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A former partner
in a top-10 global management consulting firm,
Joe Buff is a seasoned risk analyst and professional
writer on national security and defense preparedness.
He is also a novelist of tales of near-future
warfare featuring nuclear submariners and
Navy SEALs in action at their bravest and
best. Two of Joe's non-fiction articles on
future submarine technology and tactics, which
appeared in The Submarine Review, received
literary awards from the Naval Submarine League.
His recent novel Crush
Depth made the Military Book Club's
Top 20 Bestseller List after being selected
as a Featured Alternate of the Club in late
2002. Tidal
Rip was released from Wm. Morrow in
hardcover in November, 2003, and quickly made
the Amazon.com Top 100 General Thrillers Bestseller
List (paperback edition due in October, 2004).
Joe's next book, Straits
of Power, is scheduled for hardcover
publication in November, '04.
Joe is a member of the Society for Risk Analysis,
a non-partisan international scholarly body
headquartered in McLean, VA. He is a Life
Member of the following organizations: U.S.
Naval Institute, the Navy League of the
United States, the Fellows of the Naval War
College, CEC/Seabees Historical Foundation,
and the Naval Submarine League. Joe's father
was an enlisted man in the Navy (Seabees in
the Pacific Theater) from 1946 through 1951,
and his uncle was a merchant mariner on the
North Atlantic convoys late in World War II,
before being drafted into the U.S. Army to
serve in the Occupation of Nazi Germany. In
August, 2004, Joe was made an Honorary Life
Associate Member of the Navy Seabee Veterans
of America, partly in recognition of his pro
bono work for Operation
Seabees Knowledge.
Joe
Buff Article & Column Archive
Joe Buff Contact Info:
readermail@joebuff.com
http://www.JoeBuff.com
Joe Buff Books:
Straits
of Power
Tidal
Rip
Crush
Depth
Thunder
in the Deep
Deep
Sound Channel
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November 1, 2004
[Have an opinion on this column? Sound off in Military.com
at the Frontlines.]
A year ago I wrote an essay "Seabees -- Special Forces?" The aim of this new piece is to remove that question mark forever. Last time, I explored the continuing importance to our nation of one lesser-known part of the military, Naval Mobile Construction Battalions (NMCBs), nicknamed Seabees -- first formed in 1942, and still active today in Iraq and Afghanistan. Their role and their goal are summarized nicely in the Seabee motto, "We build, we fight." Their spirit is kept alive through an expression they introduced decades ago, now a classic part of popular American lingo, "Can do." Seabees are skilled construction craftsmen and technically talented engineers, but they're battle hardened quasi-Marines as well, equally competent handling jackhammers or M-16s, and just as effective at operating bulldozers or Humvee-mounted heavy machine guns. The work Seabees performed in the Pacific island-hopping campaign, clearing beach obstacles while under vicious enemy fire, led to the organization of dedicated Underwater Demolition Teams (UDTs), from which, in turn, in the early '60s -- as Vietnam was heating up -- were born the U.S. Navy SEALs. So there's a blood relationship, in every sense, between Seabee battalions of yesteryear and one of the very potent elites in the broader arena of special operations forces (SOF) today.
Why revisit this topic? Because there's something fresh to report, a innovative type of Seabee unit that I think belongs to the world of SOF in the here and now, without doubt. Created during the final preparations for Operation Iraqi Freedom, specially trained ten-man Seabee Engineer Reconnaissance Teams (SERTs) are at the sharp point of the spear, often working in -- or in front of -- the front lines in the Global War on Terror. Their mission is to go on ahead of major formations, to conduct clandestine "sneak and peak" engineering intelligence gathering, relayed back to higher echelons for expert analysis that drives correctly-focused project planning while lives are at stake. As practitioners of combat engineering from every armed forces branch will know, the art and science of it is to constantly measure and quantify, and then implement with the least time and effort, solutions to practical problems of travel and basing in a war zone. The utility of SERTs lies in helping give maneuver commanders the data they need to keep their troops and vehicles moving on a fast-paced, complex 21st-century battlefield. Without this vital data, obtained reliably under chaotic and fluid conditions, momentum could be lost and the whole expeditionary effort might bog down -- even if logistics or bad weather never become constraining factors.
First, let me explain (and emphasize) that all SERT members are Seabees first, and begin their careers in regular Seabee assignments. They return to more "normal" Seabee service once their battalion's SERT isn't needed. SERT members can be Navy "lifers," or called-up reservists, and everything in between.
So what do SERT teams do and how do they do it? Engineering recon intell will include, depending on the immediate tactical situation, transportation (roads, rails, bridges) and other infrastructure physical-condition and load-bearing adequacy assessment, initial terrain surveys and selection of ideal sites for follow-on facilities construction, and identification of enemy resources (gravel quarries, cement factories) left available for friendly exploitation. To repeat for emphasis and clarity, the purpose of all this intell is, during major combat, to assist in keeping big, powerful Marine Corps and Army units, with their own built-in engineering components, speeding ever forward, over efficiently repaired or newly carved routes with sturdy lines of reinforcement and supply. The purpose during counterinsurgency operations is similar: swiftly and accurately size up the effects of sabotage, or identify and help secure improvised explosive devices (IEDs) -- as did a SERT team from Seabee Battalion 74 -- so that manpower and materiel in just the right amounts can be rushed to patch the damage or defuse the lethal booby trap by a realistic deadline. Only in this way can highways be kept open, buildings be made habitable, and suppression of insurgent activity remain a viable objective.
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Typically one SERT team is attached to each Seabee battalion, though the SERTs are highly mobile, extremely flexible, and often meld with a Marine Expeditionary Force Engineering Group. The warning of their next open-ended task can come very suddenly and urgently; they need the steady preparedness and mental agility and toughness of a home-town professional/volunteer fire brigade. A SERT team usually consists of two officers, two chiefs, and six other enlisteds. (The officers belong to the Navy's Civil Engineer Corps.) The enlisted men in a SERT will represent a versatile blend of Seabee ratings, such as Builder, Construction Mechanic, or Equipment Operator -- all qualified on every battalion-level weapon short of mortars. A team's integral transport are three armed Humvees, consistent with each team having three subsections: Liaison, Recon, and Security.
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© 2004 Joe Buff. All opinions expressed
in this article are the author's and do not necessarily reflect
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