IBEW instructor returns from duty in Iraq

A U.S. flag that once flew over a Marine base in Iraq’s Al Anbar province now hangs framed on an auditorium wall at NECA-IBEW Local 48 Electrical Training Center in Portland.

The flag was sent by Naval reservist Ron Umali, 44, who spent six months in Iraq earlier this year as a member of the U.S. Navy Seabees just months after he was hired by the training center as an instructor.

“It’s a really bad place,” Umali told the Northwest Labor Press. “You learn to appreciate what you have because there are people there who don’t have anything.”

Umali grew up an American “expat” in places like Pakistan and Iran, where his father worked in the oil construction industry. But in Iraq, he said, he had almost no interaction with the locals. Security was always on the mind, and he and the fellow members of his battalion kept to their own.

While Umali was in Iraq, five members of his battalion of about 500 were injured, and one, a friend and fellow squad-member, was killed by an IED (Improvised Explosive Device) while on a convoy.

Though Umali’s unit came under mortar attack when he was in Fallujah, Seabees mostly don’t work directly in harm’s way. Umali said he carried an M-16 but never had to fire it. And Umali said he’s never been on a ship.

The Seabees are the Navy’s best-kept secret, Umali said. Known formally as the U.S. Naval Construction Force (and informally as the “dirt navy”), the Seabees do construction support for the U.S. Marine Corps. The name Seabee comes from “CB,” the abbreviation for Construction Battalion.

Umali spent several tours of duty in the U.S. Air Force, and a stint in the Army, but joined the Navy in 1999 and found a home in the Seabees.

Umali said he can’t talk in detail about where he was or what he did in Iraq. But mostly he served as a construction planning and estimating specialist, upgrading military outposts to improve security and quality of life. That included installing blast barriers and replacing tents with hard structures. After seven days a week of 12-to 16-hour days, teaching apprentice electricians in Portland is light duty.

Umali declined to share opinions about the politics of the war, but said he wouldn’t hesitate to go back if called.

When his enlistment expired last month, however, he decided not to re-enlist; he and his wife Melissa are expecting a daughter in February.

Her weekly care packages kept him going in Iraq. Now, Umali concluded, he’s needed on the home front.