Seabees Buzz Nonstop in Saudi Desert : Military: The Port Hueneme-based unit battles dust and insects while building bunkers and landing pads.

Morning comes early for Seabees camped next to Saudi Arabian soldiers in the Middle East desert. At 4:30 a.m., the Saudi compound trumpets Islamic chants over loudspeakers, the first of five prayer sessions that Muslims have each day.

“The first time I heard it, it scared the hell out of me,” said Seabee Daniel Lothamer, describing the high-pitched chant that pierces the early morning air.

The unusual reveille quickly melts into a 12-hour workday. Unlike many U.S. troops who are bored and restless under the hot desert sun, Navy Seabees from Port Hueneme have worked nonstop to build watchtowers, reinforced tents and kitchens for the 50,000 Marines hunkered down in the Saudi desert.

“It’s the most rewarding work we’ve ever had,” said Cmdr. Jim Corbett, commanding officer of a 600-member Seabee battalion that returned to Port Hueneme in mid-December.

“We did pure Seabee kind of work: We nailed a lot of boards and moved a lot of dirt. We didn’t have to worry about a lot of bureaucracy.”

So far, the 600 tradespeople and engineers with Naval Mobile Construction Battalion 4 are among the lucky few permitted to return home since President Bush ordered the Middle East buildup of U.S. troops in August.

Their accounts provide keen insight into the daily life of the 1,200 Seabees from Port Hueneme, who continue to pour concrete, pitch tents and fill sandbags about 100 miles from the Saudi-Iraqi border.

James Albrecht of Camarillo has spent months supervising Seabee crews that constructed roads, ammunition storage bunkers and helicopter pads in record time.

At one point, he ran heavy-equipment crews around the clock to rebuild 1,000 meters of washed-out roadway in two weeks, astounding those who said it couldn’t be done. “It was great,” said Albrecht, an equipment operator chief. “It was the best work we’ve had since Vietnam.”

It was also the largest deployment of Seabees since the Vietnam War. And like the sticky problems faced in the Southeast Asian jungle, the Saudi desert presents its own hostile work environment for Seabee construction crews.

First, there was the well-publicized heat. The first Seabees to arrive were greeted by daytime temperatures of up to 120 degrees that would dip only into the mid-90s by the middle of the night.

“All day and all night you sweat constantly,” said Petty Officer 3rd Class Willie Taggart of Oxnard, who arrived in late August. “You never really got a good night of sleep because of the heat.”

Temperatures have dropped now to more comfortable levels. It often gets close to freezing at night and the mid-70s and 80s during the day.

But there remains the constant annoyance of the flies that swarm around the workers’ faces. Some Seabees said they prefer nighttime shifts to avoid the pests.

And there is the fine dust, like talcum powder, that gets into everything. Sunglasses aren’t enough for most equipment operators. They have to wear goggles made famous by tank drivers.

Many wear dust masks to protect them from the wind-driven powder that seems to penetrate every pore. “You could brush your teeth and put in a piece of gum and minutes later it feels like you are chewing sandpaper,” Lothamer said. “You’ve always got grit in your teeth.”

But these become petty annoyances compared to the threat of Iraqi missiles carrying chemical or biological weapons, or to the constant watch for a terrorist attack.

“Everybody has that fear of coming home in a body bag,” Albrecht said. “It makes you think.”

No matter if they are pouring concrete or hammering boards, Seabees are required to carry their M-16 rifles. Each Seabee camp has guard towers and security patrols, and military leaders issue a steady drumbeat of warnings about a possible terrorist strike.

To do their jobs, Seabees often must venture out of the security shield. Albrecht, for instance, had his crews working next to Saudi highways, with cars whizzing by, any one of them capable of strafing uniformed workers. “Everybody wears masks on their faces--veils and bandannas--and you have no idea who they are,” he said.

On many jobs, Taggart said, he and his co-workers felt like targets parading in front of a hunter’s blind. “That’s all we thought about: a bomb coming in or a terrorist. You don’t know who is who over there.”

Although a possible terrorist attack consumes Seabees’ immediate attention, the prospect of dying from nerve gas or blistering mustard gas churns up a much deeper fear.

“When asked, most of the men . . . say they would rather face bullets than poison gas,” writes Seabee journalist Dan Klobnak in a Navy publication. “Iraq’s stockpile of chemical weapons is like evil magic from Pandora’s box; devastating, unimaginable--an enemy without form or substance.”

It isn’t the first time Iraq has been successful in having a profound psychological effect with its extensive arsenal of chemical weapons. During the final stages of the eight-year Iran-Iraq war, Baghdad’s threat of using more mustard and nerve gases against Iranian troops was an important factor in forcing Tehran to accept a U.N. cease-fire in 1988.

Although U.S. military strategists believe it would be difficult for Iraq to deliver chemical weapons long-distance, the prospect has spooked Seabees and other U.S. troops who are well within the 175-mile range of the Soviet-made Scud missiles owned by Iraq.

“It definitely would be a horrible death, to die by chemical warfare,” Lothamer said.

Every U.S. encampment has its own chemical-triggered alarm system and each Seabee is issued a gas mask and protective suit. Seabees are under orders to keep their gas masks with them at all times, even while in the shower or jogging around the camp.

Fourteen Seabees competed in the Marine Corps’ “Gas Mask Dash 10K Run” last month. All participants were required to run with their gas masks.

Trained to build in adverse conditions in war zones, Seabees continue to build thousands of strong-back tents, with plywood floors and wooden frames, for tens of thousands of Marines. They have built kitchens and enlarged field hospitals.

They continue to dig underground bunkers for troops and massive storage areas for still-arriving ammunition. Seabees are pouring more concrete parking spaces and taxiways for aircraft and setting up concrete and metal barriers to stop Iraqi tanks.

“That is a real advantage,” Corbett, the commanding officer, said. “We had more to do than anybody. That is the nature of getting ready for a conflict.”

Unlike other U.S. troops, the Seabees have a regularly scheduled rotation of seven months at Port Hueneme and seven months abroad in peacetime or war. Corbett’s battalion already had spent several months in Puerto Rico when the President ordered troops to Saudi Arabia.

Although President Bush canceled most rotations, Corbett’s battalion was allowed to return to Port Hueneme on schedule. The 1,200 Seabees in Naval Mobile Construction Battalions 5 and 40 remain in the Saudi desert.

In March, Naval Mobile Construction Battalion 3 is scheduled to leave Port Hueneme for Saudi Arabia. And Corbett’s battalion has already begun to train for another tour in the desert sometime later this year.

“I still have my alarm clock set on Saudi time,” Lothamer said. “It is out of respect for friends I have over there. I know what it’s like.”