Hawai'i Seabees find joy in rebuilding Iraq
By William Cole
Advertiser Military Writer
Navy Rear Adm. Charles Kubic and his Seabees have seen both ends of the war in Iraq — from the blast of a Chinese Seersucker missile at base camp in Kuwait at the start, to the rebuilding of schools, roads and bridges.
JO2 Traci Feibel • US Navy
The first of about 36 cruise missiles fired at the camp over several days came as Kubic and others went over a morning battle briefing.
Rear Adm. Charles Kubic and Seabees are on hand at a new playground in Iraq put in place by the Seabees of NMCB-21. The Seabees are also helping with restorations at the trading port of Umm Qasr.
"(The missile) knocked us all kind of onto the floor, and at that moment, we knew that the war had begun," said Kubic, commander of the First Naval Construction Division based in Norfolk, Va.
But the image Kubic said he'll remember most vividly is more recent.
"I left Iraq (April 24) and we had just dedicated a new school and cut a ribbon to open the school," he said. "This was a place where two weeks earlier, we were over there basically under combat conditions, and we were there in heavy flak (jackets) and Kevlar, and in our chemical suits."
Kubic, former commander of Pacific Division, Naval Facilities Engineering Command; and the Pacific Fleet Seabees with headquarters at Pearl Harbor, returned to praise the effort made locally in the war, meet with his boss, Pacific Fleet commander Adm. Walter Doran, and pass on some good news.
The 30 Seabees of the 30th Naval Construction Regiment will return to Hawai'i from Iraq later this month.
"We hope to get them back here as early as the 20th or 21st of May," Kubic said.
The Hawai'i "Seabees," a term derived from Construction Battalion, or CB, helped build facilities to bed down the Marine air wing, and ensure that the Marines could move logistics forces north behind the infantry division.
Kubic, dual-hatted as commander of the First Naval Construction Division and First Marine Expeditionary Force Engineer Group, has under his command about 4,300 construction engineers, including Army elements. With a South Korean battalion, that number soon will be closer to 5,000 engineers.
The two-star admiral, who was scheduled to fly back to Iraq late last week, said the war was "all about bridges and about roads."
"As we attacked north, we had to cross the Euphrates River, had to cross the Saddam Canal, we had to cross the Tigris River, and we had to cross the Diyala River into Baghdad, and in each of the cases, we anticipated the regime would blow the bridges," Kubic said.
Three bridges stretched across the Diyala River into Baghdad, and the expectation was those bridges would be captured intact, while all the other bridges would be destroyed.
"It turned out to be the reverse, and so we were able to take the major bridges over the Euphrates, and the major bridges over the Tigris without having to rebuild them," Kubic said.
Construction engineers rebuilt about six bridges. Some culvert bridges also were put in place. A steel truss bridge was placed across the Diyala River with design support from engineers at Pacific Division in Hawai'i.
That rebuilding has continued with the end of major combat, and Kubic said the latest phase is being called "civil-military operations."
"It's designed to stabilize the country, make expedient repairs to infrastructure, and set the conditions for a free Iraq," Kubic said. "Seabees really are an active part of that, working with Iraqi engineers (and) technicians to restore basic utilities."
Seabees tackled a generator problem that local engineers had given up on at a women's hospital in An Nasiriyah.
Seabee mechanics and electricians focused on one generator, scavenged parts from another, scrounged other needed items, and within a day or two had power back on in the hospital, Kubic said.
Reopening schools and hospitals has been inspiring, he said, and Iraqi people routinely put their hands over their hearts and have tears in their eyes as they thank the engineers for helping them.
But Kubic also said challenges remain. There are still Baath Party regulars, Fedayeen Saddam, and growing numbers of foreign Jihadis and Iranian Badr Brigade members to deal with.
"It's really going to be necessary for democracy and economic recovery to take place before these subversive elements gain even a stronger foothold," Kubic said.
Reach William Cole at 525-5459 or wcole@honoluluadvertiser.com.
