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thedrifter
02-13-09, 07:43 AM
Spring training begins ... in Iraq
Seabees design batting cage for Marines
By Tom Dalton
Staff writer


SALEM — Spring training started early in Iraq.

Long before the Red Sox reported to Fort Myers, Fla., the crack of the bat could be heard at a remote U.S. Marine camp near the border with Syria.

After long, hard days in a hostile land, Marines and sailors have been playing ball in their free hours inside a batting cage at Marine Combat Outpost Tripoli in al-Anbar province.

The batting cage was a gift, or really a labor of love by Paul Campagna of Salem and his fellow U.S. Navy Seabees of a construction battalion assigned to protect and support American armed forces.

Campagna, 44, is with the Seabees of Naval Mobile Construction Battalion 27, who have built troop housing and battle aid stations at the camp, restored restroom and shower trailers, and secured the perimeter from the enemy.

This winter, often late at night and in the dark, the Seabees built a regulation batting cage designed by Campagna, a union carpenter back home. It was a spur-of-the-moment, unscheduled project.

"A few of the Marines and I had brought our baseball gloves with us and were playing catch one day," Campagna wrote in an e-mail. "One of the Marines said, 'Wouldn't it be great if we had a batting cage?' and asked me if I could build one."

That's all Campagna needed. He was off and running, working tirelessly on a design, scrounging for spare materials and devoting long hours.

He had lots of help, especially from a North Shore pal, Danny Barrasso of Peabody, a fellow Seabee.

"Campagna designed it and we started building it," Barrasso, 40, a heating and air-conditioning technician, told a Marine Corps publication. "Some people came out to help in their downtime. ...

"It's a gift to the Marines who are (working) every day. I've seen guys on convoys getting out of their trucks and running to the batting cage to play."

When a lack of baseballs became a concern, a Marine from California wrote to his favorite baseball team. "He e-mailed the San Diego Padres and told them we had a batting cage," Campagna said. "A month later, they mailed out 100 major league game balls for us."

The batting cage has been a big hit with Marines, Army, Navy and civilian personnel. It has been in use night a day.

"Even convoys rolling through would make a point of stopping by the cage and taking a few swings," Campagna said.

Golf range out of a parachute

While this is his first batting cage, it is not Campagna's first venture into sports construction at remote outposts in the Middle East.

During a 2005 tour in Afghanistan, he tried building a pool table but had to abandon it when he couldn't get the right material for the bumpers. A golf driving range, however, was a smash.

"We made a deal with some Army guys," Campagna wrote, "and got an old parachute. We rigged it in a huge warehouse on a pulley system so we could raise it and lower it. After work, we would lower it and tee off into it. Now, that got a lot of use. ..."

On a more serious note, Campagna also is credited with redesigning the lookout posts on the perimeters of Marine bases. He drew a 10-page set of plans that the Marines tried at one post, liked a lot and then used at other posts. Those lookout stations now have a name — "The Campy Post."

Campagna's wife, Jennifer, was not surprised to hear that her husband has been working tirelessly to make life easier and better for others. He has done the same for her.

"He is so amazing," she said. "He'll just come up with a design and, boom, there it is...

"I think it was my birthday a few years ago, and (he built) a 7-foot shoe rack downstairs with crown molding and slanted shelving. He stayed up until probably 3 or 4 o'clock in the morning."

Campagna shrugs off all the praise.

"Yes, we are proud of what we do here, but that's not why we're here," he wrote. "We're not looking for recognition, we're just here to do a job and get back home with our families."

Ellie