Engineering, diplomacy, public relations and humanitarian work – a Navy Seabee in Iraq must be prepared to call upon a wide variety of skills.

Charles R. “Chuck” Kubic, who earned a B.S. in civil engineering from Lehigh in 1972 and an M.S. in the field from Lehigh in 1978, is serving as a rear admiral and commander of the First Naval Construction Division in Kuwait and Iraq.

Kubic oversees the First Marine Expeditionary Force’s engineering complement, or Marine Engineer Group (MEG), which coordinates battlefield engineering efforts among Navy, Marine and Army units.

MEG’s work has included performing rapid repairs of roads and runways and building quarters for refugees and prisoners of war.

Kubic has been named in a variety of news articles in the last three weeks. The first article, about Naval Mobile Construction Battalion 21 of Lakehurst, N.J., was published in The New York Daily News on March 23.

“Rear Adm. Charles Kubic handed the job of getting the [Iraqi] port of Umm Qasr up and running to the 125 Seabees of Naval Mobile Construction Battalion 21, a not-yet-over-the-hill gang reserve unit whose members’ ages can reach 57,” the article said.

On March 29, Kubic was interviewed by ABC-TV, and on April 7, he was mentioned in an article in Engineering News-Record (ENR), the top journal of the construction field.

Also on April 7, The New York Times ran a photo of Kubic as he consulted with an Iraqi construction worker on the rebuilding of a road near Umm Qasr.

On April 14, Kubic was the subject of a two-page feature article in the Engineering News Record (ENR) by the magazine’s managing senior editor, Andrew G. Wright, who is in Kuwait with the 1st Marine Expeditionary Force (IMEF) Engineer Group.

Headlined “Navy, Marine Engineers Battle to Win Iraqi Hearts and Minds,” the article described IMEF’s efforts to erect water-purification stations, distribute food and water, repair roads and build playgrounds in the southern Iraqi cities of Umm Qasr and Basra.

Kubic’s son, Charles B. Kubic, earned B.S. and M.S. degrees in civil engineering from Lehigh in 1998 and 1999.