Military city rises in Egyptian
desert for Bright Star exercise
Story and photos by David
Josar, Stars and Stripes
Spec. Christopher Craft,
left, and Sgt. Ursula Holmes cut French bread to be served to troops stationed at Pyramid
Logistics Base in the Egyptian desert during Bright Star. |
MUBARAK MILITARY CITY, Egypt — First came the wooden three-hole latrines.
Then came the lights and showers. And then the tiny field tactical exchanges where
military personnel buy flip-flops, batteries, Diet Coke and bags of Skittles.
"It really is a small miracle," said Air Force Lt. Col. John Shroyer, who was
in charge of building the support facilities for Bright Star in the Egyptian desert.
"There was nothing here. We built a city in 30 days."
Many things had to be sent in before the bulk of the troops arrived. Light bulbs, wood,
nails and wire. Bandages and fuel. Spare tires, laundry soap and refrigerators.
Military engineers, planners and logisticians coordinated for the past 18 months to
build the support camps for Bright Star, the largest joint country training exercise the
United States sponsors.
The main operations are at Mubarak Military City, which houses about 6,000 soldiers,
sailors, Marines and airmen. The military city is surrounded by smaller camps such as
Pyramid Logistics Camp that is home to about 1,200 soldiers.
Mubarak Military City is about two miles outside of Alexandria, Egypt.
This year more than 50,000 troops, including about 23,000 U.S. forces, trained together
in the Egyptian desert for about five weeks.
In early September, the teams that did the building, most of them Reserve and National
Guard units, arrived to start construction. Bright Star officially began Oct. 8 and ends
Thursday, but construction units will stay until the end of the month dismantling and
packing everything they brought along and built.
"You try not to forget something," said Maj. Arthur S. Jepsky, who was in
charge of making sure all the supplies arrived and remained stocked. "If you
don’t, you have to improvise."
Troops taking part in
Bright Star prepare a pallet that will be used to ship a pumping station back to the
United States. These
soldiers stayed at Pyramid Logistics Base, one of several camps built in the desert to
house the troops during the exercise. |
However, three times a week air cargo flights bring in fresh vegetables and other
supplies, he said.
This year there weren’t enough 1,000-watt light bulbs to replace broken
streetlights, Jepsky said. Soldiers searched unsuccessfully for replacements in Cairo and
Alexandria and had to do without.
Many times the situation called for soldiers to be creative.
Hoses and couplings brought to link fuel trucks provided by the Egyptian military
didn’t fit U.S. equipment.
Jepsky and his soldiers took the fittings into Alexandria and searched for a machinist;
they found one in an alley.
"He got to work with his measurements and lathe and made us a dozen
replacements," Jepsky said.
Although Bright Star has been held in the similar area since it began in 1980, the
militaries remove the entire infrastructure they build each time they leave.
This year, Shroyer said the United States built its primary compound in and around a
series of low-rise, concrete buildings that had once been planned for an Egyptian military
community, but had never been completed.
The buildings had rudimentary wiring but the U.S. forces wired the building for 110
volts, the electrical standard in America.
Work crews cleared land, installed plumbing and even framed-in windows and doors for
the buildings that are housing a field exchange for the Army and Air Force Exchange
Service, an Army post office and a finance office where military personnel can cash
personal checks.
Army Capt. Vernon Williams Jr., the plans and operations officer at Bright Star, said
many military personnel don’t realize that although the facilities in the desert are
Spartan, a lot of effort went into building them.
One of the first things was to build latrines at remote ranges and training sites.
"It might not seem like a lot but those latrines were needed," said Williams,
who’s with the 416th Engineer Command from Darien, Ill.
Even in the desert, U.S.
troops have some comforts of home. At Pyramid Logistics Base during Bright Star, U.S.
forces built a volleyball court. The soldiers also built a swimming pool, but it was
closed because the bacteria count was too high. |
"You hear some soldiers say this place sucks, but they don’t realize what
went into this," he said. "It may not be as good as they have at home, but
it’s much better than a combat soldier would have in the field."
Speeding in his Humvee across the desert, Maj. Keith Sylvia, executive officer for the
58th Quartermaster, is enthusiastic about the camp his soldiers have built. Called Pyramid
Logistics Base, Sylvia’s troops don’t have the permanent buildings that were in
place at Mubarak Military City. Here, they had to build everything from the ground up.
They built a dining facility, a gym and the swimming pool, complete with deck.
The swimming pool, Sylvia admits, wasn’t a total success. On this day it was
sitting unused, surrounded by razor wire. When Preventative Medicine conducted a safety
check, they found the water, despite being chlorinated, had too much unhealthy bacteria
growing in it to be safe.
"It was basically a giant Petri dish," Sylvia said.
Still the project served a purpose.
"It was a great morale booster when we put it in," said Sylvia, whose unit is
based in Fort Lee, Va.
The main task for Sylvia’s unit during Bright Star is running the fuel depot.
Throughout the exercise, the unit distributed more than 600,000 gallons of petroleum
products.
They also are responsible for supervising the Army’s only ice machine, which at
Bright Star produces ice for medical use and for the dining facilities.
"Ice can be a real morale booster too," Sylvia said."
The day-in, day-out operation can get monotonous but at Pyramid Log, there are ways to
deal with the sameness.
"The food is great," said Spc. Latonya Boone. "They have extra spices.
It’s just spectacular."
To get rid of tension, Staff Sgt. Edward Saddler, a former defensive lineman for the
University of Florida, built a fitness and activity center at Pyramid Log.
When the unit deployed from Virginia, Saddler said they took along 1,500 pounds of free
weights, a treadmill and a stair-climbing machine. They have 60 movies and a wide-screen
TV. They didn’t have benches to watch movies so they built some from scrap wood.
"People need this to blow off stress," Saddler said.
Building a military compound in the middle of the desert needs everything, but perhaps
one of the most important jobs belong to Spc. Charles Lanier and Spc. Pierre Astrel.
Each day they escort contracted Egyptian workers who clean and empty the portable
toilets.
"It’s an important job," Lanier said. "It’s better than guard
duty."
Astrel said if the toilet cleaners didn’t come, everyone in camp would be
miserable.
"It’s no problem. We just make sure they clean every section and that
it’s sanitary and safe."
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