First riverine unit deploys to Iraq - Navy News | News from Afghanistan & Iraq - Navy Times

First riverine unit deploys to Iraq

NAVAL AMPHIBIOUS BASE LITTLE CREEK, Va. — In the bone-chilling pre-dawn cold here Thursday, Riverine Squadron 1 mustered one last time before leaving America for deployment to western Iraq.

“I am about a ready as I am going to be,” said Engineman 1st Class Michael Enriquez, a maintainer with the squadron.

Enriquez, in desert camouflage and pistol belt, said he’s looking forward to going to Iraq. His last ship was the dock landing ship Pearl Harbor, and he’s been to the Persian Gulf before. But he got turned on to the riverine job while fixing boats at the special warfare riverine training center at Stennis Space Center in Mississippi. “I volunteered. I’ve seen what they do. They hit the water. They shoot guns,” he said.

Riverine Squadron 1 will take over the security of the Euphrates River from Marines; the Corps has performed that mission since the war began.

An advance party of 60 Navy riverines is already in Iraq. The group of 150 leaves Thursday, joined soon by a third phase.

As Enriquez prepared his own gear, other sailors from the new unit kept arriving with family and on their own, hauling packs and flight bags. Many of them were already carrying their weapons.

Master at Arms 2nd Class Robert Kmetz is a member of the squadron ground combat element. He has a baby girl on the way with his fiancée, who is also in the Navy. It is their second deployment as a couple. His mission in Iraq means he might be moving around quite a bit.

“They said, ‘Be flexible,’ ” he said. “We are multi-versatile.”

Most of the sailors are active duty, but one of the riverines left his job as a Virginia state trooper to go to Iraq with the squadron. Reserve Intelligence Specialist 1st Class Michael Cherry said he was chosen specifically because of what he does. He’s a firearms investigator. Before he could talk much more, he was hugged around both legs by two weeping children. He turned to comfort them.

“Everybody is motivated and gung-ho and ready to go,” said Chief Quartermaster Mike Gaspar, the command career counselor.

When news of the riverine unit first came out, sailors throughout the fleet began pelting their detailers with questions. Gaspar said sailors on Little Creek have still been coming through the front door of the squadron building, trying to sign up.

“We encourage them to come by and talk to us when they are in their window for orders,” he said.

Hull Technician 2nd Class Roy Westbrook was one of those sailors who heard about the new unit last year and started asking questions. He was in his window, saw the orders pop up and called his detailer. After getting a rundown on the new job, he told him “Give me 10 minutes, I’ll call you right back.”

The next call was to the wife. She gave him the green light, and now Westbrook has a carbine in his hands, about to go to a river in the desert.

“It’s a totally different Navy,” said Westbrook, who joined in 1998 and deployed with the aircraft carrier Theodore Roosevelt seven days after the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks.

Since the unit has formed up the sailors’ families have become close. The wives — it’s an all-male unit — know each other and the kids play together.

“It’s because of the job that’s ahead of us,” Westbrook said. “I have a lot of people ask me, ‘Do you have butterflies? Are you scared?’ And I’m not.”

The squadron leader, Cmdr. Bill Guarini, has been a surface warfare officer his entire career.

“This has been the most incredible year of my life,” the New Jersey native said. “I expect the next year to be even more so.”

He went to Iraq in a 12-man element for two weeks in November to get the lay of the land. He came back and let his guys know what it’s like, what to expect in terms of quality of life. He told them about the threats.

“I really just told them the facts,” he said.

One of the other sailors on that advance party was Senior Chief Boatswain’s Mate Bruce Diette. He was selected for the riverines off his last ship, the destroyer Howard. Now he’s a boat captain and a patrol officer. On the scouting trip to Iraq, he went on six missions with the Marines. He told his sailors to imagine a cross between the anarchic movies “Mad Max: Beyond Thunderdome” and “Waterworld.”

“It was an eye-opener. You can read about it. You can watch videos. But until you see it first-hand, won’t realize,” he said. “It was real.”

But just hours before getting on a plane for the Middle East, Diette was looking forward to catching up on sleep. Last night, he played with his two young sons as much as he could. He let them eat all the Girl Scout cookies they wanted. He let them jump on the bed.

“Last night was a night they could break the rules,” Diette said.