Do you/should you have construction experience before joining the Seabees?

[aceplace57]

One of my favorite John Wayne movies. A bunch of highly experienced construction workers join the military to build airfields and bases.

Seabee

But is that still the case? Would a 38 year old experienced heavy equipment operator or welder be welcomed into the Seabees today?

Would they reject some scrawny 18 year old that has never worked construction?

What is the Seabees like today? I always admired them because they were both soldiers and construction guys. Just like the Romans that built walls around the Gauls fort at Alesiaand slaughtered them in the killing ground. Built a bridge across the Rhine to chase down marauding Germanic tribes in Germany. They built complex siege engines. The ultimate soldiers and builders all in one package.

[aceplace57]

They really did pull in very experienced construction crews in the Seabees early days.

I just haven’t heard how the Seabees get men now. btw, this a great book that I’m half-way through.

Amazon.com: From Omaha to Okinawa: The Story of the Seabees (Bluejacket Books)...

In this rousing sequel to his classic Can Do! The Story of the Seabees, William Bradford Huie continues the saga of the combat trained civilian plumbers, carpenters, heavy equipment operators, wharf builders, and civil engineers who served in the U.S. Navy construction battalions. The story begins in 1944 with the battle for Iwo Jima when the Seabees braved concentrated enemy fire and Iwo’s daunting terrain to rig floating causeways, blow up wrecked landing craft, and drive their bulldozers up three terraces that rose from the ocean to secure the beachhead. This book fully chronicles their heroism, including the unforgettable efforts of the men of the 31st Battalion who crawled the length of a landing strip to pick up shrapnel as Japanese snipers fired away.

[Dewey_Finn]

Were any of your questions about how Seabees are trained answered by the Wikipedia article you linked to?

[aceplace57]

Yep, they’re combat training.

Nothing about how important prior construction skills are. It takes years of real experience to become a heavy equipment operator. Crane operators are even more skilled. A lot of construction guys have formal civil engineering training.

I’m wondering if the modern Seabees try to train men or only recruit experienced ones.

For training, the new Seabees attend a four-week course known as Expeditionary Combat Skills (ECS) at the Naval Construction Battalion Center in Gulfport, Mississippi, and Port Hueneme, California. ECS is also being taught to all personnel who report to a unit in the Naval Expeditionary Combat Command. ECS is a basic combat-skills course where the students spend time in a classroom environment learning map reading and land navigation, battlefield first aid, how to lay out defensive plans, how to conduct patrols, vehicle egress, and many other combat-related skills. Half of each course is spent at a rifle range where students learn basic rifle marksmanship and then qualify with the M16A2 and M16A3 service rifles.

[aceplace57]

For example does Annapolis include civil engineering degrees? For future officers in the construction battalions?

[Dewey_Finn]

Pardon me for an educated guess, but I strongly suspect that when the US Navy needs something built today, it outsources the work to engineering/construction firms like Parsons or Bechtel.

[aruvqan]

@aceplace57

Yep, they’re combat training.

Nothing about how important prior construction skills are. It takes years of real experience to become a heavy equipment operator. Crane operators are even more skilled. A lot of construction guys have formal civil engineering training.

I’m wondering if the modern Seabees try to train men or only recruit experienced ones.

Maybe that is why they have a huge mud field that they rearrange constantly on the sub base here in new London …

[I love going out and occasionally watching them train, huge machinery can be fun to watch.]

[aceplace57]

They’re pretty special troops and still do construction in war zones.

Site Up

GULFPORT, Miss. (NNS) – Five Seabees assigned to units under the 22nd Naval Construction Regiment here were presented the Bronze Star Medal in February as authorized by the Commander In Chief, for actions in support of direct combat operations missions in Operation Iraqi Freedom and Operation Enduring Freedom.

Four members of Naval Mobile Construction Battalion (NMCB) 7 were presented with the Bronze Star Medal in February for their combat service during their deployment from October 2004 to April 2005.

[aceplace57]

I was checking on this for one of our office’s summer workstudy employees. Good kid that finished high school a couple months ago.

I’ve looked around for more information on the modern Seabees. No luck. I know he needs to talk with the Navy recruiter. I hope they steer him the right way. I’ve heard they have quotas and the bad ones focus more on just getting kids to sign up. The Navy will assign you a job. :rolleyes:

[spifflog]

The answer to your question is yes

We will take those with no experience and train them to be CBs, and we will also take those with experience as well. CB rates include mechanics, equipment operators, steelworkers, electricians and builders.

Unfortunately, you can’t be any older than 34 to join the Navy!

CBs won’t build huge complex building in CONUS. They will take on smaller projects on bases though. They are primarily trained to build in hostile environments quickly, with projects such as fleet hospitals, aviation support, base support etc. They also do a lot of building partnerships with foreign personnel as you can imagine.

[aceplace57]

Thanks spifflog. I’ll pass that on to this kid.