Features: What We Build — November/December 2006

For honor and country

AGC-member firms across the country have contributed to the war effort in countless ways, some by supporting their employees who served overseas

All profiles by Bruce Buckley

A contractor's duty is to get the job done right. Staying within budget, keeping on schedule and maintaining a safe site means mission accomplished in the construction world. But many within the industry have also answered another call to duty in the form of military service overseas.

From laborers to CEOs, contractors have dedicated their lives beyond the jobsite to serving their country. Some have done so in their role as construction leaders and skilled craftsmen. Others deployed abroad have traded their hard hats and tool kits for helmets and rifles.

With ongoing wars in Afghanistan and Iraq, many reservists have been called away from their civilian lives for a year or more to serve as soldiers in the war on terror. They work not only to defeat the enemy but also to be ambassadors of good will in rebuilding war-ravaged communities.

Whether they're building schools in Kabul and powerplants near Baghdad or keeping other soldiers safe, these "hard-hat heroes" are honoring their commitments to the U.S. and getting the job done. Here are short profiles of only a handful of these soldiers who have taken their construction and management skills abroad and made their AGC-member firms proud.

DoD photo by Mass Communication Specialist 2nd Class Chad Runge, U.S. Navy

David Greene, 39, died in 2004
Industry Relations (1997-2001)
General Building Contractors Association, Philadelphia
Lt. Colonel, U.S. Marine Corps Reserves

David Greene lived to fly and loved serving his country. Following his graduation from the U.S. Naval Academy in 1986, Greene pursued his passion for flight as a helicopter pilot and aviation maintenance officer with the U.S. Marine Corps.

Greene remained on active duty until 1997, when his civilian life led him to the General Building Contractors Association in Philadelphia. Working in industry relations, Greene created strong ties within the local market, particularly among GBCA members who were veterans.

"He made a lot of friends in the construction industry, but he was also known by many as a Marine," recalls Walter Palmer III, president and CEO of GBCA in Philadelphia.

In 2001, Greene got a chance to reconnect with his love of flying. He got an offer he couldn't turn down, working as program manager at the B.F. Goodrich Aerospace plant in Vergennes, Vt.

Soon after, the U.S. invaded Iraq, and Greene was drawn back into military service. "He had the opportunity to stay here and have a very good life in an industry he enjoyed, but he believed what he was doing was the right thing," Palmer says. "I had dinner with him a couple days before he went to Iraq. He was eagerly waiting to go and serve his country."

On July 28, 2004, a few weeks before he was scheduled to return to the U.S., Greene was flying an AH-1W Super Cobra helicopter over the Al Anbar Province. Greene was shot and killed by small arms fire while providing cover during an evacuation of injured Marines. He was one of the highest-ranking officers to be killed in Iraq at that time.

Greene's sacrifice has not been forgotten by those who knew him. His fellow Marines dedicated the Al Taqaddum Airfield to Greene in August 2004. The Fox television show, 24, devoted an episode to him, and a photo of Greene now hangs in the offices of the GBCA.

"We think of him here on a daily basis," Palmer says. "He was an impressive character. He truly believed he was doing the right thing. It wasn't just a sense of duty, it was a greater mission."

WILLIE CARTER, 56
Installer, Murray Womble Inc., Owasso, Okla.
Sergeant 1st Class, U.S. Army Reserves

Willie Carter has found a home for himself in the military. The U.S. Army reservist first signed up for service in 1980, after being laid off from a job making parts for oil wells in Tulsa, Okla. Homeless and relying on the support of family, Carter looked to the Army to help him rebuild his life.

"I was at my sister's, and I saw the commercial that said, 'Be all that you can be,' " he says. "I called the recruiter the next day."

Carter got back on his feet and has stayed loyal to the Army Reserves ever since. He has risen to the rank of sergeant 1st class with the Quartermaster Corps, specializing in supply support for the troops. Along the way, he landed a job with a manufacturer of specialty hardware products, Murray Womble Inc., Owasso, Okla. He has worked there for 22 years, often taking off time to serve on active duty.

In 1990, Carter was called up for Operation Desert Storm but remained stateside to support the 4th Infantry Division out of Fort Hood, Texas. When Operation Iraqi Freedom began in 2003, his turn for deployment came. He left for Kuwait in April 2003 and spent the next year working at several bases.

Although his specialty is logistics and supply, Carter served wherever needed. At Camp Arifjan in Kuwait, he worked at a guard post, checking for car bombs. "I was the guy who, if a car bomb went off, would be killed before it got into the compound," he recalls. "You never knew if this car might be the one."

Although he remained stationed on base, Carter was well aware of the sacrifice of U.S. troops. His checkpoint at Arifjan was on the main route to the morgue, and Carter was often called upon to guard the bodies.

After a year and three days on the ground, Carter returned to the U.S. "When I got here, I went into a Walgreens," he says. "It was great to see people walking around without a care in the world. Over in Iraq, you don't know when someone will come up with a car bomb or a mortar. American people are so free. They don't realize what we were doing over there so they can have that kind of freedom."

Carter now is back at Murray Womble, where he installs automatic doors. In April, he plans to retire from the military after nearly 27 years of service.

"I love the military life and everything about it," Carter explains. "I don't have a college degree, but I'm a sergeant 1st class. I get to stand up in front of classes and teach people who are lawyers and police officers. Only the military would let me do something like that. It's the best thing I've ever done."

David Elmore, 28
Laborer, Buskerud Construction, Dell Rapids, S.D.
E4 Specialist, South Dakota
Army National Guard

In the early months of Operation Iraqi Freedom, when movement of supplies to the forward units was critical, the military knew it could count on the South Dakota Army National Guard (SDANG) to deliver.

E4 Specialist Dave Elmore was among the SDANG transportation unit drivers who hauled materials from Kuwait to the Turkish border, logging more than one million miles in a year.

"We'd haul food, water and ammunition to the front lines, bring back whatever was empty, [and] then we'd head back out again," Elmore says. "At night, we'd just pull over and sleep on top of our trucks."
As drivers with civilian experience handling rigs through the rural routes of America, they gained a reputation for finding ways to get the job done. "Some of the Marines thought we were crazy," Elmore says. "We could jerry-rig anything to make it work. A lot of the regular [enlisted] guys only knew what they were taught, but we work on trucks at our jobs all the time. That's what we do."

Elmore found he could use skills he had learned through his job with Dell Rapids, S.D.-based Buskerud Construction. "They paid for me to take emergency medical service classes," he says. "One time over there when we were changing tires on the side of the road, another convoy came by and hit three of our people. We were able to stop the bleeding and get IVs in them. We had to wait four hours until the chopper got there, but they lived."

Along his routes, Elmore saw more of Iraq than most in the military. Meeting the Iraqi people and passing through their towns and villages put the magnitude of his mission into perspective. "Every day we'd see how these people were living, and then we got to see some of Saddam's palaces," he recalls. "The news got out that the Iraqis didn't want us there, but we saw almost the opposite. They needed to be liberated."

Robert LaFon, 35
Safety Director, Famco, Huntington, W. Va.
Sergeant 1st Class, U.S. Army Reserves

While the future of Iraq appears uncertain, Robert LaFon knows the Iraqi people are eager for a better life. As a sergeant 1st class in the U.S. Army Reserves, LaFon spent more than a year training the Iraqi army to help stabilize the fledgling democracy.

LaFon was one of several instructors stationed 20 miles north of Baghdad at Camp Taji, training Iraqi military instructors to mold the nation's new generation of soldiers.

"The [Iraqi] instructors wanted help," LaFon explains. "They wanted to change the Iraqi army and their country. I can't tell you how many times they told us how glad they were to have us there. I'd pull [Iraqi] instructors aside to talk about their strengths and weaknesses. They loved that feedback and were feeding off it. They wanted more and more."

But in a bitterly divided country, LaFon says students risked their lives to work with coalition forces. Sometimes instructors and soldiers would go off base and never return. "You never knew why," he says. "Maybe they were killed or threatened or they switched sides and decided to work for the terrorists."

In his civilian life, LaFon is safety director at Famco, a utility contractor in Huntington, W. Va. Even while in Iraq, LaFon found himself drawing from his experiences at Famco, guiding course work on safety issues.

In August 2006, LaFon returned to the U.S., where he was reunited with his wife and two-year-old daughter, Julianne. Although he is back with his friends and family here, LaFon still values the bonds he formed abroad. "I got close to the interpreters I worked with, but we can't keep in touch," LaFon says. "I think about them a lot, about how they are doing and what will happen to them after our mission is over."

Larry Porter, 38
Pipe Foreman, Nutter Corp., Vancouver, Wash.
Staff Sergeant, Washington Army National Guard

While taking enemy fire, most people's gut reaction would be to seek cover. Larry Porter, on the other hand, goes straight for the assailant.

As a member of the Quick Reaction Force on Balad Air Base in northern Iraq, Staff Sergeant Porter learned to fly in the face of danger. Whenever the base came under mortar attack, Porter and his fellow security team members would jump in their Humvees and head straight toward the enemy.

"That was something that happened on a daily basis," Porter says. "There were always mortar attacks."

One of Porter's riskier duties was convoy security. His team would run route reconnaissance ahead of convoys to check for improvised explosive devices (IEDs) before equipment and personnel drove through.

"There was a lot to look at with all of the garbage and other things lying by the roadside," Porter explains. "Everything is a potential bomb."

The recon teams learned to look for signs of danger. "We felt most comfortable when kids were around," Porter recalls. "When the kids were out playing, you knew everything was OK. When they disappeared, that's when we knew something was about to happen."

Although Porter has been in the Army National Guard for 18 years, his one-year stint in Iraq, which began in early 2004, was his first deployment. He was half a world away from his job as a pipe foreman at Nutter Corp. in Vancouver, Wash., but Porter and other servicemen with construction backgrounds continued to put their skills to use.

"We tried to do whatever we could to make our quarters more livable," Porter says. "There were a fair amount of people with construction backgrounds that they could put to use over there. So if we needed some plumbing work done, I could help. If we needed electrical done, someone else would step up."

Although his security duties kept him on the alert at all times, Porter now takes comfort in thinking back on his accomplishments. "It gives you some satisfaction knowing that because of the IEDs we'd find, a convoy could pass through without getting blown up," he says. "You've done your job and kept a fair number of people safe."

Oscar Rodriguez, 40
Operations Manager,
Ewing Construction Co., McAllen, Texas
Staff Sergeant, Texas Army National Guard

After spending time in Saudi Arabia working for an engineering company in the 1990s, Oscar Rodriguez swore he would never return to the Middle East. But everything changed after the terrorist attacks on Sept. 11, 2001.

Rodriguez had served nine years in the Texas Army National Guard earlier in his life, eventually leaving for work reasons. But after Sept. 11, he decided to return to duty, rejoining his old unit within a month.

"I wasn't deployed during Desert Storm," he says. "I missed my war. When 9/11 happened, I talked to people and said, 'I'm not out of the woods yet.' I wanted to come back."

A lot changed in Rodriguez's life over the next few years. He helped Ewing Construction grow its business as operations manager of the firm's newest office, in McAllen, Texas. In July 2004, he married his fiancée, Didi, and the two were expecting a child. That same month, his unit was activated.

Rodriguez went to Fort Hood, Texas, and was able to make it home for the birth of his daughter, Hannah, in November. Two months later, he was in Iraq.

Stationed west of Falluja, Rodriguez was part of a scout unit that patrolled the local towns and villages two to three times a day. His mission was a mix of security and good will. The military needed good intelligence from Iraqi sources, but servicemen had to gain their trust first. His unit helped rebuild schools, repair infrastructure and establish medical clinics. "Our biggest thing was getting through to them that we didn't mean them harm," he says. "Eventually, they supported us."

As a new father, Rodriguez was particularly fond of helping the Iraqi children and regularly distributed CARE packages to them. One young, curly-haired girl struck a chord with him. "I held her, and it made me miss my daughter back home," he says. "She really touched my heart. It was great looking at these kids and knowing they would be the future of the country."

In December 2005, Rodriguez returned home safely. Although he had missed the first year of his daughter's life, he doesn't regret his decision. "I appreciate the everyday things people take for granted. A year in Iraq changed my outlook. I'm a better person today."

Dan Welch, 55
Director of Human Resources and General Counsel,
BRB Contractors, Topeka, Kansas
Colonel, U.S. Marine Corps

After nearly 25 years of military service, Col. Dan Welch could have walked away from the U.S. Marine Corps with honor. A veteran of Operation Desert Storm and Operation Desert Shield in the 1990s, Welch went to war for his country and faithfully stayed on as a reservist when he returned.

Back home in Kansas, the father of four had established a solid career as general counsel and director of human resources for BRB Contractors in Topeka. When the call to duty went out after the terrorist attacks of Sept. 11, 2001, Welch willingly accepted the new mission. He spent the next four-and-a-half years fulfilling that promise with tours in Afghanistan, Kuwait and Iraq.

"If I had said [in 2001], 'I'd had enough', that wouldn't have been a problem," Welch says. "But they indicated to me that what we were doing was important. They asked if I would stay on, and I did. It's hard to say no when they say you're really needed."

Among his duties, Welch worked as a military planner under Gen. Ricardo Sanchez during the critical initial phases of the Iraq ground war. Welch and his counterparts logged 15- to 20-hour days, dealing with the combined mission of beating back insurgents and rebuilding Iraq.

"We had so much to do and so little time to do it," Welch says. "We needed to develop their infrastructure, their oil pipeline capacity, their refinery capacity, their electrical capacity. The whole time we were dealing with bandits taking down what we were putting up."

Although he was serving as a Marine, Welch also felt a kinship with the contractors working in Iraq. "They were as equally at risk as the troops," he says. "The guys trying to build the electrical towers and the highways and the water treatment plants, they were putting themselves at risk, too, but they weren't trained to defend themselves."

Amid moments of desperation, Welch also saw reason for hope. In northeastern Iraq, he helped negotiate a plan to bring South Korea in to provide humanitarian relief to Kurdish areas. During the trip, the Kurdish authorities took a group of South Korean officers to a local wedding. "All of a sudden, the Korean officers were out there dancing in the middle of the party," he recalls.

"The whole event assured the South Koreans that they were welcome," Welch says. "It showed how well they would be received. It was a great example of the generous spirit of the Kurdish people."

Joseph Albanese, 44
CEO, Commodore Builders, Newton, Mass.
Deputy Chief of Staff, 1st Naval Construction Division, U.S. Navy

Joe Albanese has spent much of the last three-and-a-half years getting prepared. In 2002, when he launched his company, Commodore Builders, Newton, Mass., Albanese laid the groundwork for future success by hiring a strong group of senior leaders. The plan worked: His company already has grown to nearly $60 million in annual revenue.

But Albanese's business strategy served a second purpose by establishing a solid team that can carry on when he heads overseas. In addition to being the CEO of a growing general contracting firm, Albanese also is the deputy chief of staff for the 1st Naval Construction Division.

Albanese has more than 22 years of experience in the Navy, which at times has been like a second career. Although he served in a supporting role for decades, through the luck of the draw he has missed mobilization. But with a shortage of captains in the naval construction force, Albanese knows deployment to Iraq is in his future.

Although Albanese would be leaving behind a wife, three children and a new business, he can't ignore his duty to his country. "One of my close friends and employees asked how I could leave behind all of these obligations," he says. "I told him to think about how my decision affects my children's perception of service, of responsibility and of what it means to be an American. Someone has to do it-someone's father or mother or brother or sister or son or daughter. I want my children to serve through me and understand that."

It is not the first time Albanese has faced such a dilemma. As troops were mobilizing for Operation Desert Shield in 1990, he was studying for his master's degree and working as project manager on the restoration of historic Faneuil Hall in Boston. That August, he got married.

"I remember being glued to CNN while in the Cayman Islands during our honeymoon," he recalls.
Albanese remained stateside to help with mobilization efforts during Desert Storm, but today he is prepared to finally head into the war zone. In some ways, he welcomes it.

"I've been involved in mobilizing enough people that I couldn't leave the Navy without doing my stint," he says. "If I got out now, that would gnaw at me for a long time. I've been a part of this for 20- plus years. I've given a lot to it, but I really feel like I need to do my part."