New Prized Possessions

Grandson Colby Stuck today presented me with two new prized possessions just a few hours after his return from Iraq. The first item he presented me explains the second:

UNITED STATES OF AMERICA ~ This is to certify that the accompanied American Flag was flown in Honor of Dennis "Mike" McCarville. This flag was flown in the face of the enemy aboard a Special Operations Aircraft through the skies of Iraq during a Combat Mission in direct Support of the Global War on Terrorism on 06 May 2007. This Flag is being presented on behalf of BUCA Colby R. M. Stuck, who was deployed supporting Operation Iraqi Freedom. /s/CPT Christopher M. Castelli, Pilot-in-Command.

Other than Colby's own safe return, I can't imagine anything I'd rather have.

Share |

Iraq: Colby's Diary

Navy Seabee Colby Stuck, a construction specialist and grandson of Mike and Ann McCarville, has just returned from his tour of duty in the sands of Iraq. Colby and others of his unit left Iraq last week and returned via Ireland and Maine to the California base that was their departure point in late February. He expects to be back in Oklahoma within the next few days. Because of tight security, Colby has been unable to share his location in Iraq, or his exact duties.

Share |

Iraq: Colby's Diary

By Navy Seabee Colby Ryan McCarville Stuck, somewhere in Iraq ~ Hey, Grandpa: Well, I'm actually here and it has so far been a pretty different but exciting adventure. I can't talk about what I'm working on, who I'm working for, or where I'm at, but above that I will try to explain as much of my experience as I possibly can.

The weather, for being the desert, has been alright. Some days are hotter than others and some days there's a little bit of a chilly breeze that I wouldn't mind dealing with the entire
deployment. The work, on the other hand, I could definitely handle less of for sure, because its long and hard and we sure don't get cut any slack...7 days a week I guess is what we have to do to stay on top of things and to stay on schedule.

I hope everything and everyone is doing well back home. "WOW" that word home; when you're actually there the only meaning it really has is simple, but what it means here is more. "Paradise" doesn't even attempt to come close to it at all; it is so much better than that. It is in everyone's conversations, stories, dreams and all others things that are mentioned. It almost seems an eternity away from reality some times, the time passes so slow that I wonder if I'll ever get back again, but I am constantly reminding myself that it will come soon enough and it'll be here before I know it.

All the people here are really incredible the way one minute we are complete strangers and then the next we have pulled together and formed an amazing team ready and very willing to live up to our outstanding "CAN DO" attitude! All tasks that come our way we attack and complete to our best ability to make everyone happy and make it easier for all the people we are
in support of.

Please let everyone know that I'm doing well.

Share |

Iraq: Colby's Diary

IN TRANSIT TO IRAQ ~ (Note: Navy Seabee Colby Stuck is the 20-year-old grandson of Mike and Ann McCarville. He has just completed training at a Seabee base in California. Security considerations prevent the disclosure of Colby's mission, his location and exact descriptions of his duties. In Colby's group, cellular telephones and cameras are not allowed; laptop computers are allowed, but are checked regularly by security services.)

When I arrived in California for training before being deployed to Iraq, I was scared. Once our training was underway, that changed to just nervousness about what the future holds. Our instructors have been first-rate; we have been given the best training that's available, whether it's on weapons or CBR situations. The training has been interesting and as we've gone through it, our trust in our instructors and each other has grown. The instructors have provided all the help anyone has asked for and we have been motivated to do our best.

Everyone misses home and family; you learn to put home in the back of your mind and concentrate on the task or mission at hand.

I'm excited to be in the position I'm in, to help others and be a part of our forces that work to bring peace.

Security is very tight. We are not allowed to take our c-phones or cameras with us. Laptops are allowed, but only under certain conditions and they are subject to being checked regularly. Even our exact departure times and schedules are "need to know" only. Everything is very top secret. We had a bag shakedown to make sure we had only what we were supposed to have.

I am uncertain as to how much communications I will have, but I will let you know what I can when I can.

For another view of what's going on in Iraq, read Captain Kevin Calvey's regular blog by clicking on his name under "Links" on the right side of this page.

Share |

Iraq: Colby's Diary

By Colby Stuck ~ CAMP ROBERTS, CA: A large group of us Seabees have been at this Army base for qualification and night firing on the M240B machinegun and training on the Mark 19 grenade machinegun and other devices.

The 240Bravo is awesome; 650-plus rounds per minute. The Mark 19 can launch up to 60 40mm grenades per minute.

We had a little contest to see who could disassemble and reassemble an M240B the fastest. I came in second at 57 seconds; the fastest Seabee did it in 51 seconds. (If you'd like to see a video of this, click here, scroll down to the video of guys in camo and click on the player.)

Our training for shipment to Kuwait and then to Iraq continues in the classroom as well, and we continue to receive the required anti-anthrax injections and other immunizations.

We've been joined at Camp Roberts by another Seabee group, all volunteers, who will be formed into "convoy support teams" in Iraq.

Seabees have rebuilt much of Iraq's infrastructure, as this official U.S. Navy story reports: "Seabees attached to the 1st Marine Expeditionary Force (I MEF), Marine Engineer Group (MEG) opened the Kish irrigation facility in Al Hillah, Iraq with local Iraqi contractors who worked alongside them on the project. The facility had been intentionally neglected for three years by the Hussein regime by not allocating funds to renovate the five massive electric pumps. The neglect is suspected to have been used as a way of controlling the predominately Shiite south. With the new repairs completed, water can now be provided to 125,000 acres of land for 400 area farmers. 'The biggest need is drinking water,' said project manager Lt.j.g. Dan Niec of Naval Mobile Construction Battalion 15 attached to the MEG. The drinking water renovation will alleviate an hour and a half round trip to the next available potable water source. The facility also comes equipped with a back-up generator, should there be a problem with its electrical pumps. The Seabees used funding seized from the Saddam Hussein regime to hire a local contractor familiar with the repair needs and 40 Iraqi workers, who did everything from painting to running electrical wire."

Share |

Iraq: Colby's Diary

(Editor's Note: 20-year-old Colby Ryan McCarville Stuck, graduate of Yukon High School and grandson of Mike and Ann McCarville and son of Alan Stuck of Yukon and Cheryl Anderson of Del City, is a U. S. Naval Reserve Seabee activated for duty in Iraq. He reported for training early in January.)

PORT HUENEME, CA ~ Our training in preparation for shipment to Iraq continues here at the Seabee training center where it is sunny and warm (unlike what you've had in Oklahoma!).

Last week, we qualified with the M-16, firing in the prone, kneeling and standing positions. I could have done better, however I qualified as a marksman. We are doing the "basic combat skills" program and testing ourselves on the CBR course in the gas chamber.

Three days a week, we roll out at 5:30 a.m. for physical training. Our training is almost non-stop, but on Sundays if we don't have courses, we are free.

There's no solid word yet on when we will depart for Kuwait on our way to Iraq, but it may be early in March. We're eager to go.

I volunteered to be cross-trained on the M240B machinegun. The M240 "Bravo" is a serious firearm and one of those our Marines and Seabees in Iraq rely on heavily. Others volunteered to be trained on other specialized weapons in our arsenal. The Bravo is belt-fed and weighs 25 or so pounds and usually is fired from a tripod. (Editor's Note: The M240B also can be mounted atop a Humvee, in a helicopter door, or in most any other configuration we can imagine.)

I also want to take the combat life saver training course so I have some basic skills that could help someone.

While our assignments in Iraq remain unknown to us at this time, I will be part of a Naval Mobile Construction Battalion (NMCB). From the Navy, here's a rundown on the role our NMCB's play:

A component of the Naval Construction Force (NCF), NMCB provides construction and maintenance support to USMC, Naval Forces and other military units. To provide disaster control effort, provide forces for Civic Action support. Provide military and amphibious assault construction support. Subsequent Combat Service Support (CSS) ashore and defense against overt or clandestine enemy attacks directed toward personnel, camps, and facilities under construction.

PRIMARY MISSION:
Construction capability for military operations
Build and maintain base facilities
Defensive operations, including operating a Chemical Biological or Radiological (CBR) environment.

SECONDARY MISSION:
Disaster Control/Recovery Operations, including emergency public works, humanitarian relief and civic action.

HORIZONTAL CONSTRUCTION:
Airfield construction/Rapid Runway Repair (RRR)/Expeditionary Airfields
Ammunition Supply Points (ASP)
Main Supply Routes (MSR) construction and maintenance
Waterfront/Port construction, including pile-driving
Forward Operating Bases (FOB) site preparation/Beddown.

VERTICAL CONSTRUCTION:
Tension fabric and pre-engineered building (PEB) structures, including K-Span structures
Expeditionary/semi-permanent utilities
Timber structures (towers and bunkers)
Deliberate bridging (Bailey/Timber/Medium Girder).

SPECIALTY CONSTRUCTION:
Water well drilling (to 1500 feet)
Concrete construction/asphalt paving
Quarry and Rock Crusher operations
Our mission is to provide and maintain a trained, ready, and immediately available reserve battalion meeting the requirements of the Naval Construction Forces for employment as directed by the Chief of Naval Operations in the event of war, natural emergency, or when otherwise authorized by law.

The Chief of Naval Operations has stated that the mission of a reserve battalion is: To maintain a state of operational readiness to provide a rapid and effective construction support to Naval, Marine Corps and other forces as necessary. To be prepared to conduct ground defense operations when required by the circumstances of the deployed situation. To be prepared to conduct disaster control operations, including public works functions as directed.

Note: Colby's diary, from an enlisted man, and Captain Kevin Calvey's diary (link is on the right side of this page), from an Army officer, should over time provide considerable insight into what our troops face in Iraq.

Share |

Iraq: Colby's Diary

By Colby Stuck as told to Mike McCarville ~ Greetings from warm Port Hueneme, California. We are in training. I will be careful in what I say because of security. Having just arrived, we are getting situated and going from the Naval Reserve to the regular Navy and will do weapons qualification and other things before we move to Kuwait, then on to Iraq. I don't know yet where I will be in Iraq or to what unit I will be assigned. I expect we'll be told that soon. I am an "individual augmentee." That means I am being individually assigned rather than being sent with a full unit. Ten us flew out of Oklahoma City together. #

After the first post here on The McCarville Report Online about Colby's deployment, Terry Lippman and the good folks at the "Hugs" program, which sends care packages to our military members, emailed that Colby and his mates will receive packages as soon as we have an address for them. Thanks to Terry and all the good folks at Hugs.

Others who wear our uniforms also blog about their experiences through diaries. Army Captain Lee Kelley, writing from Al Anbar Province, is among the best known and he writes words worth noting, quoted here in Time Magazine: Kelley says he and other soldiers are disappointed by how the media portray the conflicts in Iraq and Afghanistan. "If you looked at all the coverage, you'd think the whole thing is a huge mess waiting to blow up. I sometimes wonder where these reporters are. I guess it's not exciting enough to write about schools being built." Kelley and his fellow mil-bloggers aren't just writing letters to their families. Unlike generations of soldiers before them, they're writing for history. "If they are archived, blogs will give the best account of this war," Kelley says. "No one knows what's going on better than the soldiers on the front lines."

(Mike's Note: As Colby trains and prepares to depart for Iraq, I will supplement his diary with official Navy information such as the following report on Navy and Seabee operations in Iraq.) "In addition to filling its traditional maritime security role, the U.S. Navy has been performing different missions on the ground in Iraq and Afghanistan, shouldering a larger part of the burden in the war on terror.

"Seabees assist in working to develop the Iraqi security forces, facilitate the development of official rule of law through democratic government reforms, and continue the development of a market-based economy centered on Iraqi reconstruction.

"Currently, more than 11,000 sailors are deployed at sea in the Middle East, and 12,000 sailors are deployed in U.S. Central Command countries, said Navy Lt. Trey Brown, a Navy spokesman. About 4,300 sailors are on the ground in Iraq, he said. Sailors are performing many different missions in the war on terror, Brown said. Some are traditional Navy duties, such as those being carried out by Seabees conducting construction missions and Navy corpsmen deployed with Marine units, Brown said. But Navy units also are doing very nontraditional Navy missions: customs inspections, medical operations, civil affairs and detention operations, among them, he said.

"'This war to defeat terrorism is not something that is put directly onto the Army or Marine Corps; it’s put onto the military as a whole,' Brown said. 'It’s up to the military as a whole to win. With that in mind, our sailors have a lot of skills that are very useful and are very sought after by the commanders that are in Central Command and in Iraq.'

"This week, a group of 520 sailors is redeploying after running a detention facility in northern Iraq, Brown said. This unit is being replaced by another Navy unit, which will do everything from commanding the facility to overseeing its laundry operations, he said. In Afghanistan, about 180 sailors are working on six provincial reconstruction teams working directly with the provinces, teaching the leaders how to work with the national government and local governments, he said.

"Many sailors who deploy to Iraq and Afghanistan go as “'individual augmentees,' which means they are pulled from their home units to support the war on terror, Brown said. The 520 sailors coming back from Iraq this week, for example, are from more than 100 different Navy commands. Every sailor sent to the Middle East goes through specialized training to prepare for the mission, Brown said. The level of training depends on the mission they will perform, he said. Those who will be in a staff position do two weeks of weapons and cultural training at Fort Jackson, S.C., and the sailors who work with detainees go through three months of training, he said. 'We’re using the Army facilities and we’re using a lot of Army personnel to help train them, but this is a Navy training set-up,' he said. Only sailors go through the training.

"The numbers of sailors on the ground has increased continually since the start of Operation Enduring Freedom in Afghanistan, and has steadily grown to its current strength, Brown said. Future levels will depend on the requirements of the commanders on the ground, he said, but he added that he expects the Navy to continue to be a valuable contributor to the war on terror. 'Certainly we anticipate that our sailors are going to continue to be in high demand; the skills that we have will continue to be wanted over there,' he said."

To read all of Colby's diaries, just click on the label.

Share |

Iraq: Now It's Personal

Today, Navy Seabee Colby Ryan McCarville Stuck will begin deployment to Iraq as one of the military construction specialists assigned the task of helping rebuild that nation city by city, bridge by bridge, road by road, building by building.

His deployment makes the war in Iraq very personal for me; Colby is my 20-year-old grandson.

I have seen the war become personal for others. My friend Jerry Bohnen, news director at Oklahoma City radio station KTOK, and his wife, Mary, watched their West Point graduate son John for more than a year as he trained Iraqi soldiers and patrolled the "Highway of Death," the Baghdad highway to the airport. I watched John grow up; used to meet Jerry and Mary to watch John play basketball for the Yukon Millers, saw their pride as he attended, and graduated from, West Point. Felt their anxiety from time to time as John shared some of his wartime experiences in carefully-couched emails. And rejoiced with them as John and his bride exchanged their vows in Yukon after his safe return.

Now, the war becomes personal for me, for Ann and for our daughter Cheryl, Colby's mother; for his brother Mike and sisters Faye and Courtney; his companion Maegan; his father, Alan Stuck and companion Kelli; and for his extended family including Shelli and Howard and Kevin; Connie and Mike and TJ and Kayla; Grandma Becky and Grandma Jane; and a lot of other relatives and friends.

Now, the news from Iraq will have special importance. Now, I'll jump when the phone rings early in the morning or late at night. Now, I'll be even more angry over the reporting from Iraq that virtually ignores the good and magnifies the bad. I'll search, probably in vain, for the stories about how our military has rebuilt roads, bridges, schools and mosques and restored electricity and water and sewer service, or built it in some places for the first time ever. I will flinch over every new report of an IED explosion or ambush. Now, I'll check the official Seabee site every morning.

Colby will share his Iraq experiences with us via a regular diary as his time and security considerations permit. Colby was a wrestler at Yukon High School before injuring a shoulder. He graduated from Yukon High School and joined the Naval Reserve 18 months ago. He was trained at the Great Lakes Naval Station, Illinois, and at the Seabee base in Gulfport, Mississippi. He has worked with his Dad in home construction in the Oklahoma City area.

Like so many whose family members serve our nation in harm's way, we'll begin and end each day with a prayer for Colby's safety, and for the safety of those who serve with him.

Share |