Seabees Sent to Mideast and to Guam : Port Hueneme: Battalion 4 has left Puerto Rico for Saudi Arabia. Battalion 40 is in rotation with another unit.

One Port Hueneme-based Seabee battalion has left its post in Puerto Rico for Saudi Arabia and another battalion has been sent to Guam, possibly en route to the Middle East, according to Navy officials and family members of troops.

“The Seabees have left Port Hueneme,” said Port Hueneme spokeswoman Linda Wadley in confirming the departure of the Naval Mobile Construction Battalion 40. Battalion 4, which has been stationed in Puerto Rico, left for Saudi Arabia on Tuesday, said relatives of unit members.

Meanwhile, the Curtiss, which has been ordered to join the U.S. forces in the Arabian Sea, returned to its berth at Port Hueneme’s deep-water harbor to repair a malfunctioning water pump that supplies the ship’s boilers.

“It was minor engineering problems with her boiler feed pump,” said Marge Holtz, director of public affairs for the Navy’s Military Sealift Command in Washington. “She is going to get underway on Friday.” The Curtiss, designed to repair Marine Corps jets and helicopters, left without carrying any Seabees, she said.

Members of the 650-member Seabee Battalion 40 were flown to Guam on Wednesday. Their departure was part of a scheduled rotation with another Seabee battalion that just returned from a seven-month tour in Rota, Spain.

“I saw people muster, wearing their gear and being inspected and then, boom, they were gone,” said Richard Flock, a utilities man second class at Port Hueneme. “It all happened very fast.”

Navy leaders have tried to keep secret all troop movements, leading to considerable confusion and concern on base about whether Battalion 40 will be leaving Guam for the Middle East.

“They aren’t telling us anything,” said Lyssa O’Boyle, whose husband is in Guam with Battalion 40. “We are all shook up,” she said of herself and her five daughters. “Sitting here and not knowing what’s going on is not cool.”

Dianna Penrose confessed that she worries about her husband, who left more than a week ago for Guam with Battalion 40’s advance party. “We just pray for peace,” she said.

“I haven’t been able to sleep since the husbands left,” said Margaret Kelly, another wife of a Battalion 40 Seabee. Kelly, the battalion’s ombudswoman, assists other wives and family members left behind.

Battalion 4, which has been temporarily stationed in Roosevelt Roads, Puerto Rico, shipped out for Saudi Arabia on Tuesday, said Sol Caceres, the wife of a Battalion 4 Seabee. “I have some friends who are very upset because their husbands have left.

“Fortunately, my husband was not able to go to the Middle East,” Caceres said. Navy officials recently called her husband back to Port Hueneme because Caceres had complications with her pregnancy and she needed help with her three children. “I’m lucky he is home right now,” she said.

Port Hueneme Chaplain Ken Rodes, a Catholic priest, acknowledged that it is a tense time for families of Seabees deployed overseas. “I would imagine if there was shooting over there, the tension would be worse,” Rodes said.

“But sometimes waiting is worse,” he said. “Hopefully, everything will be resolved peacefully and everyone will be able to come home.”

In addition to turning to Port Hueneme’s three chaplains, each battalion has support groups for Seabee wives, Rodes said. “We all pull together and do what we can.”

Marge Hayes said she is delighted that her Seabee husband returned this week from a seven-month tour in Rota. Until this week, his unit was the closest to the crisis in the Middle East that began when Iraq invaded neighboring Kuwait.

Hayes, whose father was also a Seabee, said she was concerned, but not worried about her husband’s fate. “You can’t let it get to you. Otherwise, every time he puts on a uniform, you’d be a basket case,” she said.

John Swank, a spokesman for the federal Maritime Administration in Washington, said the Curtiss was on a short sea trial and was supposed to return to Port Hueneme before steaming off for the Middle East.

The Maritime Administration, an agency under the U.S. Department of Transportation, is in charge of maintaining the ship until it is needed by the Military Sealift Command. The Curtiss is run by a crew of 41 civilian mariners.

“There were some minor problems and repairs are under way,” Swank said. “If the Military Sealift Command expects it will be ready Friday, that sounds reasonable to us.”