Worth the Wait : Seabees Return to Family, Friends After 8 Months in Saudi Arabia

The crowds of well-wishers outside the base have dwindled, but 300 Seabees returning from eight months in Saudi Arabia found themselves enveloped in a throng of family and friends Wednesday morning.

The first detachment from Naval Mobile Construction Battalion 5 arrived at the Point Mugu airstrip at 4 a.m. to the welcome of an anxious crowd of about 500 family members and friends, many of whom had been waiting through the night.

“It’s just really nice,” said Lt. Ralph Snow, surrounded by friends. “It’s been a long time.”

The mobile construction battalion was the first from the United States to be deployed to Saudi Arabia in August and is the last Port Hueneme unit to return, said base spokeswoman Linda Wadley. The rest of the 600-member battalion is scheduled to return this afternoon, she said.

Seabee engineers and construction teams built reinforced tents, hospitals, runways and other facilities for Marines stationed in Saudi Arabia. At one time during the Gulf crisis, 1,800 Seabees from Port Hueneme were serving in the region.

During homecomings in recent weeks, hundreds of people have lined the main entrance of the Port Hueneme Naval Construction Battalion Center to support the returning troops. But on Wednesday, only about 75 people showed up.

They urged the community not to forget the people still overseas.

“I think it’s starting to get old hat,” said Nancy Otte of Oxnard, who has greeted four groups. “But a lot of the guys are still over there.”

Otte said she corresponds with men overseas who say they fear that the public will grow bored of hearing about the war before they return home.

But the friends and family members meeting the returning Seabees at the airstrip on Wednesday morning were exuberant.

Robert Alvarez Sr. and his wife, Jean, said they had recorded about 70 videotapes of television coverage of the war in a futile effort to spot their son Robert Jr.

“We left it on whenever we left home,” Jean Alvarez said of the videocassette recorder. “When we were home, we edited the commercials.”

Sandy Clary, 29, was so anxious not to miss the plane carrying the Seabees that she drank coffee for the first time in her life.

“I drank four cups right in a row,” she said, hopping up and down and laughing. “I wasn’t tired, but I wanted to make sure I didn’t miss him.” Clary said she dressed her daughters--Ashley, 3, and Jennifer, 10--in sweat suits before putting them to bed Tuesday night so they “could just put on their shoes and get out of the house.”

Others said they didn’t even think of sleeping Tuesday night, preferring to make an all-night party of the homecoming.

Some children clutched homemade signs for their fathers and others carried bright balloons or flowers. One Camarillo woman, Paula Morrison, said she hired a limousine to escort her husband, Greg, home in style.

As the men stepped onto the Tarmac, their families ran toward them and questions of “Have you seen my wife?” mingled with cries of “Daddy, Daddy.”

Fred Hebener of Port Hueneme found his wife, Cheri, and his three children easily but could not help exclaiming how his family had changed while he had been gone.

“You’re getting big, son,” he said to 8-year-old Jonathan. “I’m going to get to know my family again.”

FYI

Members of the public who want to greet the last group of Seabees to return to Ventura County should meet at the Pleasant Valley Road gate of the Port Hueneme Naval Construction Battalion Center by 4:30 p.m. today, officials said. However, the arrival time is subject to change. Residents interested in meeting the troops should listen to local radio stations for updates or telephone the Naval Construction Battalion Center at 982-4493.