The first stop was an air base, where the engineers built an extensive helicopter pad for dozens of helicopters in just over a month.

The trick here was finding the right surface to hold up in the loose, fine sand. After several starts and misses, they finally settled on AM2 matting.

Hueys and Cobra helicopters now sit quietly on the pad, their wings tied down against the wind, waiting.

Here, “brown-out” is a significant problem with the helicopters, as their rotating blades can create a sand storm which blinds the pilots during take-off and landing.

The problem was solved by bringing in heavy equipment, such as graders and scrapers, to level the ground and compact it before putting down the matting. “Gorilla snot,” or an environmentally-friendly glue that binds the sand together, was placed around the circumference of the pad to help keep the sand down when the helicopters take off.

A runway sweeper keeps the “FOD,” or “foreign object debris,” off the runway.

“Like the Army — We have done more by 5 a.m. than most people do all day,” said Sgt. Maj. Anthony Franklin, from Birmingham, Alabama, who was with the colonel.

These engineers have also built airfields. F-18 Fighter/Attack Hornet aircraft land here with an arresting cable, using the same method as on aircraft naval carriers. The airplane drops a hook that the cable catches, and stops the plane on the landing pad.

Settling for the AM2 matting was a tough decision, said Col. Anderson. “AM2 is heavy and takes up a lot of room on a ship, but you can build an air pad with it in a couple of days.”

His engineer unit has 14 different functions of aviation ground support, “all doing different things, with us trying to get them to do it all for the same reason,” said Col. Anderson.

Their duties include a mind-boggling array of services: internal airfield communications; weather services, expeditionary air field services (EAF); aircraft, rescue and firefighting (ARFF); aircraft and ground refueling; explosive ordnance disposal (EOD); essential engineer services; motor transport (MT); field messing facilities, routine and emergency sick call, and aviation medical functions; individual and unit training of organic personnel and selected personnel of support units; nuclear, biological, and chemical (NBC) defense; security and law enforcement services; and air based commandant functions.

Thanks to them, the Marines here are quite comfortable. The engineering unit built hundreds of “hardback” wooden frames and wooden decks for the GP (general purpose) tents that many Marines work and sleep in.

They have also packed down the ground around the tents, and in some cases, put gravel down to minimize the dust. In addition, they built the mess halls, purified water, and when possible, installed showers and laundry spouts.

Next, the colonel and his team traveled to Camp Work Horse further north. The camp — again, embeds are restricted from giving specifics in numbers, size or location — is run by Lt. Col. Al Thoma, from North Carolina.

Lt. Col. Thoma said he arrived here a month ago “with a few operators and some borrowed gear; we managed to get our hands on the rest. We built the tents, the “kabal,” a camp surrounded by a berm, and built the entire compound with full facilities that include showers, laundry, mess, full medical services, alternative hot breakfast and continental breakfast, MREs for lunch, and hot dinners.

“We also have a construction shop, and built all the ‘strong backs’ and bunkers, and added all the lighting,” said Lt. Col. Thoma.

Right here in the middle of nowhere, the “hooches” have electricity. “Down south, they’re given the softer life — including Haagen Dasz ice cream with their meals,” he said.

“This hinders a certain mind set and focus that these young Marines need to have if and when they cross the ‘line of departure’ (go to war).”

That said, Camp Work Horse offers many amenities that other Marines further out in the field long for.

Looking at the vast tent city, it’s hard to imagine that most of this camp has been built by Marines in their late teens or early twenties.

“These Marines perform well when given a challenge — and they’ve done that here. It doesn’t matter what generation they are. Marines are Marines.

“Lots of people complain about the ‘younger generation,’ but these kids just need guidance and discipline and something constructive to do, and they’ll amaze you,” Thoma said.

At Camp Coyote, also an air base, Lt. Col. Dan Zautcke, had much the same story to tell.

“We started the ground preparation for Camp Coyote in December, and on the 5th of January we started constructing the ‘strong backs.’ It took us about one month to build them and we built quite a few of them.”

He said their biggest challenge was dealing with the voltage (from 110 to 220), which “took some time to overcome.”

The two lieutenant colonels joke about the culture shock the different US military services have experienced working together.

Before the Marines arrived on base, the Air Force had an aerobics room, and a relaxation room with vibrating chairs, earphones, soft light, aromatherapy,” Zautcke said.

“When we heard there was a relaxation room we thought it was for punching bags and sparring material,” Thoma said.

Driving back to home base, Col. Anderson talked about the training the Marines had gone through in case they go to war with Iraq: “All the Marines went through mandatory training, which identified why we were here, what our goal is if we do go across. It’s not about hurting the Iraqi people, and it’s not about seizing oil wells.”

The Marines, he said, have been told to defend themselves to the greatest extent possible, “but they also know they have to be very careful in regard to collateral damage.

“We are all able to make distinctions between good people and bad people,” said Col. Anderson.

“We’ve been telling our Marines that we are not at war with the Iraqi people... and this is not propaganda, this is what I honestly believe.

“If we do go to war, we want to try to preserve their culture, their historic sites, their mosques, etc. So as long as no one is shooting at us from such a place, and it is not dangerous, we will not destroy it.”