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.

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.

The liaison section, normally led by the officer first in command, will convey real-time reports to higher headquarters, and coordinate intentions and movements with any neighboring Marine, Army, or coalition units. The recon section will perform the actual engineering intelligence-gathering, using digital cameras, laser range finders, portable computers, and other tools and instruments, so the liaison section can provide extensive data toward the rear -- sometimes via satellite -- at a high baud rate. The security section’s critical task is force protection: Teams sometimes deploy to remote areas, and they need to be self-reliant in disputed or hostile territory. Picture three Humvees jam-packed with equipment and provisions, bristling with .30 or .50 caliber roof-mounted machine guns, bearing ten men who probably haven’t showered in weeks, rolling along on their own to identify passable turf and to locate obstructions, and you’ll catch the flavor of SERTs in Iraq in action pretty well. This might sound like a modern version of the “Rat Patrols,” but SERT members are knowledge-workers too.

Some of the SERT team will be thoroughly trained in the use of explosives, for destruction of obstacles or as an expedient way to dispose of IEDs that block their path. All members of the team cross-train in communications -- modern radio equipment and procedures -- because they might take casualties while doing their duty; the team’s hard-earned intell is useless if not properly and promptly sent to the senior commanders who are eagerly depending on it. Each team includes a corpsman, who needs to be equally ready to treat a wounded comrade, or aid ill or injured civilians whom teams encounter -- just like the corpsman from Battalion 74’s SERT gave emergency medical treatment to two badly burned Iraqi children. In addition, a SERT team might have attached to it for some missions a Seabee Underwater Construction Team (UCT). A UCT usually consists of three men, qualified in scuba work and underwater demolitions, who carry out submerged structure inspections, riverbed or swampland or coastal bottom mapping and soil analysis, and underwater blasting, as the occasion might arise. SERT teams are also trained and equipped to operate in a theater where WMDs might be a threat. They have the sensors to test for nuclear, biological, and chemical weapons -- or hazardous materials in the environment -- and the suits to protect themselves from contamination. Members of a SERT might also come from the Seabees’ Tactical Movement Teams (TMTs). These skills include convoy operations, land navigation, and Arabic language and cultural knowledge.

There’s no room for doubt that SERT teams can, and do, operate in the shadows at the forward edge of the battle area. Official Navy news releases commonly use the words “stealth” and “low profile” in connection with the SERTs. An Iraq combat veteran SERT team member who helped me with some background for this essay said he learned camouflage and stealth movement and covert observation techniques from a Marine advisor assigned to his team’s parent Seabee battalion. He also acquired, in deadly earnest, hand-to-hand combat training with the Marines at 29 Palms, California. Similar to many special operations forces groups throughout the U.S. military, his team’s job was to get in and out of an area as quickly as possible, avoiding detection when they could, grabbing information to greatly multiply the effectiveness of main-line formations. On more than one occasion, at a camp or in a bivouac, this Seabee’s SERT team -- with their Humvee gun trucks and their famous knack for combat improvisation -- was asked by an Army or Marine unit, on the spot, to act as the unit’s rapid reaction force in case of a sudden enemy assault. If that’s not a sign of the greatest respect from one bunch of warriors to another, I don’t know what is. And SERTs definitely did come under attack during Operation Iraqi Freedom’s major-combat phase: The SERT men from NMCB 4 received the Combat Action Ribbon, well earned during two successful convoy anti-ambush firefights in a single day. They were pushing “up the middle” toward Baghdad during the three-pronged drive to topple Saddam -- heading to relieve NMCB 5’s SERT, the first Bees to take hostile fire since Vietnam.

Perhaps a more recent example, also involving a SERT team from NMCB 4, will further illustrate the traits possessed, and the risks taken, that I think make SERTs a deserving part of special operations forces. In August, 2004, insurgents damaged a key bridge on an important logistics route, by setting off explosives under support structures of the bridge. Within twelve hours of this attack, the SERT team’s damage evaluation was in the hands of structural engineers at Naval Facilities Engineering Command Atlantic. A detailed repair recommendation was relayed back to the scene, and forty-eight hours after the original sabotage the bridge was restored to full service. As engineering recon and communications alone, that’s an outstanding performance. But there was also the problem of bad guys feeling rather unhappy to see the bridge being fixed so soon. Using the cover of darkness, infiltrators planted an IED under the bridge, and enemy snipers repeatedly took shots at the Seabees as they worked. The SERT team’s security component had to be augmented by tanks from 2nd Battalion, 1st Marines. Think about that.

Once their job was done, the SERT team withdrew. They were as close to the front lines and the no-man’s-land beyond, in a major counterinsurgency campaign, as a person can get. A small group of Seabees performed an unconventional mission applying a unique combination of construction and combat skills, showing initiative and creativity, using high-tech specialized equipment. They leveraged advanced commo gear to deliver crucial recon intell and then tap optimal human expertise provided electronically from thousands of miles away. “Can do!” says it all.

JoeBuff.Com / Joe Buff Inc. Joe Buff, President Dutchess County, New York E-Mail readermail@JoeBuff.Com