Building of the Mahawil Patrol Base

Courtesy Photo | A U.S. Navy Seabee works on the electrical power grid at Patrol Base Mahawil in order to get the patrol base's electrical capabilities up and running.  

IRAQ

03.19.2009

Courtesy Story

555th Engineer Brigade

After months of planning, loading up to go, unloading to not go, then loading up to go again, 20 motivated Seabees from Amphibious Construction Battalion Two, Detachment India, loaded themselves onto UH-60 Blackhawk helicopters and headed to Mahawil, Iraq to start their first mission and their first mission in conjunction with sister services. Most of their materials and two additional Seabees were not scheduled to depart for another two days. This was actually somewhat of a blessing in disguise as there was plenty more planning to go.

Due to the length of time between the reconnaissance of the Mahawil site and the Seabees' arrival, many changes had taken place. The Seabees had to almost completely rearrange the layout to add additional tents to the Life Support Area and squeeze everything together to open up the motor pool. Working with the U.S. Army's 1/10 CAV – the unit that would occupy the site – the Seabees came up with a plan and were ready to get started. When their materials and remaining personnel arrived, the "Killer Bees" went to work. Although this was their first build and the crew lacked experience, they made it happen.

The Seabees started out living in an existing Iraqi army building that 1/10 CAV was working and living out of while awaiting the construction of their new Patrol Base. As soon as tents were up, the Seabees moved down to the job site and kept pressing forward. Although they found themselves in the desert, the Iraqi winters aren't necessarily warm. As a result, everyone was motivated to get the power grid started and Environmental Control Units on line.

The Seabees continued assisting with the erection of tents by building the pads as the Army construction element put up the tents. The Seabees then moved on to constructing the bigger and more challenging Southwest Asia Hut. The big challenge was getting the raised deck level. Once the deck was complete, the walls and roof came together quickly. Trim work took a little time, but the end product was amazing.

Another challenge the Seabees came across was the re-design of a strong-back tent (tent draped over a building skeleton) to be used as a dining facility. The Seabees decided that instead of a strong-back they would make it a completely walled building with a roof; therefore, no tent would be needed.

Continuing with the mission, the Seabees also placed some pre-fabricated shower units along with burnouts, complete with electricity.

During the closeout walk-through with Lt. Col. Bigelow, the 9th Engineer Battalion commander, said prior to seeing them, "A burnout's a burnout, not much to see there."

However, he was pleasantly surprised to see how roomy the Seabees' "custom made" burnouts were and that they even had lights.

All in all, the build turned out to be a huge success. Amphibious Construction Battalion Two's Seabees adapted to and overcome any and all issues to create a much better and safer patrol base from which coalition forces could operate.

• Date Taken: 03.19.2009
• Date Posted: 03.19.2009 04:34
• Story ID: 31318
• Location: IQ