seabee fight in the crucial 1942battle “was a shotgun marriage, but itworked. Now we’re together again, with theArmy thrown into the mix,” said Howard.

For months, Kubic and staff routinelyworked 16-hour days to come up with theirgame plan. Working from the latestintelligence, the team met several timesdaily, formulating and readjusting the gameplan, trying to plan for every contingency.Typically, each move has at least twoalternatives.

“We’ve war-gamed this thing to death,”Duarte said.

I MEG’s three regimental task forcesfocused on different objectives. Task ForceMike concentrated on mobility issues,constructing or repairing bridges. TaskForce Charlie was put together forconstruction, whether it was quicklybuilding or repairing roads and runways,

“If you win the SuperBowl 45-0, should you be

disappointed becausethe offense didn’t getto play very much?”

EO3 Joshua Winjum of NMCB 5 operates a road grader to distribute theselect fill evenly over an aircraft staging area. NMCB 5 constructed anAH-1 and CH-53 helicopter staging area for operations in theCentral Command AOR. NMCB 5 based out of Port Hueneme, Calif.

WWWWWith Baghdad Largely Secured,ith Baghdad Largely Secured,ith Baghdad Largely Secured,ith Baghdad Largely Secured,ith Baghdad Largely Secured,Seabees Shifted Into OverdriveSeabees Shifted Into OverdriveSeabees Shifted Into OverdriveSeabees Shifted Into OverdriveSeabees Shifted Into OverdriveFirst, figuring out a common language


PHOTOGRAPHS BY PH1 BRIEN AHO


erecting enemy prisoner of war camps orfield camps.

Task Force Echo, the endurance crew,focused on the transition to a military-civilian Iraqi government. Its projects couldinvolve humanitarian aid delivery orrestoration of critical infrastructure, such aswater and power or port services.

Kubic leaned heavily on junior officers withthe right stuff, especially the civil engineersand Seabees he calls his “Seabee Jedi.”

Last April, NMCB 4 completed one suchJedi project, a 61-meter Mabey-Johnsonbridge across the Saddam irrigation canalwest of An Nasiriyah. The crossing, alongwith 32.1 kilometers of road construction andrepairs, enabled the main supply route tobypass the city and links Route 1 to Route 8.

The job took about 70 hours from start tofinish, even though Seabees had todisassemble the 30-ton bridge nosemanually, since they could not ferry a four-ton forklift across the canal as planned.

Several months prior, Kubic had read apaper about the British 1914-1918 Basra-Baghdad campaign to take the same groundthat coalition troops had been moving overfor the last two weeks. The author – Col.Mike Howard – had written the article forthe Marine Corps Gazette, but the editorialboard had opted to put the piece on its Website because of its timeliness.

The British saw a chance to cut into theOttoman Empire’s exposed flank and to takecontrol of oil fields discovered in 1913.They ultimately succeeded, but paid a highprice: Nearly 29,000 troops died frombattlefield wounds or cholera.

“I learned three things from Col.Howard’s article, mistakes that we didn’twant to repeat here,” Kubic says. Insummary, the British military leadershipstayed in India, the field logisticiansremained in Basra and “the rivers kickedtheir butts. They had trouble coping withhigh water and low water.”

Even as Baghdad was largely secured, theI MEG retained a substantial work load,Kubic said.

“We have to close the gaps in the mainsupply route [and there’s] road repair andbridge upgrades.” Some bridges may bestructurally upgraded to bear the weight ofthe 70-ton Bradley armored fightingvehicle. “We’ll reach back to our people inHawaii for expertise there,” he said. �

Above, EO3 Edward Allen of NMCB 5 operates an excavator scooping up select fill rockand placing it in a rock dump truck. NMCB 5, based at Port Hueneme, Calif., constructeda 500-person tent camp for operations in the Central Command AOR. Below, Seabees ofNMCB 74 practice with Steel Medium Girder Bridging for river crossing operations. Thebattalion is based out of Gulfport, Miss.


T H E N A V Y H A S A N E W S E C R E T W E A P O N : T H E S E A B E E S ’ S H A D O W W A R R I O R S

S E A B E E E N G I N E E R R E C O N A I S S A N C E T E A M


The Seabees have always said, “We build,We fight,” but typically the emphasis is onconstruction and humanitarian efforts. Still,a Seabee recon team supporting the 2ndMarine Division’s push toward Baghdadfound itself in a hot zone in the Euphrates-Tigris River Valley. SERT 5, formed withinNaval Mobile Construction Division(NMCB) 5 out of Port Hueneme, Calif., isbelieved to be the first Seabee unit to facehostile fire since Vietnam.

LEAD PHOTOGRAPH BY PH1 BRIEN AHOFILE PHOTOGRAPHS BY PH1 (SW/DV) ERIC J. TILFORD


The SERT — Seabee Engineer Recon-naissance Team — performs fast evaluationsof field site conditions, usually regardingroads and bridges. Their job is to gather andreport engineering intelligence. They helpdetermine what measures and equipmentwill be needed to “fill in the gap.”

If front-line combat engineers need tocross a river, often they’ll call for an engi-neering support battalion to “splash” afloating bridge into place for passage, thenit will be dismantled as soon as possible andmoved forward to the next crossing.

The third wave, or rear-guard engineers,from the 1st Marine Expeditionary Force (IMEF) Engineer Group (I MEG) then placebridging that can handle 70-ton loads, whichcould include loaded fuel and water tankersor M1A2 Abrams tanks.

“We’ll look for a suitable adjacent site tothe floating bridge,” says Chief WarrantOfficer Matthew Kiefer. “We’ll also do routeassessments, looking for quarries, cementbatch plants, equipment — anything that canbe used for road, bridge and camp construc-tion. Then we look for a staging area.” Thegoal is to enable mobility as quickly aspossible for the main force.

“A battalion has a big footprint,” addsEquipment Operator 2nd Class Craig Ray,from South Bend, Ind. His specialty is routeanalysis. “Any intel we can provide benefits[the engineers].”

Typically, 10 people are in a team, splitinto three elements: reconnaissance,security and liaison. Field intelligence isquickly put into a digital format, usuallytext or digital image files, then downloadedto a computer and transmitted to the rearvia a high-frequency data stream.

The I MEG can then develop a gameplan in the field. For morecomplicated projects, theMEG can reach back toPacific Divisionengineers locatedin Honolulu for adetailed recom-mendation.

SERT 5 wasb r a n d - n e wwhen formed inDecember 2002and deployed toKuwait. “Wetrained together,lived together, andslept together, until wefunctioned as a unit,”says Kiefer. The group

became part of Task Force Tarawa. Thisgave them two weeks of final training withelements of the 2nd Marine Division.

When the war started, the Army’s 3rdInfantry Division raced up the left flankalong the Euphrates River. British troopsconcentrated on Basra, the second largestcity in Iraq. They besieged the city andbegan the arduous and potentiallydangerous job of house-to-house fighting.

The 1st Marine Division swept forwardon the right flank, following the Tigris. The2nd Division, the spear point of Tarawa,with SERT 5 in tow, took the middle.

“We were just in a gaggle — thousandsof vehicles moving across the desert in agaggle,” says Kiefer.

The British met stiff resistance in Basra,besieged the city and settled into a patternof block-to-block close combat. Task ForceTarawa encountered its strongest

opposition the first 10 daysaround An Nasiriyah,

encountering armedresistance, sporadic

sniping and a car-bomb ambush.

“When wecame through AnN a s i r i y a h ,Tarawa had beenthrough the nightbefore. They got

hit pretty hard,”says Kiefer. “We

were monitoring thetactical nets [and] it

was intense. It was a hotzone, but everyone

sounded really calm.”

A three-man detachment fromUnderwater Construction Team 2augmented SERT 5. The recon unit nowcarried gear necessary to work the Tigrisand Euphrates rivers and the Saddamirrigation canal: scuba tanks, Zodiacs —even a soil penetrometer. But the push wasmoving too quickly for detailed analysis,said Personnelman 2nd Class Gary Hudsonfrom Ft. Lauderdale, Fla., a member of theliaison crew.

In training, he said, “we work in termsof a 96-hour window, with a plan that canbe defined and redefined. There’s a lot ofpre-planning. But once we started rolling,there wasn’t much opportunity to dodetailed analysis.”

“It wasn’t possible to stop to go underthe bridges,” says Ray. “A quick visual[indicated] that everything was MLC 70[Military Load Class 70 tons], so ourmission kind of dwindled.” But the situationprevented SERT 5 from dropping back oreven waiting in place for support units tomove up.

Although organized Republican Guardunits turned tail early on, Iraqi irregularscontinued to throw down sporadic mortarand small arms fire.

“I didn’t really think they were firing atme,” said Kiefer. “It was surreal.”

Whenever opposition revealed itself,close air support was immediate andoverwhelming. Marine Corps AH-1WSuper Cobra and Army AH-64D ApacheLongbow helicopters raked the area withAGM-114 Hellfire missiles and machinegun fire.

“The U.S. forces were too much forthem,” Ray said.


Seabees and Marines often indulge inrough sibling humor: Seabees say they’reskilled tradespeople, too smart to be ground-pounders. Marines say Seabees should stickto nail guns instead of M-16s. But now, saysRay, “I have a new respect for the Marines.They are warriors.”

Being shot at, rolling through a battlezone and seeing the overwhelmingretaliatory response was a soberingexperience. After the Marines tookcasualties at An Nasiriyah, the tenorchanged. The game had gotten much moreserious for many troops.

None of the men could speak in specificsof the damage they saw inflicted. Theirphotographs tell more than their words, withhelicopters hovering with a black smokecloud on the horizon, enemy prisoners ofwar under guard, and a charred pickup truckwith the remains of an antiaircraft gun stillon the bed.

SERT 5 team leader, LT Bill Windus,Somerville, N.J., said only, “We went to doengineering, but the only engineering to bedone was way up the road. I saw stuff Iwon’t talk about for a long, long time.If ever.”

SERT 5 left for home April 6. �

While the SERT concept is still beingtested and refined in both active duty andreserve Seabee battalions, nothing beatsthe experience and lessons-learnedgained in Operation Iraqi Freedom. Theprincipal role of the SERT is to surveil atarget area and report back. This is donevia voice on a radio (left) and, importantly,by capturing digital imagery (right) andsquirting it back to those who can evaluateit in nearly real time. SERT teams operateday or night, but are trained to be invisiblein either environment.

Reporter Andrew G. Wright was embed-ded with several Seabee units during hisstint covering events in Central Command.SEABEE Magazine is grateful forpermission to use his work reprinted fromEngineering News-Record, copyright TheMcGraw-Hill Companies, Inc.All rights reserved.


Equipment Operator 2nd Class (DV) Chris Amescua from Underwater Construction Team 2 surfaces after a training dive at CampPatriot, Kuwait. UCT 2 was forward deployed to Operation Enduring Freedom.

U.S. NAVY PHOTO BY PH1(SW) ARLO K. ABRAHAMSON

Aqua, manAqua, manAqua, manAqua, manAqua, man

SESESESESEABABABABABEEEEEEEEEES REMEMBS REMEMBS REMEMBS REMEMBS REMEMBERERERERER KOREA: 50 Y50 Y50 Y50 Y50 Yearearearearears Ls Ls Ls Ls Laaaaattttteeeeerrrrr


July 25-27, 2003, on the National Mall inWashington, DC, and all over America, the nationpaused to give thanks to veterans of the KoreanWar. Like they had in the World War immediatelyprior, Seabees were in the thick of this one, too.An informal history.

Seabee history didn’t stop betweenthe Second World War and theKorean War, but it slowed downin one quick hurry.

Following the victories in Europe andAsia, the U.S. Armed Forces rapidlydemobilized. The Seabees were part ofthis demobilization, and by June 1946their number had fallen from peakstrength of more than 250,000 men toapproximately 20,000.

In the continental United States, theweb of training bases and depotsdissolved and all Seabee activity wasconcentrated at the Naval ConstructionBattalion Center, Port Hueneme, Calif.[The command was redesignated effectiveJune 1 as the Naval FacilitiesExpeditionary Logistics Center. –Ed.]

As Seabee ranks continued to thin, theearly post-war years saw only a fewbattalions and small construction battaliondetachments scattered to naval bases andstations abroad. Despite the diminishedstrength of the force, Seabee peacetimeactivities took on a unique and diversifiedcharacter. Besides maintaining advancedbases built during the war, they wereconfronted with many unprecedentedconstruction assignments.

What could be more unusual thanSeabees building a fleet weather stationon Russian soil? Yet in September 1945,

Seabees of the 114th NavalConstruction Battalion, stationed in theAleutian Islands, were ordered toRussia’s Kamchatka Peninsula toaccomplish just such a project.

They perhaps have the distinction ofbeing the only Americans invited todo construction work in the Union ofSoviet Socialist Republics. Also in1945 and 1946, six battalions ofSeabees performed a variety of taskson mainland China at Shanghai,Tsingtao, Tangku and other cities.Primary among their duties was theconstruction of harbors andairfields to be used for theevacuation of the defeatedJapanese troops and theimportation of supplies for thewar-torn Chinese nation.

China was not the only nation toreceive Seabee assistance after the gunsfell silent. As part of the occupation force,13 construction battalions and threespecial battalions were sent to Japan toaid US naval forces at Hiroshima,Kabayana, Yokosuka, Omura, Nagasaki,Sasebo and Kure.

Out of the post-war rubble, they rebuiltall types of facilities, including airstrips,docks, houses, electric and telephonesystems, bridges, roads, recreation areasand hospitals.

In mid-1946, Seabees were assignedthe task of constructing facilities onBikini Atoll in preparation for the historicatomic bomb tests there.

That same year, Operation High Jumpbrought Seabees to Antarctica for the firsttime. An initial detachment of 173 menaccompanied Admiral Richard Byrd toLittle America to build new facilities andunload supplies and equipment.

STORY PROVIDED BY THE NAVAL HISTORICAL CENTER

PHOTOGRAPHS COURTESY FRED SIMON


When Vieques Island, off the coastof Puerto Rico, was chosen as the site foran inter-service war exercise code-namedOperation Portrex, Seabees performed adual function. They were on the sceneprior to the main-body arrival to reclaimthe island’s abandoned wartime defensefacilities. They then returned asparticipants in the exercise and

successfully built apontoon causeway that brought thearriving army units ashore.

During World War II, the Seabees werea Naval Reserve organization, createdspecifically for that war. Most Seabeeswere “USNR” and served “for theduration plus six months.” After the war,

however, it was clear that theSeabees, having more than proved theirworth, would be a valuable new additionto the regular, active duty force. In 1947,the Seabees became part of the regular,peacetime Navy.



In December 1947, a SeabeeReserve Organization was establishedto augment active-duty Seabeesduring national emergencies. Manyof these first Seabee Reservists wereSeabee veterans of World War II whowished to continue to serve thenation. The first Reserve Seabeeswere organized into a number ofdivisions in each Naval District. EachSeabee Reserve Division initiallyconsisted of five officers and 40enlisted men. Although by 1949 thenumber of active duty Seabees haddwindled to 3300, the reserveorganization served as a ready forcefor expansion in the comingemergency in Korea.Seabees Enter the Korean War

In June 1950, following theinvasion of South Korea by thearmies of communist North Korea,the Seabees found themselves at waragain. As part of the U.S. contingentof the United Nations force, they roseto the challenge in the tradition oftheir “Can Do!” predecessors. By acalling up of Reservists, the active-duty Seabee force was expanded tomore than 14,000.

On Sept. 15, 1950 U.S. troops andBees landed at Inchon in what hascome to be known as one of the mostbrilliant amphibious assaults inhistory — and the Seabees achievedrenown as the men who made it possible.Battling enormous 30-ft tides and a swiftcurrent while under continuous enemyfire, they positioned pontoon causewayswithin hours of the first beach assault.

Following the landing, the incidentknown as the “Great Seabee TrainRobbery” took place. The need to breakthe equipment bottleneck at the harborinspired a group of Seabees to stealbehind enemy lines and capture someabandoned locomotives. Despite enemymortar fire, they brought the train enginesback intact and turned them over to theArmy Transportation Corps.

In October, Seabees ran their pontoonstructures ashore again and set up anotheroperating port at Wonsan. When thestrenuous harbor construction and campoperations ceased to fill their days, theybranched into the unusual tasks ofinspecting North Korean armament on anabandoned mine-laying ship, clearingmined tunnels and performing repairwork on nearby ships.

When the Chinese Communists joinedretreating North Koreans to launchanother full-scale invasion of SouthKorea, the Seabees were compelled toredouble their efforts — this time to helpthe retreating UN forces. At Hungwan,Wonsan and Inchon, where Seabees hadbeen instrumental in putting UN forcesashore, Seabee pontoon causeways werenow loaded with troops and equipmentgoing the other way.

By February 1951, however, the tideturned once again and the Seabeesreturned to Inchon for another landing.They found their previously constructedharbor facilities in a state of ruin, butmiraculously enough, some of theirsturdy pontoon structures were still inplace. After a rapid repair job, men andequipment streamed ashore again.

Seabee participation in the Korean Warwas certainly not limited to amphibiousoperations. Another of their outstandingcontributions was in that specialty of theirWorld War II predecessors — airfieldconstruction. Seabees could be found

throughout the war zone constructing,repairing, and servicing the K-fields ofthe various Marine Air Groups. TheSeabees were broken up into numerousdetachments and each was assigned to anairfield designated with a “K” number,such as K-3 at Pohang, K-18 at Kimboand K-2 at Taegu [See page 67. –Ed.]

Keeping the planes flying was anarduous and often dangerous task. At onesmall airstrip on the 36th Parallel,chuckholes were opening up in the failingconcrete faster than the Seabees couldrepair them.

As it was absolutely vital that the fieldremain open, the undaunted Seabeesgraded, poured and patched one side ofthe runway while bomb-laden aircraftcontinued to fly off the other side.

Seabee relations with the Marine Corpswere further cemented by a group of nineSeabees who kept a 21-mile stretch of roadopen between an isolated Marine interceptsquadron and its source of supplies. TheBees worked round-the-clock in below-zero temperatures to successfully fulfill


their promise to rebuild any damagedbridge within six hours.

One of the most incredible Seabee featsof the war took place on the small island ofYo in the Bay of Wonsan. In communisthands again in 1952, Wonsan was a keysupply and transportation center for theenemy. As such, carrier-based aircraftstrikes against Wonsan and points deeperin the interior were numerous andconstant.

Planes were hit by enemy fire daily,leaving their pilots with the unhappychoice of either ditching at sea orattempting to land in enemy-held territory.The need for an emergency airstrip wascritical and, under the code-nameOperation “Crippled Chick,” a detachmentof Seabees came to the rescue.

Put ashore on Yo Island, they were given35 days to construct a runway. Workingunder constant artillery bombardment fromneighboring enemy positions, theymanaged to complete the 2400-foot airstripin only 16 days. By a prearranged signal— “Steak is Ready” — the Seabeessignaled that the job was done, and ninedamaged aircraft landed on the new fieldthat same day.

The rapid demobilization that followedthe Second World War was not repeatedafter the signing of the Korean Armisticein July 1953. Crises in Berlin, Cuba,Africa, South America and especially inSoutheast Asia created the necessity tomaintain military strength andpreparedness. Seabee Reservists hadhelped meet the Korean crisis, but theonset of the Cold War had indicated theneed for a basic reorganization of Seabeecapabilities as well as for increased Seabeenumbers.

Accordingly, between 1949 and 1953,13 battalions of two distinct types wereestablished. The new establishmentssignified a gain in greater battalionmobility and specialization.

The first type, the new AmphibiousConstruction Battalions, were landing anddocking units. An integral part of the fleetamphibious forces, their mission was toplace causeways and ship-to-shore fuellines, construct pontoon docks andperform other functions necessary for theexpeditious landing of men, equipment,and supplies.

Mobile Construction Battalionsconstituted the second type. They wereresponsible for land construction of a widevariety, including camps, roads, tankfarms, airstrips, permanent waterfrontstructures and many other base facilities. �

“I HAD JUST FINISHED A JOB withConstruction Battalion Detachment [CBD]1802 on Okinawa and was living with theArmy’s 29th Infantry Division at Kubasaki,surveying an old Japanese airstrip and theBuckner Bay Harbor. When finished, I flewto MCB 2 NAS Atsugi Japan.

“In November 1951, CBD 1804 wasformed and, like CBD 1802, we were mostlysurveyors. We were to travel to Po Hang-dong, Korea. Our job was to survey theexisting air strip being used by the 1st MarineAir Wing, Marine Air Group [MAG] 33.

“The strip was too short for the largerplanes and had to be extended. The Navybussed us to Itami, Japan where we wereissued foul weather gear and asked, ‘Wherewould you like your body sent?’ I said,‘Nowhere! I’m bringing it back with me.’

“We flew to Korea in a Military AirTransport plane and with us was the escortshown in the attached picture. We weregiven a wooden barracks in the Marinecompound and other than an incident whena Marine Corpsofficer barged inscreaming for us tograb our weapons andget outside, life wasfairly routine. Weenjoyed the companyof the Marine airmen.

“While surveying the strip, we were rightdown the center with our instruments whenthe tower fired a flare. We ran for thefoxholes around the perimeter and aGrumman F6F ‘Hellcat’ came down with abomb hanging from its wing. It seems theold WWII planes sometimes had troubledetaching bombs from the aircraft and manytimes, after trying to shake it off, wouldcome in with it dangling.

“Such bombs usually came off when theplane touched down and they skipped acrossthe strip and came to a stop withoutdetonating. The F9F ‘Panther’ jets didn’thave that problem.

“Our two Marine squadrons flew manysorties and there were also some nightbombers that took pictures over thebattle areas.

I was thereI was thereI was thereI was thereI was there: An Oral History: An Oral History: An Oral History: An Oral History: An Oral History

“We had this thrill quite a few times whilecompleting the survey: We saw a Vought F-4U ‘Corsair’ catch fire while attempting atake off. We threw snow on the engine andhelped the pilot get out safely. He said, ‘Didyou ever try to get out of one of those witha parachute on?’ Of course we hadn’t, butit was quite a sight seeing him squeeze out.He also said he was trying to get it flying inorder to take it to Japan to trade it in on abetter plane.

“The final estimate was one millionsquare yards of earth fill to make the runwaylong enough, another good job that wascompleted by Navy Seabees. We were quiteimpressed with the men of MAG 33 andjoined them in their Christmas of 1951 andNew Year’s celebration of 1952. The chowwas good and the quarters were usually aswarm and comfortable as an oil burningstove.

“We didn’t experience any air attacks, asthe squadrons were a good deterrent, butthe siren went off a few times and wewondered what we’d do, as our foxholeswere half full of frozen water.

“The attached picture [above] is how wekept warm outside, as modeled by RodHoward and Paul Sweeney. The motto onthe ‘Welcome’ sign [left] says ‘TransKorean Airlines — Anything, Anywhere,Anytime, Small Fields a Specialty.’Thedetachment picture [previous page] showsme as the fourth from the right, bottom row,behind the flag, which is hanging on mywall now.”

— Fred Simon



The story of the Navy Seabees andtheir performance during the KoreanConflict begins in the immediate

post-World War II years. As with all of theUS armed services, the Seabees were partof the wholesale release of active personnelduring the 1945 to 1947 period. The WorldWar was ended and more than 12 millionuniformed personnel were released fromactive duty beginning in 1945.

Several events during the post-World WarII period drew attention to possible futureUS military actions. The period was one ofdeveloping world tension. The Soviet Uniontook over Hungary in 1947 and Czech-oslovakia in 1948. The East Germans andthe Soviets blocked the land access to theAllied sections of Berlin causing the BerlinAirlift during 1948-1949.

The US armed forces, including reserveforces, were engaged in the Berlin Airlift.The explosion of an atomic bomb by theSoviet Union in 1949 continued theescalation of tensions.

Seabees on active duty dropped from over250,000 during World War II to a level of3300 active duty Seabees by 1949. Thatnumber increased to 6000 by 1950,primarily due to increasing demand forconstruction and maintenance support atnaval bases and stations worldwide. Ingeneral, the post-World War II period wasa time of smaller operations and austerebudgets for the Navy and the Marine Corps.

When the North Koreans crossed the 38thparallel June 25, 1950, and entered SouthKorea, US forces were shocked initially andabsorbed the attack while withdrawing tothe south. The theater commander was GENDouglas MacArthur, Supreme Commander,Allied Powers Japan.

The Naval Forces Far East Command hadbeen under the command of ADM C. TurnerJoy, USN, since August 1949. He reportedin Japan to General MacArthur, who waslater designated, Commander in Chief, UNCommand. The Far East Command,including the mission of logistics support,

was located in Japan and its principle baseswere at Yokohama, Guam and at Subic Bayin the Philippines. All were significantdistances from any action in Korea. Theoperating fleet was the Seventh Fleet underVADM Arthur D. Struble, USN.

Reacting to the need for personnel forKorean operations, President Truman calledout the nation’s Reserve and National Guardunits July 19, 1950. As an example of thespeed of mobilization, the first MarineCorps Reserve units reached CampPendleton, Calif., July 31, 1950. By Sept.1, 1950, call-ups had brought in about256,000 men into the three services.

The Seabees supported the Marine Corpsin Korea as they had done in World War II.This was especially true of airfieldmaintenance and construction, because thetransition from prop-driven planes to jetaircraft occurred during this time. From anengineering viewpoint, the Pierced SteelPlanking (or Marston mat), used sosuccessfully as main runways in World War

Above, Seabees set up a pontoon pier tounload supplies from landing craft at Inchon,Sept. 19, 1950. Below left, a CBD 1804 “classpicture” at K-3, Spring 1953. Below right, arock crusher operating at K-3.

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The worldwide USnetwork of WWII basesand stations remainedafter the war. The Navy’swere still in existence in thelate 1940s — and Seabeeunits were deployedaround the globe.

STORY BY CAPT. LARRY G. DEVRIES, CEC, USNR (RET.)PHOTOGRAPHS COURTESY PAT MORRIS

SeabeesSeabeesSeabeesSeabeesSeabeesin Korea,in Korea,in Korea,in Korea,in Korea,1950-19531950-19531950-19531950-19531950-1953

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II for piston-engine aircraft, did not standup to the punishment meted out by jetaircraft. That fact demanded new methodsand materials in airfield runwayconstruction and a six-inch blacktop layerwas often used.

Cold weather, approximately that ofnorthern Maine, and hot weather,approximately that of Washington, DC,contributed to the stress on the work andthe Seabees. The shortage of nativeskilled labor and lack of local supplysources contributed to the challengesof construction.

The Navy’s Seabee battalions werenot deployed to Korea as completeMobile Construction Battalion units.Active duty Bees were called upon toprovide smaller construction units.

NCB-104 was formed byreactivation of a World War II unit in1947. It arrived at Camp McGill, Japan,at the outbreak of the Korean Conflict.It was shortly converted into ACB-1.GEN MacArthur successfully landedwith the United Nations forces atInchon, South Korea Sept. 15, 1950,and drove north. The Seabees of ACB-1 were attached to the 1st MarineDivision and were part of the landingforce under RADM James H. Doyle,USN, Commander, Amphibious Forceat Inchon.

ACB-1 was organized in 1950 fromNCB-104. It served at Inchon, Wolmi-do, Red and Blue Beaches and YoIsland in the Bay of Wonsan assigned

to the 1st Marine Division.It was part of Task Force 90and Operation Chromite, USArmy X Corps, during theInchon landing and was partof landing of The WonsanCampaign of October 1950.

The ACB-1 Seabees werelanded on Inchon as part ofthe landing force. Theireffort was directed atproviding the pontooncauseways necessary tounload LSTs.

In May 1952, ACB-1managed to build anemergency airstrip on thesmall island of Yo. Whileunder heavy enemy fire, theybuilt a 2400-foot airstrip in

16 days.During the work, they were forced to

repair the new shell holes made daily bythe enemy batteries across the bay. Duringthe year it was used, it saved more than 60fliers and at least $10 million in aircraft.

During the Korean War, the UN Far EastAir Force (FEAF) used some 15 air basesin Japan to support combat operations inKorea. In addition, the Air Force eitherimproved or constructed some 55 airfields.These air bases were all numbered and somebecame better known by their number than

by their name. The more important of theseairfields included:

K-1 Pusan WestK-2 Taegu K-13 SuwonK-3 Pohang-dong K-14 KimpoK-5 Taejon K-16 SeoulK-6 Pyongtaek K-40 Cheju-doK-8 Kunsan K-46 HeongsongK-9 Pusan East K-47 ChunchonK-10 Chinhae K-55 OsanThe Seabees grew from their strength of

3300 just prior to Korea up to 14,000 at thepeak strength during the conflict. Theauthorized strength of a Mobile Con-struction Battalion was 550 men, but actualstrength often varied.

The standard issue rifle was the M-1 .30-cal Garand rifle, but some Seabees werereportedly issued M-1903 .30-06-calSpringfield rifles in training, a carry-overfrom World War II. The .45 cal. pistol wasa standard sidearm.

The Seabees’ uniform was a mixedassortment. Seabees on active duty in-theater Korea wore Marine Corps-issueuniforms, while some of those in trainingin the States, including Reservists, wore thewhite “Dixie cup” cap with blue workdungarees and a Navy work jacket.

RADM Joseph F. Jelley, CEC, USN, hadbeen Chief of the Bureau of Yards andDocks (BuDocks), and the Seabees, sinceDec. 1, 1949. The worldwide US network

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Seabee CE3 Pat Morris, with CBMU 1 atChinhae, Korea, in 1953.



of World War II bases and stations remainedafter the war and the Navy’s were still inexistence in the late 1940s. BuDocks,therefore, still had responsibilities andmissions in many places around the globe,including Seabee units deployed in theAtlantic, Caribbean, European andMediterranean areas.

A Korean-era project that occupied manySeabees was begun in the Philippines in1951. It was at this time that the Seabeesbegan building the naval base there at CubiPoint. About 3000 Seabees from MCBs 2,3, 5, 9 and 11 spent the next five yearsexpending over 20 million man-hoursbuilding the installation for the Navy’sSeventh Fleet.Reserve Seabees

As we know, the Seabees were created inWorld War II and their ratings wereconsidered Reserve ratings. In fact, allWorld War II Seabee construction personnelwere designated “USNR.” All Seabeesremaining on active duty continued in thatstatus before the Navy made them apermanent part of the Navy and classifiedconstruction ratings as permanent “USN”in 1947.

The Naval Reserve had existed since1916, but the Seabees were not a part of theNaval Reserve as the Seabees had beencreated during World War II. After a periodof post-war review the Seabees became anofficial part of the Naval Reserve onDecember 31, 1947.

The Reserve Seabee program consistedof 234 Seabee Companies, with about 1100officers and 9000 enlisted, organized in about

200 Naval TrainingCenters. ReserveSeabee Companieswere not deployableorganizations, so no“Reserve Seabeeunits” per se served

in the Korean era.Seabees from the reserve component,

however, had a profound effect when theKorean Conflict began. The Navy called onthe Seabee Reserve for skilled constructionmen to bolster the regular force.

Within a few weeks, individual volunteersfrom across the country had been activatedand had proceeded to their ports ofembarkation.

Within a few months, more than 60percent of Seabees on active duty wereReservists. �

“DURING THE KOREAN WAR, Iserved two tours in Korea with CBMU 1and CBMU 101. They were attached tothe 3rd Marine Air Wing out of OrangeCounty, Calif., at the old El Toro MarineBase, now closed.

“All in all, I owe so much to theSeabees for getting me started in a usefulcareer in construction, being a contractorand a consultant, and today owning alarge, successful general engineering andconstruction consultancy. But prior toenlisting, while in high school andcollege, I joined the Navy as a Reservist.While in school during and after WorldWar II, many of my friends had joined theArmy Reserves in California.

When the Korean Conflict started, allwho belonged to the Army Reserves werecalled to active duty with the famous 40thDivision, which went directly to Korea. Ididn’t want to wait for my call up, so Iwent to Los Angeles and enlisted in theSeabees. It was the best thing that everhappened to me.

“I was advised never to volunteer foranything, but I volunteered for everythingthat came along. It often really paid off.While in Korea, my commanding officerasked for a volunteer to fly to the islandof Cheju-do and make a survey for a laterradar site. One of the Marine pilots flewme over in his plane and I was there fortwo weeks.

“The island was a training base forRepublic of Korea (ROK) Marines. Whilewaiting for my plane ride back to base, Ispent time with the famous Amacommunity. In their culture, women godiving for food, for kelp, lobster andabalone, while the men stay home andtake care of the children. Having donesome diving in the waters of SouthernCalifornia, where I was born and raised, I

I was thereI was thereI was thereI was thereI was there: An Oral History: An Oral History: An Oral History: An Oral History: An Oral History

felt I could free-dive with the best ofthem. Was I ever wrong! Those Amawomen divers could hold their breath forthree to four minutes at a time. I couldn’teven approach that time.

“For the most part, CBMU 1 wasstationed at K-3 at Pohang-dong, on theeast coast near Taegu. Our unit’s projectwas to construct and maintain an airfieldfor the 3rd Marine Air Wing — one ofwhose pilot members was Ted Williams,at the time probably one of the bestprofessional baseball players in the world.I had played some baseball in school, asmost all students did in those days. Thereis just no comparison between the ball weplayed, though, and the ball played byTed Williams. This by itself was worth thetrip to Korea to be able to say, ‘I playedbaseball with Ted Williams.’

“I later was stationed on Guam withConstruction Battalion Detachment 1506.While there, I would volunteer to look forJapanese stragglers from WWII. Eitherthey didn’t know the war was over ordidn’t believe it. They hid in caves duringthe day and came out at night to scourlocal ranches for foodstuffs.

“During my tour, we captured threesuch holdouts that were shipped back toJapan. While on Guam, I volunteered fortemporary duty at such exotic placesSaipan, Spain, Tinian, Kwajalein, Bikiniand Eniwetak.

“The photos I was able to salvage after50 years were taken by a Kodak Boxcamera that I carried with me, a presentfrom my Mom. I apologize for thequality, but that’s all I had. I really didjoin the Navy to see the world – and anysuccess I have had in the business worldis due to my time spent with the UnitedStates Navy Seabees.”

— Richard Coulson

BU2s Jack Kaelin (left) and RichardCoulson, “apparently trying to figure out

what we were doing there.” >>


Seabee scenes, clockwise from upper left:Local workers help build the airstrip at K-3;baseball legend Ted Williams, a Marine Corpsfighter pilot in WWII and in Korea, walked awayfrom an unscheduled hard landing there. AKorean English teacher and his family. An of-ficer departs for home. “Military Payment Cer-tificate” was “American money” in Korea. RaySorrentino and Tex Groves at CBD 1804. Beesfrom CBMU 1 open their Korean new “super-highway.” Seabee Supply at K-3.Below, another Seabee Quonset hut goes up.

SEABEE Magazine expresses its profound appreciation for the personal photos former Seabees pulled — from their wallets and Web sites.


THE RAIN FELL FOR 16 DAYS. It wasn’tthe kind of rain that kept the grass green andthe trees tall. It was the kind of rain that hurtswhen it hits your head. The skies opened upand the water poured down. You could lookit up in Webster’s under the entry for“biblical.” On top of that, it was freezing.

That didn’t stop Naval Mobile Construc-tion Battalion (NMCB) 23, from FortBelvoir, Va., entrenched in the field March27-April 13 at Marine Corps Base CampLejeune, N.C., for the Sharp Wedge 2003(SW03) exercise. The Reservist Bees builtand secured a camp where they lived formore than two weeks — and faced manychallenges on the unit’s first fully tacticalfield exercise (FEX).

The annual combat training exercise isdesigned to test the military and construc-tion skills of Naval ConstructionForce reserve units to meet theoperational requirement tosupport the US Marine Corps ina contingency environment. Aspart of the SW03, Marines fromII Marine Expeditionary Force (IIMEF) Camp Lejeune, as well as instructorsfrom the Twentieth Seabee ReadinessGroup, Atlantic (20SRGLANT), out ofGulfport, Miss., regularly probed the campto test the Seabees’ ability to defend theirposition.

Each Seabee received a weapon and Mul-tiple Integrated Laser Engagement System(MILES) gear. Essentially a sophisticatedlaser tag scorekeeper, the MILES gearallows exercise instructors to know who wasshot, who fired a weapon and how manyrounds were fired, as well as otherinformation about each participant.

Seabees learned the value of keeping theirfield gear close at hand, particularly the gasmask and their weapons, as the Marine andinstructor aggressors, simulating real-worldsituations, dropped CS gas canisters —frequently and in great numbers.

“We are trying to train these people toprepare for the unexpected,” said HospitalCorpsman 2nd Class John Batson, 36, of

Conventional wisdom holds that if you train like you fight, you willfight like you train. The wisdom makes no exceptions for adversity.Here’s how a battalion of Seabee Reserves put that axiom to the testto triumph over their enemy and the weather at Sharp Wedge 2003.

STORY BY LT LILA BAKKE AND JO1 BRIGETTE BARNES

PHOTOGRAPHY BY JO1 BRIGETTE BARNES

Easley, S.C., a member of the 20SRGLANT.The instructors were pleased with the

reserve battalion’s performance.“They did pretty well,” Batson said,

adding that the terrorist situations werechallenging for the battalion. “But they werevery eager to learn. It makes our job a loteasier when we see their appreciation.”

Aggressor scenarios included infiltratorsin the camp, combatants disguised as civil-ians, with snipers, protestors, and refugeesas well as the more traditional and easilyidentified soldier-combatants.

Simulated protestors from a local villagewanted the Seabees to leave and tried to getthrough the lines; supply and personnel con-voys (both real and notional) were attacked;prisoners of war were taken; and many were“killed in action.” Those missing and killed

in action, however, were quickly resurrectedor returned after the appropriate paperwork— casualty reports and requests for replace-ment personnel — had been filed withhigher headquarters.

Their camp could hardly have been moredifficult to set up. A recently clear-cutforest, the site was populated with stumpsmeasuring 12 to 18 inches from the ground,with burnt, half-rotted logs left where they

Reserve Bees “going forward” in a scenethat could have been torn from a WWIIhistory book. Below, “protestors” arerepelled by Seabee security forces.


had fallen,like gianttoothpicksspilled hap-h a z a r d l yfrom their

box. Shrubbery had grown wild and tangled.The logs and debris had to be removed be-fore the tents could be pitched.

It was impossible to pitch a tent withouthaving half a dozen stumps inside. The sitebecame known, affectionately, as “CampStumpy.”

In all, 47 tents were raised in two and halfdays, including two strongbacks for thecommand operations center and battalion aidstation, showers and galley tents. The gal-ley tents were the last to go up. It was sixdays before the air det had hot food andshowers, only four for the main body.

The completion of the shower and galleyfacilities marked a turning point for mostSeabees and greatly bolstered morale. Withfood in their stomachs and clean bodies, theSeabees worked and defended their campwith renewed vigor.

Hard-line communications, includingphone lines, were put in place and a smallbustling community came to life.

Fighting positions were on a line follow-ing the perimeter of a landing zone, yardsaway from anything, in holes dug into thesand. Work shifts were at 12-hour intervals.

“You go to bed, get up, get your gear on,grab an MRE and go to your hole,” observedSteelworker 2nd Class Roger Fair, ofCharlie/Delta Company, when asked whatit was like to be on the line. “It’s not all thatcomplicated. But you do have to be alert andaware out there. That is not easy in the bestof weather. That’s why there are two to ahole, so that you can take turns sleeping.

“Most nights, you couldn’t see past themuzzle of your weapon, so you had to smellor listen for the Marines.”

Fortunately, the Marines didn’t escape theextreme weather unscathed, Fair laughed.“Mostly, you could hear them coughing andsniffling,” he said, as they were as miser-able as the Seabees they were stalking.

“Sharp Wedge is critically important,” saidCAPT Barbara Sisson, commanding officerof the Third Naval Construction Regiment,“because this exercise is the culmination ofall training preparation for deployment. Itputs us at the peak of readiness. Until youactually go and do it, how can you actuallyknow that you can?” �

Medal of Honor recipient and DeputyAssistant Secretary of the Navy for ReserveAffairs H.C. “Barney” Barnum Jr. visited withNMCB 23 in the field March 31.

Barnum encouraged the Seabees to takethe training seriously.

“We don’t know what’s going to happen,”Barnum said. “In war, stuff happens.Murphy has his hands in everything. Get asmuch out of this training as you can, sothat if you have to go, you will be betterprepared to perform.”

A former Marine Corps Lieutenant Colonel,Barnum served on active duty more than27 years, including tours in Vietnam, PearlHarbor, Parris Island and HeadquartersMarine Corps in Washington, D.C. Barnumwas the fourth Marine to receive the Medalof Honor — the nation’s highest honor forvalor — for his service action in Vietnam.

He met with many of the battalion’sSeabees individually, thanking them fortheir service and encouraging them to getthe most out of what they were doing.

“Our forces have to be flexible,” he said.“We may require more Seabee support. Justthink of the reason you are here. It’s veryimportant.”

Barnum told the Seabees that he didn’tfeel he had to give a huge motivationalspeech, because “the motivation is goingon over there in the big sandbox.”

— BB

Medal of Honor RecipientMedal of Honor RecipientMedal of Honor RecipientMedal of Honor RecipientMedal of Honor RecipientVVVVVisits Bees at isits Bees at isits Bees at isits Bees at isits Bees at Sharp WSharp WSharp WSharp WSharp Wedgeedgeedgeedgeedge


This School is a BlastThis School is a BlastThis School is a BlastThis School is a BlastThis School is a Blast

From the armies of the Great ByzantineEmpire and Roman Legions to modernmilitary forces in the Middle East, there area couple of elements that make armiessuccessful water, and rock.

Water, because huge combat forcesrequire water to sustain them, and rock, sothat roads, highways, airfields, portfacilities and foundations for camps can bebuilt to support fighting forces. The missionof the Naval Construction Force takesSeabees all over the world. Oftentimes, CivilEngineer officers and the Seabees must relyon acquiring building materials from thelocal area to complete mission tasking.

Water and rock.

There are wild extremes of weather, from picture-postcardlakeside idylls to cold mountain vistas. But students learna lot about one of the most specialized jobs in the Navy.

And then they get to blow stufAnd then they get to blow stufAnd then they get to blow stufAnd then they get to blow stufAnd then they get to blow stuff up.f up.f up.f up.f up.STORY BY STEVE MCCOMBS, EOCS(SCW) ART MESSER & EOC(SCW) TOM KUNTZ

PHOTOGRAPHS BY EOC(SCW) TIMOTHY “DZ” DZIERGAS & EO1(SCW) PHIL CUZZETTO


Tucked away in the high desert hills abovethe Naval Air Warfare Center (NAWS) inChina Lake, Calif., a group of Seabees trainNavy combat engineers in the fields ofWater Well Drilling and Blasting and QuarryOperations. NAWS China Lake is home forthe Naval Construction Training Unit,military professionals dedicated toproviding a world-class education in howto get water out of the ground and “makinglittle rocks out of big rocks.” Senior ChiefEquipment Operator (SCW) Douglas Hunt isthe officer in charge of the unit, reportingto the Naval Construction Training Center(NCTU) Port Hueneme, Calif.

For those who have neverbeen to the high desert,China Lake can be an awak-ening experience, especiallyin the summer months whenthe temperatures oftenexceed 115 degrees andeveryone carries water toavoid dehydration and heatstress. During the wintermonths, China Lake getscold, often hitting tempera-tures down to 10 degrees.Winds come off the nearbySierra Nevada Mountainsand whip through the area,adding wind chill to an al-ready frosty environment.And when you consider thedesert is home to a variety of unsavory crea-tures, such as rattlesnakes and scorpions,it’s no place for the timid or tender of foot.

Water Well Drilling training is ideallysuited to the high desert because of thevaried geologic formations. Water Wellclasses drill between two and three wellsin a six-week course. One well may be inan ancient lakebed to a depth of 300 feetand the next may be in a confining layer ofgranite or volcanic basalt, where the depthcould go as deep as 1500 feet. Drillers arechallenged with learning how to borethrough various strata to different depths.

Water Well drilling is a refined art,combining the ability to interpret geologic

data and identify water-bearing formationsthrough surface indications. Using thelatest technology and equipment to drillthe water well, Chief Equipment Operator(SCW) James Jones, Equipment Operator 1stClass (SCW) John Romero and ConstructionMechanic 2nd Class (SCW) Caleb Painter leadthe NCTU Water Well Team.

You say you need several tons of graniteblown out of the side of a mountain? “Cando, sir!” This is where the Blasting andQuarry crew, led by Chief EquipmentOperator (SCW) Timothy “DZ” Dziergas stepsin to teach Seabees. As lead blasting andquarry instructor, Dziergas and a select few

experts like Equipment Operator 1st Class(SCW) Phil Cuzzetto and ConstructionMechanic 1st Class (SCW) Lewis Lovos,provide classroom training, teaching thebasic theories of soil mechanics, rockdrilling and explosives. Once the studentshave passed a strict series of examinations,it’s off to the quarry site for hands-onoperations.

When an area of rock is chosen fordemolition, an exacting process takes place.The weight and composition of the soil iscalculated and the blasters decide wherethey may want to “move” it. Holes aredrilled to a specific depth and placementinto the rock. It’s quite an operation to

watch as the drillers gracefully operateheavy equipment up on a rock ledge. Asthe holes are drilled, they are capped toprevent any debris from entering andinterfering with the explosion, and thenall the charges are set in place.

Some blasts, called “shots,” are done withplastic explosives. At other times, the shotmight call for an Ammonium Nitrate andFuel Oil (ANFO) mixture. Each method andrelated tasks is a precise and rigorousprocess, with each hole containing apre-determined amount of explosive.

Safety is the top priority with thistraining. Operational Risk Management is

performed at every level ofthe operation with no roomfor short cuts. Safetyprocedures, pre-mishap plansand use of personnelprotective equipment arestrictly enforced. Onlyauthorized personnel areallowed in the blasting areaand every conceivableprecaution is taken. Whenevery requirement is checkedand double-checked, theblasters are ready to fire.

Non-essential personnelare mustered at a safedistance away from the blastzone. Only a select fewpersonnel are allowed in the

bunker, a steel container covered withsandbags. The lead blaster for the shotmakes a final check of the area and proceedsto the bunker. A siren wails and acountdown begins.

“Fifteen, fourteen … three, two, one —fire the shot.”

Several tons of rock and soil erupt. Whenthe dust clears, there is a neat, clean pileof debris in the exact location the blasterswanted. Once the blast area is given finalclearance, the front-end loaders can movein and haul off the rock for use in numerousapplications, including making concrete. Itis an awesome demonstration and one ofthe most motivating experiences going. �


Seabee Recruiters Take ‘Can Do!’ to the StreetsIf you seek challenges, a chance forimproved advancement and more,being a Seabee recruiter is a differentkind of ‘field assignment’

STORY AND PHOTOGRAPHY BY

JO1 MICHAEL B. MURDOCK

EO2(SCW) Grayden J.Hollister (l), talks withprospective enlistee JosephN. Mashore.

CM2 (SCW) Tauati P. Malietufa talks to aprospective Seabee applicant by phone.

With Seabees deployedliterally all over the planet,the need for high-qualityBees never stops. The “CanDo!” spirit is alive and wellin the world of Navy recruit-ing, with as many as 200Seabees working as recruit-ers across the country on anygiven day.

While recruiting duty canbe an intensely challengingassignment, recruiters oftenfind it to be very rewardingas well.

“When I see a kid whocomes off the street, I kind ofhave flashbacks of being thatkid, just like when I firstjoined,” said Builder SeniorChief (SCW) Richard F.Cataldi, recruiter in charge ofNavy Recruiting StationEverett, Wash. “I wanted toget away and I wanted a bet-ter life for myself. That’s stillwhat kids come into myoffice looking for.”

The chance to helpothers while helpingthemselves, leadsmany Sailors andSeabees to look at re-cruiting duty. Whatthey discover is that re-cruiting offers manybenefits that are not availableanywhere else in the Navy. As aresult, the reasons for takingorders for arecruiting tour are many.

“Actually, I have three rea-sons,” said Equipment Operator2nd Class (SCW) Grayden J.Hollister, Navy Recruiting Sta-tion Puyallup, Wash. “First, Iwanted to afford myself anopportunity to continue workingon my degree.

“Second, because of an agree-ment with my wife when I cameon active duty, that at some pointin my career, she would be ableto go home. The third reasonwas because I had heard somuch about what recruiting cando for your career.”

Career enhancement isprobably the biggest reasonSailors choose recruiting.In the Seabee community,where the ranks are com-paratively small and ad-vancement can sometimesbe difficult, a recruiting touroffers the chance to stand

apart from peers.“I plan on doing 20 [years]

and this gives me diversity in my

career,” said ConstructionMechanic 2nd Class SCW)Tauati P. Malietufa, of NavyRecruiting Station MetroSeattle. “I think every Seabeeshould try it out.”

Advancement was high on thelist of priorities for Cataldi.When he was offered orders toa construction battalion unit, heturned them down.

Instead, he chose recruitingduty because it offered a betterchance for advancement and theopportunity to live in a locationthat was otherwise tough to getorders to.

Recruiting duty worked forCataldi, too. Not only was hewas assigned to a recruiting sta-tion near where he wanted tolive — he was also advanced toSenior Chief Petty Officer lessthan a year after arriving inEverett.

According to Cataldi, if youare planning to make the Navya career, a challenging tour likerecruiting can be a good choice.

When their recruiting toursare over, the Seabees are look-

ing forward to returning to theirold jobs, which they feel will beenhanced by the skills learnedwhile on recruiting duty.

Ultimately though, what theSeabee recruiters seem to takepride in the most is the chanceto help someone do somethingto better themselves.

“You put someone in theNavy, and they go to boot camp,they go to “A” school and theycome back to visit you, and theyare doing well,” said Cataldi.

“It makes you feel good aboutwhat you do.”

Seabees interested in arecruiting tour must first calltheir in-rate detailer and ask tobe released to special programs.Once released, they must pre-pare and submit a screeningpackage to determine theireligibility for recruiting.

The screening package willbe the determining factor inwhether applicants are selectedfor recruiting duty. For moreinformation on Seabee recruit-ing, contact your Command Ca-reer Counselor. �

Seabee Opportunities:Seabee Opportunities:Seabee Opportunities:Seabee Opportunities:Seabee Opportunities: RECRUITING DUTY


The shortest distance betweenmost of Submarine Base in NewLondon, Conn., and the NavalAmbulatory Care Center(NACC) used to be up a rockyincline — with a 100-ft eleva-tion difference. This didn’t stoppeople from trying to take thisshortest route, often subjectingthemselves to potential injuryand the secret joys of poison ivyexposure.

Alternative routes were atleast eight times longer. Centeradministrators decided to builda walkway to help people get upthe hill and make visiting NACCa little easier, and that’s whenConstruction Battalion Mainte-

nance Unit (CBMU) 202, a Re-serve Seabee unit located at thebase, got involved.

The initial design called for apoured concrete stairway. How-ever, equipment and manpowershortages precluded taking thatplan. Instead, the Bees opted touse structural aluminum, withaluminum grating and expandedmetal treads. The aluminumcould be cut and fabricatedusing available tools.

Several base departmentspitched in. The Public WorksDepartment prepared new draw-ings, which were based onearlier unused plans. In addition,PWD also supplied the material.

Members of CBMU 202supplied the labor, usingannual training and addi-tional duty training time as wellas regular drill time.

The walkway, 4 ft wide by 350ft long, has an elevation changeof 97 ft that required 180 steps.

Support footings for thiswalkway are 12-in. diameter,3000-psi concrete. Sonotube,round cardboard forms, wereused as the concrete form for thefootings.

These tubes required muchless effort and material thanformwork. Where existing soilwas available, the footings were42 inches deep, well below the36-inch Connecticut frost line.

Where footings had to beinstalled onrock, holes wereput in the rockthe and rebarwas grouted inat least 6 inches.The footingswere attached tothe rebar. Alltold, 74 footingswere needed,requiring 12 cu-bic yards ofconcrete.

All of theconcrete wast h o r o u g h l yhand-mixed andthen manuallyplaced.

The structure

was built from 4-by-4-inchaluminum angle and 12-by-4-inch aluminum channel.The angle and channel werecut using a chop saw with acarbide blade. Bolt holeswere drilled using a drill presswith standard bits.

Both tools were located atthe construction site and pow-ered from a local utility pole.The all-bolted constructionmethod eliminated the needto weld.

The 11-inch by 4-ft treadswere fabricated with nosinginstalled. The tread heightwas 7 inches, and both stepsand treads were held to withina quarter inch throughout.

Light poles, designed towithstand a 90-mph wind,were attached to the side ofthe walkway so the stairwaycould be used at all hours.

Aluminum tube railingswere installed along theentire length, on both sides ofthe walkway. The railing wasconstructed from aluminumtubing and connected usingspeed rail connectors.

Construction began in thesummer of 2002, one of thehottest on record and wasconcluded in the winter of2003, one of the coldest onrecord. �

The new staircase climbs a rambling, hilly 100-ft ascent.

CBMU 202 Rides to the RescueWhen Sub Base New London neededhelp, Seabee Reserves ‘stepped up’

STORY AND PHOTOGRAPHY BY

LCDR RONALD HILL, CEC, P.E. AND EOC KENNETH TORIAN

Seabee Ingenuity:Seabee Ingenuity:Seabee Ingenuity:Seabee Ingenuity:Seabee Ingenuity: THE CASE OF THE SUB BASE STAIRCASE


Take the plunge.Enter the SEABEE Magazine Photo Contest

You can be a published photographer bycapturing Seabees and CEC officers atwork and at play. The entire SeabeeNation is your subject for the first-everSEABEE Magazine Photography Contest.

You do not have to be a professionalphotographer, either. We’re looking forthose classic slice-of-life images thatsafely reflect the full spectrum anddiversity of the Seabee Experience, fromwork site to after work — to a “beautyshot” of your favorite piece of equipment.

Hey, a dozer can be a beautiful thing.What we want

Seabees do some of the most interestingwork in some of the most fascinatinglocations on earth. Photos of Seabees,CEC officers and their activities are agood place to start, whether on duty or off.You decide what makes the best picturefor you. Both black-and-white or fullcolor images are both acceptable.

All Seabees and CEC officers, activeduty or reserve, are strongly encouragedto submit photos. Anyone else may alsosubmit as long as the subject matter isrelated to the Seabee Experience. All weask is that you submit original work notpreviously or concurrently submitted to

any other contest.What we don’t want

We cannot accept laser-printed, photo-copied or faxed images, instant orPolaroidTM images.How to submit digital images

With the prevalence of high-qualitydigital cameras today, and the ease in ouraccepting digi-files, we strongly encour-age you to shoot and submit high-qualitydigital photos. All digital images mustbe sized to 300 dpi at 5x7 inches atminimum.

A complete caption or description ofwhat’s happening in the photo must beincluded (preferably embedded in theelectronic file), and all recognizablepersons must be identified by full rank/rate, name and unit.

To submit electronic images, send ane-mail with the image(s) attached [email protected] include the photographer’s fullrank/rate, name, unit and contact tele-phone numbers. If the submitter is not thephotographer, provide contact informationfor the both people in case we need toreach either person.

By postal mail, you may also burn a

compact disk with images, if necessary,and send the disk in secure packaging tothe contest postal address below.

How to submit printsIf not shooting original digital, we

strongly encourage you to shoot high-quality print film instead of slide ortransparency film. Many print films arewell sharp enough to rival many of theslide films.

Don’t forget, most photo processors willbe happy to scan your negatives to a CDwhen your film is processed. You can sendthe CD itself or e-mail photos from it to us.

Prints (and CDs) may be sent to:SEABEE Magazine, Attn: PHOTOCONTEST CODE PA, 1322 PattersonAvenue SE Ste 1000, Washington NavyYard, DC 20374-5065.

While overnight delivery is not re-quired, U.S. Postal “Express Mail” or adelivery means other than routine first-class mail are strongly recommended toavoid possible damage in transit orsecurity handling.Deadline All submissions must be in our handsno later than Jan. 31, 2004, so don’toverlook those year-end holiday photos! �

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Tools.

POWER TOOLS.

Seabee Service Matters — More than ever. Stay NavyNavyNavyNavyNavy. Stay SeabeeSeabeeSeabeeSeabeeSeabee.

Kuwait. Iraq. Liberia. Florida. Okinawa. Indian Head. Bahrain. San Diego. Spain. Portsmouth. Washington DC.Africa. Germany. Brunswick. Guam. Reykjavik. Diego Garcia. Nebraska. Afghanistan. London. Michigan.Around the clock. Around the block. Around the world.

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SEABEE MagazineNaval Facilities Engineering CommandPublic Affairs Office (Code PA)1322 Patterson Ave SE Suite 1000

Washington Navy Yard DC 20374-5065

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Washington, DCPermit No. 6184

You can write and shoot for SEABEE Magazine.

SEABEE Magazine. We’ll leave our work light on for you.

We know you have great stories and photographs of active duty and reserve Seabees at work and atplay — and turns out we have lots of pages on which to print them. SEABEE Magazine is the officialpublication of the US Navy Seabee community, active duty to reserve, and of additional interest to Seabeeveterans and retired, Seabee families and friends. Your magazine wants to cover all things about Seabeepeople and their activities, around the clock, around the block and around the planet.

Not a writer? Not a problem, that’s what you have us for. Send words, photos and your contact name withtelephone and e-mail information — and we’ll do the rest. For some tips on how to get started, what we’relooking for and more, send an e-mail with your contact information to [email protected] put “Writer’s Guidelines” in the Subject line. Let us hear from you, early and often.