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Seabees Repair Major Iraqi Airfield, Make Humanitarian Aid Possible

Navy NewStand

Story Number: NNS030507-07
Release Date: 5/7/2003 7:52:00 AM

By Photographer's Mate 2nd Class Jacob Johnson, Task Force Charlie, I MEG

AL KUT, Iraq (NNS) -- If an airport is more than just a place where planes land, the same can be said about a military air base.

The cargo a plane carries might save lives, rebuild schools, treat the sick, and/or heal a community. That's the force driving Seabees from Naval Mobile Construction Battalion (NMCB) 133 to work day and night to repair the main runway on the newly named "Blair Field" near the city of Al Kut, Iraq. The result of their efforts will solve a supply problem that has been slowing humanitarian action to a crawl for coalition forces throughout the Wasit province.

Republican Guard soldiers destroyed the runway prior to coalition forces taking over the Al Kut Air Base. They used explosives to put eleven craters along the 11,000-foot runway rendering it unusable. The repair process sounds simple enough. Fill the holes with concrete. But, it is a little more involved than it sounds.

"It wasn't easy," said Builder 1st Class Michael Zangli, of Upper Black Eddy, Penn. "We started out using jackhammers to clean the edge of the craters, but it wasn't getting us anywhere with a runway made with 12 inch thick reinforced concrete."

The area around the craters was heaved up by the explosion, making it necessary to remove all of the concrete in the entire affected pad. Equipment Operators worked in shifts so they could run a hydraulic pavement breaker (a huge jackhammer that is attached to an excavator) 24 hours a day. The 8th Engineering Support Battalion attempted to blow a dozen pads with C-4 explosive. Drilling the holes required for the explosive turned out to be more time consuming than using the hydraulic concrete buster.

Once the residual concrete was removed and a rectangular area created, it was filled and compacted to create a level surface for the concrete. Then wire-reinforcing mats were tied into the steel reinforcements in the surrounding pads to add strength to the finished product.

"We ran out of the wire-reinforcing mats, so we had to fabricate them using steel reinforcing bar we gathered from a nearby Iraqi military construction site," said Zangli.

"We're not used to pouring concrete with cretemobiles," said Crew Leader Builder 1st Class Scott Bernard, from Alma, Mich. "We're dealing with extreme heat temperatures and wind, which causes us to have to work a little faster than usual. We're doing pretty good now that we've gotten used to the pace of the cretemobile."

The team hustled about the cretemobile, fed by two Seabees at the top of the machine who scramble to keep it filled with rock, sand and cement. The heat and wind doesn't allow the team to break or slow the flow of concrete. Everyone has his or her own task, and everyone must work together rhythmically to get the job done.

"It feels great to help the people of Iraq," said Builder 3rd Class William McCorkle, from Napoleon, Ohio, "even if it is just by fixing a runway. Without the runway, we can't get the supplies we need to do other good things."

The once Al Kut Air Base was dubbed "Blair Field" in honor of Lance Cpl. Thomas A. Blair of 2nd Low Altitude Air Defense Unit, who died during the taking of a bridge in the city of Al Nasiriyah, Iraq.