Seabees Welcomed Back From Stint in Iraq

Waving American flags and wearing big smiles, about 30 wives, children and other loved ones were on hand at Naval Base Ventura County on Thursday to welcome two busloads of Seabee reservists from Iraq.

The 65 reservists are members of two units based on the East Coast who came to the Port Hueneme base in August for training before shipping out to support construction efforts overseas.

A charter flight carrying 180 more Seabees was delayed by mechanical difficulties and was expected to arrive in California on Thursday evening. After they are discharged, all will return home.

Seven months of active duty took Naval Mobile Construction Battalion 23 from Ft. Belvoir, Va., and the 7th Naval Construction Regiment, based in Newport, R.I., first to Kuwait for a week of additional combat readiness training, then on to Iraq’s Al Anbar province, west of Baghdad. The Seabees saw action in Fallouja and Ramadi.

The reservists repaired a runway at a U.S. airbase in the region and also constructed homes, improved roads and restored water and electricity service to former Iraqi military compounds, said Cmdr. Willington Lin of Battalion 23.

Lin, 42, said he was most proud of his troops for teaching basic construction skills to 40 Iraqi civilians so they could continue the nation’s reconstruction effort on their own.

“We were helping Iraqis rebuild Iraq,” he said.

A civil engineer who works for the Navy, Lin said he couldn’t wait to get back to his family in Chadds Ford, Pa. His third son, Daniel, was born this week; and his wife, Margaret, and sons Timothy, 7, and Jeffrey, 4, were eager for his return.

“We all have a job to do, so it’s all OK,” Lin said about his absence during Daniel’s birth. He said children were born back home to four or five other Seabees during this deployment.

Frank Moriarty of Riverdale Park, Md., was greeted by his excited daughter, Keli, 5, who wore a pink dress with angel’s wings attached on the back. His girlfriend, Carolyn Alkire, said, “I think he looks good, considering.”

Though a Navy medic attached to a Marine unit at Camp Pendleton for four years while he was on active military duty, Moriarty, 43, engaged in his first combat experience while in Iraq.

A general contractor by trade, Moriarty manned a .50-caliber machine gun on the lead truck in a six-vehicle convoy that transported Seabees through Fallouja during heavy fighting last fall.

“On our first day in Fallouja, every place we passed was leveled or there was a firefight down the street. So, it was scary,” he said. “It was totally intense. It was surreal. And it wasn’t just one day.”

But the Seabee said he would not hesitate to return to combat if called: “Nobody likes to leave their family or to put themselves in harm’s way, but somebody’s got to do it.”

Chief Tami Ortiz, who runs the processing operation, said each Seabee would spend two to five days receiving medical and dental checkups, returning gear, getting counseling if necessary, finalizing discharge papers and reviewing legal rights about returning to regular employment.

“We just want to make sure that if anyone has any problem, issues or situations, they can have them handled before they leave,” Ortiz said. “We want to make their transitions as easy as possible.”

With a fistful of miniature American flags, Susan Dillon of Norfolk, Va., went to the base twice Thursday to welcome back Seabees, although her husband, Michael, was traveling with the group whose flight was delayed.

Dillon, 59, said the couple had six adult children, including two sons in the Army and another training with the Navy in Florida. After visiting Disneyland, the Dillons plan to take a 10-day Hawaiian vacation.

“He’s already been there, but this is my first time,” she said. “It should be fun.”