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Seabees, Marines repair second runway at Al Asad

Marine Corps News

Story Identification #: 200412843214
Story by Cpl. Matthew S. Richards

AL ASAD, Iraq (Dec 8, 2004) -- Looking as rugged and dusty as their heavy equipment, some "can do" Sailors from Naval Mobile Construction Battalion 23 recently completed repairs to a second 13,000 foot runway here.

Celebrating the Seabee detachment's efforts to help expand operations and rebuild Iraq, a formal ceremony on the flight line Dec. 5 marked the official opening of Al Asad's southern runway.

"This dedicated group of Sailors and the Marines that helped them are really the success story behind this project to get the runway repaired and operational," said Maj. David A. Krebs, assistant airfield operations officer, Marine Wing Headquarters Squadron 3. "Rebuilding the runway involved some real 'back-breaking' hard work and they have much to be proud of."

Cratered by bombs dropped years ago during the Gulf War, the south runway has not been operational until now, said the Monroeville, Ohio native.

Since September, three crews with the activated reservists of NMCB-23 have been working around the clock, day and night, in order to complete the project before January.

The Seabees of NMCB-23, whose average age is 38, filled 19 craters in total for the project: 11 on the runway and 8 on the connecting taxiway.

"One crew would tear up the crater, another would then form it and the third would pour and fill the new concrete," explained Krebs. "Breaking up the craters and forming them was not easy. Jackhammers did not do the job well enough on the broken, reinforced concrete so large stone-cutting saws were used to form the area before leveling and compacting it."

Filling all 19 craters required 3,500 yards of concrete and the Seabees squeezed every capability out of their heavy equipment to do the job.

Using a 'cretemobile' to premix all the components next to each hole, the crews steadily fed the machine and mixed the concrete, working amidst cold temperatures, high winds and low flying aircraft.

"The cretemobile is intended for small projects like sidewalks and you have to load individual bags of concrete mix," said Navy Lt. Stephan Fitcher, detachment officer-in-charge, NMCS-23.

With roughly six 100-pound bags of cement per yard of concrete, the crews lifted approximately 20,000 bags during the project.

Krebs said the Seabees also collected all of the necessary raw materials themselves, including the sand, stone, water and bags of cement to make the concrete.

"Finding the right consistency of stone actually proved difficult which is ironic given the dry, rocky desert environment we are in," noted Krebs.

With the runway portion of the project complete, Al Asad's flight line operations will change substantially.

"Until now the single northern runway here supported an average of 500 take offs and landings per day," said Krebs. "The second runway enables us to handle more fixed wing aircraft as well as helicopters. We also have large, heavily weighted C-5s and C-17s that give the runways a pounding sometimes requiring added maintenance. The second runway doubles our capability to manage the volume of air traffic, but it also gives us more options to operate even more efficiently."

Krebs added that having two operational runways also means aircraft could continue to take off and land even if an aircraft emergency forces the temporary closure of one runway.

While this is a milestone accomplishment for the Seabees, there are plenty of projects to keep them busy.

With around a dozen craters at other areas of the flight line and adjacent taxiways that remain under construction, they continue to drive their heavy equipment to get the job done and help rebuild Iraq.