THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1996, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Saturday, March 9, 1996 TAG: 9603090404
SECTION: FRONT PAGE: A1 EDITION: FINAL
SERIES: OPERATION JOINT ENDEAVOR BOSNIA
Reporter Jack Dorsey and photographer Martin Smith-Rodden traveled to
Bosnia to report on the drudgery and occasional terror confronting
U.S. troops who are part of a NATO force helping restore peace after
four years of fighting.
SOURCE: BY JACK DORSEY, STAFF WRITER
DATELINE: DUBRAVE, BOSNIA-HERZEGOVINA LENGTH: Long : 168 lines
The Navy's Seabees love the mud here - when it's frozen.
When it's not frozen, the thick brown goo clings to their camouflage fatigues, boots and gloves like wet gum. It probably won't come off until they return to Gulfport, Miss., this summer.
And only then after a half-dozen steaming hot washings.
Fortunately, the stuff has stayed frozen most of the winter.
Unfortunately, today, with the sun shining brightly and the temperatures rising into the 40s as the spring thaw begins, the mud ensnares 5-ton trucks, fork lifts and people.
Tractors with their mud-kicking steel treads pull the gear to higher ground, where the Seabees will try again to do their work. Such is life for the builders and shakers of this construction battalion, working around the clock to keep the Army dry.
Except for an occasional Navy jet from the carrier George Washington that passes high overhead, the Seabees make up the only Navy presence in this part of Bosnia.
And it's one the Army will forever cherish.
Naval Mobile Construction Battalion 133, based in Gulfport when not deployed, has become the 1st Armored Division's best friend here.
Thanks to the 190 Navy men and women who redeployed from Rota, Spain, to Bosnia in December, the Army now has plywood flooring in tents, lighting, showers and raised wooden sidewalks that stretch nearly two miles.
``We got flush toilets yesterday,'' said an excited Navy Lt. Donna Murphy, of Charleston, S.C., who is the Seabees' public affairs officer.
The four-hole wooden latrines that served in the early days will now go the way of other outhouses.
The Seabees in Bosnia appear to have extended their proud heritage with their recent forte into parts of this war-torn country where some of the heaviest fighting has taken place over the past four years. They were first commissioned in 1942 in Norfolk and have served worldwide ever since under the motto: ``Construimus, Batuimus'' - ``We Build, We Fight.''
With hammer and nails in one hand, an M-16 slung over their shoulders, wearing flak vest, helmet and gloves, the Seabees muscle plywood and 2-by-4s on their backs to remote sites that are sandwiched between mine fields.
They've built four tent cities (including one in Croatia) that house more than 3,000 U.S. soldiers. In all, the Seabees put up more than 450 tents with plywood floors, lights and receptacles; built two pedestrian bridges; spread 65,000 square feet of gravel for interior roads and parking areas; unraveled thousands of feet of concertina and barbed wire; and brought in more than 15,000 feet of electrical cable.
In appreciation of their work, the Army brigade commander at Camp Kime awarded the Army Commendation Medal to 17 Seabees. He wanted to award the entire unit a medal, but couldn't; the Army can award medals to individuals from another service, but not whole units.
At Camp Kime, near the small village of Dubrave, the Seabees renovated a bullet-scarred schoolhouse for the 1st Battalion's headquarters.
Children's drawings still lined the walls of the two-story building when the Seabees moved in. The drawings have been replaced with wall maps, communications gear and plywood desks.
``We deployed from Hungary on Christmas Day into Bosnia, convoying over the Sava River Bridge built by the Army Engineers and came here, to Operating Base Kime,'' said Cmdr. Doug Morton, the Seabees' commander. ``Our job in the Ready First Combat Team Sector is to build camps, not only for the brigade but also for the forward operating base,'' he said.
The Seabees brought their own equipment, including several thousand sheets of plywood from Louisiana and 64 pieces of rolling equipment, moving it by train from Spain, through France, Italy, Croatia, Hungry and Bosnia.
``You have to be creative out here, especially since we're working pretty much in the mud all the time,'' said Steven Broz, a first class petty officer from South Dakota.
The Seabees have almost forgotten their first weeks in Bosnia, when they went without showers for 23 days while hurrying to get tents erected for themselves as well as the Army troops.
``That was something the nose had to get used to,'' Broz quipped.
David Flanagan, of Cumberland, Md., also a first class petty officer, said there were days when he thought the work would never end.
``We'd work from sunup to sundown and had two half-Sundays off since we've been here,'' he said. ``But the Army is appreciative.''
Flanagan's squad got so good at their jobs that they need only 15 minutes to erect large, green tents. It takes about 45 minutes to construct the floors.
Morale has been surprisingly high, said Morton.
What kept them going, Morton said, was a story that Adm. Mike Boorda, chief of naval operations, told them just before they arrived.
``He had gone to Sarajevo with a general from the United Nations forces and had seen the body of a 6-year-old girl in a morgue who had been killed that day,'' Morton recalled.
``He told my Seabees: `Remember, every day that you are here is a day that a 6-year-old girl does not get killed in Sarajevo. So whether or not the factions take peace and live with it, or only have peace while you are here, you can be sure you stopped the killing,' '' Morton quoted Boorda as saying.
``So when it is a little muddy, a little bad, and the snow is heavy, we say `Hey, remember the 6-year-old girl.' The troops pick right back up.
``They understand what I am talking about, and they respond.'' ILLUSTRATION: MARTIN SMITH-RODDEN
The Virginian-Pilot
A Seabee walks past a blasted-out farmhouse and yard in Camp Kime in
Bosnia. The 190 Navy men and women of Naval Mobile Construction
Battalion 133 provided the Army with showers, lighting, plywood
flooring in tents and nearly two miles of wooden sidewalks.
MARTIN SMITH-RODDEN
The Virginian-Pilot
Navy Seabees build a watchtower on the back perimeter of Camp Kime,
near the village of Dubrave. The tower faces outward from the camp,
toward the 2.5-mile Zone of Separation between the Serb and
Muslim-Croat territories.
KRT Map
SOURCE: Defense Department
THE NATO MISSION IN BOSNIA
After three weeks of U.S.-sponsored talks in Dayton, Ohio,
leaders of the rival factions in the Bosnian civil war signed a
treaty Dec. 14 in Paris to end the nearly 4-year-old conflict. The
historic but fragile accord created a two-part state in
Bosnia-Herzegovina, and called for a multinational force under
command of the North Atlantic Treaty Organization to keep the peace.
The NATO mission, Operation Joint Endeavor, is under command of a
U.S. officer, and Americans make up its largest single contingent.
HIGHLIGHTS OF THE TREATY
Territory
Bosnia was split into two autonomous sections: a Muslim-Croat
federation, covering 51 percent of the country; and a Serb republic,
covering 49 percent.
Sarajevo, the capital, and its suburbs are being reunited as part
of the Muslim-Croat federation.
Government
A central government, with a collective presidency and a
parliament, will oversee foreign, economic and monetary policy.
The Muslim-Croat federation and the Serb republic will have their
own governments to oversee security and defense, taxation and local
policy.
Elections are to take place within nine months of the treaty
signing.
Peacekeeping
The NATO force is charged with preserving a 2.5-mile ``zone of
separation'' between Serb and Muslim-Croat territory.
The Implementation Force (IFOR) consists of 60,000 members -
50,000 from NATO countries, 10,000 from non-NATO countries. Of the
60,000, 21,000 are Americans. IFOR is represented by all 16 NATO
nations, plus 16 non-NATO countries, such as Russia.
Human rights
Refugees are guaranteed the right to return to their homes.
All parties are required to cooperate with an international
war-crimes tribunal investigating human-rights violations.
THE U.S. ROLE
The U.S. Army's overland deployment over the past two months from
the U.S. and Europe - the first since 1945 - has involved more than
25,000 troops.
The deployment included: 11,000 vehicles and other pieces of
equipment; 145 aircraft; and 160,000 tons of supplies, including
60,000 pairs of boots. To move the force, the U.S. used 358 trains,
with 6,800 rail cars, 500 buses and 1,600 trucks.
KEYWORDS: BOSNIA YUGOSLAVIA CIVIL WAR OPERATION JOINT ENDEAVOR by CNB