Four Pearl Harbor Naval Shipyard welders have been part of a team of workers who have spent the past four months at a Georgia military base beefing up the armor on Marine Corps vehicles headed for combat duty in Iraq.

"We feel good about it," said Peter Hauanio of Mililani. "It's to do our share to help out the Marines."

The other Hawai'i welders who volunteered to join the specially formed team are Mike Pascual of Whitmore Village, Samuel Ikeda of Wahiawa and Gary Kalilikane of Kaimuki. Kalilikane has returned home, and the others are due home when the project ends Friday.

They served alongside other workers from shipyards in Bremerton, Wash., Portsmouth, Va., and Portsmouth, N.H., at Marine Maintenance Center Albany. They arrived there Aug. 21.

Earlier this year, Marine Corps Logistics Command was assigned an urgent project to upgrade and install a ballistic protection package on 89 light armored vehicles.

"We were challenged to quickly find a group of qualified welders ... which didn't allow us enough time to properly qualify new welders," Marine Maj. Gen. Willie Williams said. The Marines asked the Navy for help.

"These skilled artisans immediately passed the (week-long) certification requirements and went to work," Williams said. "Their professionalism and positive attitude is a true compliment to their organizations and a ringing endorsement of the strength of our Navy-Marine Corps team."

The welders are putting in 12-hour shifts, 6 p.m. to 6:30 a.m., six days a week. Their initial job to "up-armor" light armored vehicles switched to Humvees, and their temporary assignment was extended to Dec. 22.

"It's a lot of hard work, long hours and repetitious," Pascual said. "Sometimes it takes three or four tries to fit (everything) right."

The welders saw one of the up-armored vehicles after it had been tested. "It was all shot up," Hauanio said. "(The armor) stops a lot of bullets. You have to think about the guys in there. ... At least they will survive."

Pascual said he thinks of the Marines who will be using the vehicles to go into harm's way. "It's not just the money," he said of his reasons for volunteering for the project. "It's to help the guys out. I'm a Vietnam veteran. I know how they feel."