They Build, They Fight...We Wait

Haven't posted here in awhile, but we are now, as the Marines would say, "in the suck."

Seabees from 30th Naval Construction Regiment Begin Iraq Deployment

By Chief Mass Communication Specialist (SW/AW) Shane Montgomery, 30th Naval Construction Regiment

PORT HUENEME, Calif. (NNS) -- Nearly 100 Seabees from the 30th Naval Construction Regiment (30th NCR) departed Naval Air Station Point Mugu, Calif. Feb. 21, beginning a 14-month Iraq deployment.

The regiment, commanded by Capt. Katherine Gregory, will provide critical construction for the Second Marine Expeditionary Force (IIMEF) in support of Operation Iraqi Freedom (OIF).

30th NCR will command nearly 1,000 Navy Seabees, Marine and Army construction assets from Naval Mobile Construction Battalions (NMCB) 4 and 28, the 8th Engineering Support Group and the 719 Construction Support Equipment group. Projects may include bridge and road repair, combat outpost construction, and aircraft runway repair among others.

“There is nothing that we do in the construction business that is more important than supporting our forces and allies on the battlefield,” said Gregory. “What we are going to do there will make a difference, and that is a tremendous source of pride for me and my Seabees.”

This deployment will mark the second to Iraq for 30th NCR, who supported OIF in 2004 and 2005.

Because 30th NCR is responsible for naval construction throughout the Pacific theater, the command will be deploying half of their personnel for the initial seven months and the other half during the final seven months of the planned deployment. This strategy will allow the command to continue providing mission critical construction to places like the Philippines, Japan and Korea.

The first wave of forward deployed 30th NCR Seabees will be relieving the third Naval Construction Regiment currently headquartered in Camp Fallujah, Iraq.

Thirthieth NCR assets include four Naval Mobile Construction Battalions, an Underwater Construction Team, and a Construction Battalion Maintenance Unit, a force of about 3,000 Seabees and Civil Engineers, throughout the Pacific Fleet.

A Different Christmas Poem

The embers glowed softly, and in their dim light,
I gazed round the room and I cherished the sight.
My wife was asleep, her head on my chest,
My daughter beside me, angelic in rest.
Outside the snow fell, a blanket of white,
Transforming the yard to a winter delight.
The sparkling lights in the tree I believe,
Completed the magic that was Christmas Eve.
My eyelids were heavy, my breathing was deep,
Secure and surrounded by love I would sleep.
In perfect contentment, or so it would seem,
So I slumbered, perhaps I started to dream.

The sound wasn't loud, and it wasn't too near,
But I opened my eyes when it tickled my ear.
Perhaps just a cough, I didn't quite know,
Then the sure sound of footsteps outside in the snow.
My soul gave a tremble, I struggled to hear,
And I crept to the door just to see who was near.
Standing out in the cold and the dark of the night,
A lone figure stood, his face weary and tight.

A soldier, I puzzled, some twenty years old,
Perhaps a Marine, huddled here in the cold.
Alone in the dark, he looked up and smiled,
Standing watch over me, and my wife and my child.
"What are you doing?" I asked without fear,
"Come in this moment, it's freezing out here!
Put down your pack, brush the snow from your sleeve,
You should be at home on a cold Christmas Eve!"

For barely a moment I saw his eyes shift,
Away from the cold and the snow blown in drifts..
To the window that danced with a warm fire's light
Then he sighed and he said "Its really all right,
I'm out here by choice. I'm here every night."
"It's my duty to stand at the front of the line,
That separates you from the darkest of times.
No one had to ask or beg or implore me,
I'm proud to stand here like my fathers before me.
My Gramps died at 'Pearl on a day in December,"
Then he sighed, "That's a Christmas 'Gram always remembers."
My dad stood his watch in the jungles of 'Nam',
And now it is my turn and so, here I am.
I've not seen my own son in more than a while,
But my wife sends me pictures, he's sure got her smile.

Then he bent and he carefully pulled from his bag,
The red, white, and blue... an American flag.
I can live through the cold and the being alone,
Away from my family, my house and my home.
I can stand at my post through the rain and the sleet,
I can sleep in a foxhole with little to eat.
I can carry the weight of killing another,
Or lay down my life with my sister and brother..
Who stand at the front against any and all,
To ensure for all time that this flag will not fall."

"So go back inside," he said, "harbor no fright,
Your family is waiting and I'll be all right."
"But isn't there something I can do, at the least,
"Give you money," I asked, "or prepare you a feast?
It seems all too little for all that you've done,
For being away from your wife and your son."
Then his eye welled a tear that held no regret,
"Just tell us you love us, and never forget.
To fight for our rights back at home while we're gone,
To stand your own watch, no matter how long.
For when we come home, either standing or dead,
To know you remember we fought and we bled.
Is payment enough, and with that we will trust,
That we mattered to you as you mattered to us."

PLEASE, Would you do me the kind favor of sending this to as many people
as you can? Christmas will be coming soon and some credit is due to our
U.S.service men and women for our being able to celebrate these
festivities. Let's try in this small way to pay a tiny bit of what we
owe. Make people stop and think of our heroes, living and dead, who
sacrificed themselves for us.

LCDR Jeff Giles, SC, USN
30th Naval Construction Regiment
OIC, Logistics Cell One
Al Taqqadum, Iraq

A good overview of what Seabees do, and why we need them so much.

Navy to Establish Two New Seabee Units in Gulfport
Navy News | July 31, 2006

Norfolk, VA. - The Navy approved the establishment of the 25th Naval Construction Regiment (NCR) and Naval Mobile Construction Battalion (NMCB) 11, July 18, which will be headquartered in Gulfport, Miss.

Both units will include active-duty Navy civil engineers and Seabees. The establishment becomes effective Oct. 1, with commissioning slated for October 2007.

The increased demand for the Seabees’ unique skills to support the global war on terrorism while continuing humanitarian relief and other construction efforts around the world requires the additional force structure.

"The significant impact the Seabees are having around the world in the global war on terrorism and a wide range of other missions will be enhanced by these additional units, allowing us to contribute on an even broader scale wherever needed," said Capt. Doug Morton, chief of staff, 1st Naval Construction Division.

Naval construction regiments exercise administrative and operational control of naval mobile construction battalions or other naval construction force units operating in a specific geographic area or operating in support of a specific military operation.

NMCBs provide responsive military construction support to Navy, Marine Corps and other forces in military operations, construct base facilities and conduct defensive operations. In addition to their significant earthmoving, airfield construction and repair, road construction and repair and their vertical wood, steel, masonry and concrete construction capabilities, NMCBs also perform specialized construction such as water well drilling and battle damage repair. They are able to work and defend themselves at construction sites outside of their base camps and convoy through unsecured areas. In times of emergency or disaster, NMCBs conduct disaster response and recovery operations.

There are currently eight active-duty NMCBs, four of which are based in Gulfport, Miss., and four in Port Hueneme, Calif. There are 12 reserve NMCBs dispersed across the United States. The Navy currently has two active-duty regiments and four reserve regiments. All of these units fall under the administrative control of the 1st Naval Construction Division (1NCD) in Little Creek, Va.

Both of these new units will be part of 1NCD, which now reports to the Navy Expeditionary Combat Command (NECC). In January the Navy created the NECC, bringing explosive ordnance disposal, naval coastal warfare, Navy expeditionary logistics support functions, the riverine force and the Seabees under one umbrella. NECC integrates all warfighting requirements for expeditionary combat and combat support elements. This transformation allows for standardized training, manning and equipping of Sailors who will participate in the global war on terrorism as part of the joint force.

"SeaBees Rebuilding Iraq" on Google Video
Have you seen the pictures coming out of Iraq lately? If that question brings images of Abu Ghraib prison to mind, that's because the mainstream media sucks! The fact is that tons of good work is being done every day in Iraq but you'd never know it watching the nightly news.

My husband is a Reservist. He has a great full-time civilian job; he's not doing this because we need the money. He's doing it because it allows him to serve his country, while still fulfilling his obligations to his family and to his civilian job.

We are a Reserve family. We don't live on a military base, nor, in fact, anywhere near a base -- my husband flies to another state to drill. And except for him, we don't have military IDs and none of us has ever even been on a Navy base. We have flags, the yellow ribbons, the Navy bumper stickers and T-shirts, and we even had a military wedding. But we are, essentially, civilians, 85% of the year.

At least, we were. Now, we are all Navy, all the time. Why? Because my husband, like over 100,000 other Reservists across the country, is being called to duty. He is being deployed, and suddenly, I find myself being plunged into a whole new world -- the world of the Active Duty (AD) wife, the one who waits and worries and manages a household on her own because her husband is off somewhere dangerous fighting to protect our country, our freedom, and our way of life.

Suddenly, there are a million questions and worries, things that AD wives don't even blink at. How are we going to pay the bills while he's gone, when the military, even with hazard pay, can't match his civilian paycheck? Are we going to have to change doctors, or hospitals, because we have to switch to military insurance while he's away? And how are we even going to find a provider, since we're not on base? Where are we going to turn for support, since his unit (and ombudsman) are almost 1,000 miles away? AD wives don't blink at these questions, because they don't have to worry about them. They live on base, shop on base, their kids go to school on base, and everybody around them is going through the same thing at the same time. True, their husbands can be deployed more frequently and for longer durations, but, then, they have a pretty solid support system, and are surrounded by people who understand. Not so the Reserve wife. Our eldest son will be the only one in his entire middle school with a father in Iraq. We will be the only Navy family in our parish with someone serving in Iraq, despite its having a congregation of over 3,000 members. We are, in many ways, alone in this adventure, and that makes it all the more frightening.

Hence this journal. Because a fear written down has less power than one that remains unspoken, and there are Reserve families -- Seabee families -- just like us all over the country. Maybe we'll find each other, and face the fear together.

Hoo-rah, Honeybees. Hoo-rah.

So, watching Full Metal Jacket when your husband is going to deploy with the Marines into a combat zone? Not really a smart move. Just saying.

Being the chronicles of how the military jacked my civilian life when they recalled my Seabee reservist husband to active duty.