Saluting Our Veterans: Seabee helps shattered people in Pakistan; now she serves in Iraq

Sierra Vista Herald, Sierra Vista Arizona ^ | Bill Hess

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A year ago, Navy Petty Officer 2nd Class Jennifer Sizemore was in the mountains of Pakistan, helping earthquake victims.

What she saw was a “primitive lifestyle,” made even more so by the destructive force of Mother Nature. The job of Navy Construction Battalion 74, more affectionately known as Seabees, was to build facilities for those engaged in rescue work and the residents of the area.

Winter was beginning to come, Sizemore said in a telephone interview from an undisclosed site in Iraq, where Naval Mobile Construction Battalion 74 out of Gulfport, Miss., finds itself now.

The daughter of Nick and Frauke Sizemore of Sierra Vista, she is a 1997 graduate of Buena High School.

The family moved to the Sierra Vista area when she was 4. Now 28, Sizemore has been in the Navy for eight years.

Her father is a retired sergeant first class.

Of his daughter, the dad said he and his wife are proud of her.

Even though he is a retired soldier, the dad said, “I have no problem she went into the Navy. It was a good choice for her. I’m pretty proud of her.”

Even though she isn’t in the Army, Sizemore said she and other sailors who took part in the earthquake earned a humanitarian award, “and we got Army Achievement Medals.”

Sizemore also met a senior U.S. State Department official who thanked the unit for the work they were doing in Pakistan.

The time the Navy unit was in Pakistan was an awakening to her that there are parts of the world where people struggle just to survive every day.

According to Rear Adm. Michael LeFever, commander of the Disaster Assistance Center Pakistan, the two units completed 12 demolition projects, cleared 50,000 cubic yards of debris and built 70 temporary shelters and 15 special facilities that were used for schools.

Sizemore said when the unit arrived, sanitary conditions were nonexistent.

And, the lifestyle, the culture, “was very complex,” Sizemore noted.

The people were friendly, recognizing the presence of those who were helping them were important for their survival, she said.

To help those in need, facilities for those who were providing relief had to be built, Sizemore said.

One facility her unit constructed was similar to a Mobile Army Surgical Hospital of Korean War fame, she said.

As the days went on, it became colder, which occasionally slowed down work, but the sailors of the construction battalion were determined to get their assigned jobs done to help the Pakistanis, she said.

Sometimes a person couldn’t wear gloves, so that meant warming one’s hands over a fire, Sizemore said.

As the local population became used to the presence of outsiders, they became more outgoing, the sailor said.

Pakistani women were curious about American military women, Sizemore said.

“Women could come up to me and ask questions,” she said.

And, the women always wanted American females to have tea with them, Sizemore said.

To be asked to tea is an honor and care had to be taken not to cause a problem that could have been seen as an insult to their culture, she said.

Then there were the children, many of them injured, Sizemore said.

Like children anywhere in the world, they smiled and waved, while being shy at the same time, the sailor said.

Sometimes a simple smile back and friendly wave was the best form of communication, Sizemore said.

But, now she is in Iraq, in a place she declined to identify, where the construction battalion is involved in a number of projects.

“We’re doing construction,” she said, adding the danger is different from what was experienced in Pakistan.

In Pakistan the concerns were about aftershocks and conditions that could cause disease, she said.

Now, the sailors have to worry about possible enemy action, with dangers including improvised explosive devices and snipers.

But, Sizemore said her unit is trained to the exacting standards of the Seabees, an organization that traces its roots back to World War II, when construction and combat went hand in hand, as it continues to this day.

The unofficial motto of the Seabees is “Can Do!”

But the formal one — “Construimus, Batuimus” — is what the sailors with those units do because the Latin phrase translates as, “We Build, We Fight.”

Herald/Review senior reporter Bill Hess can be reached at 515-4615 or by e-mail at bill.hess@svherald.com.

[SandRat]

SEABEES - CAN DO!!!!