FINALLY AN UPDATE - BEEN TRAVELING

The last couple of weeks have been tough. I spent almost three weeks traveling to all the locations where my troops are located. It is standard for the Operations Officer (me) to visit each Detail (site we have troops) twice over the deployment in order to check on things and ensure they are able to complete all their missions. Last deployment I focused on just the locations in Iraq, Kuwait, and Afghanistan, but did not travel to the Stateside locations. We learned that it was a mistake for me not to go so this deployment I will be traveling a bunch. The main focus when I visit the Details is to look at their construction project planning (how they will complete the project), project execution (how are they doing relative to the plan), and project management (the recording of the effort to complete the mission, cost, materials, and issues that need to be fixed). We have fairly inexperienced crews and they have spent the last couple years focusing on contingency construction instead of planned construction. All the troops want to do great things, but they need training on the construction practices that will benefit them in the future.

The trip started with a flight out of Kuwait at 0100 in the morning. Needless to say, I did not get any sleep before I flew. The flights took my Operations Chief and I all the way to Jacksonville via Germany and Chicago. We were flying to Cuba from Jacksonville the following morning so when we landed we were looking forward to a little sleep. Our bags ended up not making it so now we were getting nervous. There were a bunch of flights coming in that night so things looked okay. I finally got the call at 2:30 in the morning and to make things worse, I had to drive to the front gate to get the bags. We had to check in for our flight early so I did not get much sleep. The flight ended up being a Delta Airlines plane that had been chartered for the flight. There were tons of families on the flight and it almost felt like a normal trip. I had never been to Cuba so I was very excited about actually visiting there. The terrain was short scrub grass and a very tropical feel. I had lived in Southern Florida before so I knew what August was going to be like. I was not disappointed. It was hot and very humid. The first things we had to do was take a ferry to the main side across Guantanamo Bay. Tropical Storm Ernesto had passed over Cuba the day before so the bay was completely brown and choppy. We had a couple days on the island so I was able to see the entire base. Our main project is a bridge on the perimeter road (think Tom Cruise/Demi Moore riding along the fence in “A Few Good Men”). I was also able to get a tour of the Detainee Camp that is always in the news. It was very well maintained and not nearly as disgusting as I had pictured. It was very well guarded and everyone had a sense of taking care of the detainees and treating them humanely.

Next location was Peru and getting there was tough. Our flight out of Cuba was cancelled so we jumped on another flight which was heading to Mayport via PANAMA!! Not exactly what we were looking for and meant we would miss our flight, but it was that flight or nothing for a day or two. We were finally able to get into our rental car by 11:00, but then we had to drive to Miami. It was a long night with lots of coffee. By the time we caught another flight to Lima it was a day later and found us sleeping on a window ledge in the Lima airport keeping our fingers crossed for a flight to Chiclayo. We woke up freezing since we were used to 130 degree temperatures, but were able to jump on a flight early the next morning. Chiclayo is a small town in northern Peru where the Seabees were building two clinics, one school, and three water wells. The work was part of a Joint Task Force that was also doing some medical/dental exercises to support the Peruvians. This was the kind of projects that I joined the Seabees for. It is pretty amazing we are able to do contingency construction on one side of the world and humanitarian efforts on the other. The troops have had a really tough time due to logistical problems, additional projects, and a severe illness challenge. There were periods when 16 troops were in medical with major “Peruvian Death Flu”. There was only one troop who had not had an IV. One person had over 20 bags. They were very ready to finish up and get out of there, but the Peruvians were so thankful of the work they were doing. The group will be out of there in early October and after a quick stop in California, they are joining us at one of the worldwide locations.

Onward from Peru to Andros, Bahamas. This was another brutal travel with us running from gate to gate to make our flights. We arrived in Miami the next morning and after stopping for breakfast we waited in West Palm Beach waiting for our puddle jumper to the islands. Once again it was a Caribbean type of weather for this small group on a Navy Research Base. The main project here is a CMU block Barracks to replace some dilapidated trailers. This base it weird since it is both military and civilians to include one guy that has been on the base for 40 years. He has become part American, part Bahamian with a form of Pidgin for speech. The work was going well, but they were having to work tons of logistics concerns with getting materials so the project could always continue. The benefit of this group is they can walk from the barracks to the galley to the project site.
The trip continued to Rota, Spain with more flights, more sleeping in airports, and more jet lag. The group in Rota is supporting the base and a Task Force who conducts projects around the European Continent. They are also maintaining the Seabee Camp which is where we would have deployed if we had not come to Kuwait. Main projects there are to support logistics to Kuwait, maintain construction equipment, and construct an urban training area for local Marines. We had an opportunity to go off base one night and enjoyed an evening in Rota. It was fun to attempt the language and we all ended up ordering based upon gut feel guesses. Overall the meals worked out okay and we left with full bellies.
We were supposed to head to Africa after Spain, but there was a good chance we were going to be stranded in Ethiopia for up to four days. That did not sound like something we really wanted to do, so we headed back to Kuwait and will get to Africa down the road. Overall the trip was very beneficial and it was good to see the troops work. There were issues at each location, but nothing that raised any huge red flags. I have never been so glad to be back in Kuwait and now I can focus on the Details closer to home. I will try to be better about sending updates.