PORTRAITS OF WAR: Marine takes pride in his troops' crucial mission

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PORTRAITS OF WAR: Marine takes pride in his troops' crucial mission

May 7, 2003


NAME: Roger Machut

RANK: Marine lieutenant colonel

AGE: 42

HOMETOWN: Schaumburg, Ill.

JOB: Commander of the 6th Engineer Support Battalion, in charge of 1,586 Marines in Iraq. Formerly commander of the Marine Corp Reserves station in Battle Creek.



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BY JEFF SEIDEL
FREE PRESS STAFF WRITER




CAMP VIPER, Iraq -- It all fits, one piece aligning with the next, from President George W. Bush to a single tank in the desert.

Before you can understand this war and see it in a different light, why the military was able to push through Iraq so quickly and why so few Americans died. . . .

Before you can understand how Iraq will be rebuilt, starting with essentials like power and water, before a new government can be established. . . .

You have to see everything from a different point of view, on a small scale, starting with a simple rubber hose in the desert.

That hose was put together by more than 1,500 Marine reservists, men and women with everyday jobs -- teachers , police officers and truck drivers; your next door neighbors from Portland, Ore., to Peoria, Ill.; from Phoenix to Pennsylvania -- united in the desert to build a fuel supply line for the entire 1st Marine Expeditionary Force, pumping diesel to 50,000 Marines for trucks, tanks and helicopters on the front lines. Before you can understand that hose, however, you have to understand the man behind the hose -- Lt. Col. Roger Machut, a thin man with a stiff personality, a full-time civil engineer and a part-time Marine, commanding a battalion of reservists.

And to understand the man behind the hose, you have to start with a grenade, during a deadly ambush in Vietnam. That changed everything. That started everything.

It all fits together.

One dot. Then another dot. And another. Until finally, they all come together in a straight line through the desert, forming a hose stretching 57 miles long, capable of pumping a half-million gallons of diesel fuel every day, from Kuwait to Iraq, an artery into the heart of enemy territory, linking different kinds of people, and fueling a different kind of war.

To understand what will happen over the next few months -- how this man is going to help restore Iraq, in his own small way, giving the people water and power, helping to rebuild roads and buildings, to fix what was so quickly torn down -- you have to go back to that grenade.

The day his hero died.

Machut was 7 when his older brother, Richard Machut, was killed by a grenade in an ambush in Vietnam.

"He was my idol, a Marine, 14 1/2 years older than me," Machut says. "He was on patrol, and they were ambushed. He took a grenade round to the mid-portion of his body. It blew his legs off, basically from the waist down. We were told he didn't suffer long. He lived about a half-hour after that. I remember it all . . . being informed, seeing my parents, waiting two weeks for him to come home and the three-day wake.

"I remember those days distinctly. I've lived with his memory and wanted to be like him."

When Machut graduated from high school, there was no question what he was going to do -- join the Marines, just like his older brother. He went to see a recruiter, intending to enlist, but the recruiter talked him into going to college and becoming an officer.

Machut went to Tulane University in New Orleans on a Marine scholarship and studied civil engineering. He spent 4 1/2 years on active duty and joined the Marine Corp Reserves in 1988, assigned to the 4th Bridge Company in Battle Creek.

After bouncing up the ranks, Machut took over 6th Engineer Support Battalion in September.

"Never in my wildest dreams when I went to Battle Creek as a young captain did I think I would command this battalion, much less command it in war," he says. "I look back on my career and wonder how the heck I ended up here. I can only think it's fate. I was meant to be here."

A few hours before the start of the war, Machut looked like death. His face was cold and pale, focused but tired. There was so much that could go wrong.

The mission sounded simple enough -- put down a hose through the middle of the desert and pump diesel fuel 57 miles from Kuwait to a fuel farm in southern Iraq. A fuel farm is like a giant gas station in the desert, only the diesel is stored in huge bladders. Tankers come from the front line, fill up with fuel and take it back to the tanks and trucks.

Sounds simple.

But there were doubters.

"There are some naysayers out there in the Marine Corps who said this has never been done," Machut says. "You can't do it, especially a reserve battalion."

The Marines had never pumped fuel such a long distance, so deep into enemy territory. And if this battalion failed, the supply line would crumble.

The mission couldn't start until the area was secured.

On the second day of the war, Machut heard some disturbing news. The Marines on the front line were starving for fuel, and his battalion was still behind the border.

"I went down and talked to the Marines and told them this is what's at stake," Machut says. "I told them, 'It's Marines your age, from your hometowns, who are literally dying in gunfights. They need air support. They need the accompanying fire from tanks and LAVs," which stands for light armored vehicles.

"The tanks are having trouble getting up there because they need fuel. The air support needs fuel. They were going to run out soon.' "

So they start the mission earlier than expected.

Two companies laid the hose. A third company went forward and started to build the fuel farm in the desert.

Other Marines worked as flank security, protecting the convoys while the trail was marked.

The project was finished ahead of schedule. "We said four days, and we did it in three days," Machut says. "We did it without the communications support we needed. We did it without the logistical lift that we needed. We started in the middle of the night, as opposed to the middle of the day. On top of that, we set this up in the worst sandstorm in 20 years for this area.

"Lots of things changed. The route changed. The breach through the Kuwaiti berm wasn't where we originally anticipated it would be. As we ran up here, we ran into oil fields that we knew about, but we didn't know the condition of the pipes. We had to adjust for that. There were farms we went through. Our recon unit, which I was a part of, had to figure out a route in order to minimize the length of the hose that was gonna be used."

A week after the hose was put down -- an overwhelming success -- Machut continued to have concerns. There was no way to protect a soft hose, about 6 inches wide, that stretched for miles across the Iraqi desert.

"Our biggest concern is a guy on a camel with a rusty machete," he says.

One person could have crippled the entire project by cutting the hose.

"The hose reel is a soft target," Machut says. "Right now, there is some idea that there is some enemy trying to infiltrate our rear areas. We've had some sightings of people looking at our stuff. We aren't sure if the hose reel is under watch by bad guys or bedouins who are curious. It's so hard to tell the difference between the two. So far, we haven't had any attacks on the hose reel."

In a strange way, it's been easier for Machut to be in Iraq and lead a battalion into combat than to live his normal life, trying to balance a full-time job as a civil engineer, his family and his military work.

"I put in about 45 to 50 hours a week in my civilian job," Machut says. "I put in 2 to 3 hours a day with the battalion. Then, I try to fit in the other things. A lot of my battalion work is done after the kids go to sleep -- after violin lessons and diving practice and everything else. That's a sacrifice of my sleep, to run the battalion."

Machut and his wife, Linda, have two children.

"A lot of ways, I think I'm fortunate that I've been mobilized," he says. "As much as I miss my family, as much as an impact as it is on my civilian job, I can't be involved with them right now. . . . The only thing I have to do is worry about my battalion."

In early April, the weather was starting to get warm in the desert, but Machut continued to wear a black fleece hat borrowed from his 15-year-old son, Dan.

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"I took it from home when I came over in January," Machut says. "I knew I'd be cold. I still wear it today, even though the weather is getting warmer. As weird as it sounds, I wear it because not only does it keep me warm but I think my son keeps me warm."

Machut brought along a photo album, put together by his daughter, Lindsay, 11.

Machut is an associate partner for a 90-person engineering firm in Itasca, Ill., where he is in charge of 10 engineers and technicians. "A lot of people wonder how I can handle 10 people in my full-time job," he says, "and then in my part-time job, I handle 2,400."

He's treated a little differently in Iraq than back at the office.

For starters, he has a six-person security team that follows him everywhere.

"I want to do something special for them when we are done," he says. "Sometimes, when I think about everything, I'm in awe."

A few days after Saddam Hussein's statue fell in Baghdad, Machut sits behind his desk at the far end of a big green tent. The war is winding down -- quicker than the Marines expected -- and he's planning for what comes next.

His battalion will continue to supply the Marines with fuel and water.

At the same time, some of Machut's battalion put down the hose reel system; others built a water filtration center, turning canal water into drinking water. Machut also was in charge of that project, but it wasn't nearly as complicated.

He thinks both will be used to help the Iraqis rebuild their country.

"We'll probably get involved in some humanitarian assistance projects," Machut says. "At the same time, we'll try to wrap things up in getting out of here."

He hopes to be home by October. "There is a lot of work yet to do, and it's gonna be hard to keep people motivated because their thoughts are somewhere else," he says.

"Everyone is starting to think about the parades back home and seeing the wives and kids and the vacations. Everyone is thinking about going home. But everyone knows we have a lot of work."

The Army has built a fixed hose, to replace the Marine's soft hose, so it won't be so susceptible to attack. "We have to pick up all these fuel bags," Machut says. "We have to clean them. We have to clean all our gear. We have to do all the maintenance on them and put them on ships that started coming here as early as last October."

He expects a difficult summer. The heat. The bugs. And the misery of being away from home.

But he's excited about the chance to help rebuild Iraq.

"We offer such a vast capability with our engineering assets," Machut says. "So much of the infrastructure has to be rebuilt. We'll probably start on some of the immediate needs before the Army can come in here with more deliberate actions."

His battalion may do road repair and some minor building repairs in Iraq. "We can provide mobile electric power," Machut says. "These things will be real important to the surrounding communities.

"What's unique about the 6th ESB, of course, is we have all the civilian trades. We have guys who work as plumbers or electricians or steel workers. There is a lot we offer that we can provide. Hopefully, they'll tap into us and we'll be able to give that little extra."

He leans back, content.

A bunch of reservists pulled it off.

They made a little dot in a line that stretched from the White House to Baghdad.

"It's hard to describe how satisfied I am," he says. "I knew we would be a success. I came here with that attitude. So many other people didn't know if we would. They wondered about the reserves. Would we be ready? Would we have the skills? We have proven that in spades. We have gone far and above what everybody thought we would do. I'm terribly proud of my Marines. This is the chance of a lifetime, to lead a battalion into combat.

"I'm the luckiest man in the Marine Corps."

Sempers,

Roger