Pretty much right to the point. I have found out that a relative of mine was a “sea bee” (I have no idea how to spell that, because I don’t know what it means). He is alive, BUT he doesn’t like to talk about the war.
I just wondered what it is that he did as a “sea bee”.
Any info is appreciated!
Construction Brigade - the navy types who made things.
Navy Construction Battalion. Now that I’ve said that, I’ll go look it up.
The Seabees were (and are) the construction arm of the US Navy. About 10,000 strong, they were first organized in WWII under Ben Morell in order to build airstrips quickly in the Pacific. Trained in defensive combat, Seabees are often called upon to defend what they build. In the Aleutian Campaign, they actually shot down a Japanese aircraft using a machine gun built largely from washing machine parts. They have a reputation for doing the impossible with nearly nothing. I know this is true, because I was a Seabee for 23 years, serving in Viet Nam and many other parts of the world.
Another Sea Bee tale I remember reading years ago took place when they were finishing Henderson Field on Guadalcanal (which may have been their first combat deployment - Chefguy?). The Japanese were in the jungle on the edge of the airfield, shooting at them as they worked, so a guy at one end of the runway would get a bulldozer going pointed down the strip and jump off and take cover. When the dozer got to the far end, another guy would run out, jump on and turn it around, and then return to cover.
Wouldn’t surprise me. I saw a lot of screwy things over the years. BTW, not to be too anal, but it’s one word: Seabee. Derived from C onstruction B attalion, originally. There is even a cartoon mascot, designed by Disney, of a bee in naval “crackerjacks”, carrying tools of the trade in four of his “arms” and a machine gun in the other two.
A couple decent looking historys: http://www.history.navy.mil/faqs/faq67-1.htm
http://www.grunts.net/navy/seabee.html
A good picture of the logo:
http://www.drdalton.com/SeaBees.html
'f’you want to know about the seabees------ask any marine who saw action in the 42/45 pacific war.
My hat was off to them then—fouled anchor and all------and still is.
Figuratively speaking that is.
Thereis an old ditty which goes:
And we’ll march into tokyo with our hats at a jaunty tilt and we will do our marching on roads the Seabees built!
we’re the navel advanced base engineers
on many a foreign shore
On half the lousy islands from here to Timbucktu
You’ll find a hive of Seabees, one hell of a fighting crew.
from the book Can Do a history of the SeaBees by William Braford Huie
My dad was a SeaBee officer during WWII
I really was under the impression that he was in the Army. Is this possible? He has that seabee logo tattoo’d to his arm, so I am positive that he was one, but that was the impression I was under.
Thanks everyone for the responses.
I can’t think of how it would have been the army. Someone probably just used “army” instead of “military” in his head, and told you that.
One of my uncles was a Seabee in WWII in the Pacific. He was always fond of telling that while the Marines claim they are the first in and the last out that’s bullshit…the Seabees were often the first in (in some cases the Seabess needed to prepare the landing areas so the Marines could get ashore). Don’t know if it is true or if he was pulling my leg.
He does recount some hair-raising stories though such as building a pontoon pier (I think…been awhile since I heard the story) off a beach that had enemies in the tree line shooting at them and battleships at their back lobing shells over their heads to supress enemy fire.
There is a lot of truth to what your uncle has said. There is a tradition in the Marine Corps that Seabees go to the head of the chow line as a gesture of respect. I would never take anything away from the Marines, however; I served with too many brave men and wouldn’t have traded places with them in Nam–ever. We always fought each other at the drop of a hat, but let someone from another branch of service start something and it was back to back all the way.
I think the Seabees did a lot of work with Army Special Forces in Vietnam. If that’s the case, he and ten or so other Seabees would have been with a larger Army force. Maybe that’s where the misunderstanding lies.
In the book I mentioned above, there was a story of the Marines landing on an island and having a SeaBee step out from behind a palm tree to greet them. Seems the Seabees had landed the day before to scout a location for an airstrip.
One other thing about the respect. In WWII the SeaBees were old compared to the other branches of the service. The SeaBees recruited experienced construction tradesmen. The averge age was something like 37 (My dad was in his 30’s when he went in). compare this to the Marines who had an average age of something like 19 or 20.
I just saw an ad in a magazine targeted at experienced contruction workers. In the ad, everyone was walking a steel girder framework. Yeah, I don’t think they tend to get or maybe even want the young kids right out of school, like the rest of the military.
I apologize if this constitutes a hijack, but that reminds of something I saw as a child that has stuck with me for 30 years:
*We the willing
led by the unknowing
are doing the impossible
for the ungrateful.
We have done so much
for so long
with so little
we are now qualified
to anything with nothing.*
I’m wondering if there’s any relation.
In some cases it was the frogmen who were in first, from here. My dad was in UDT 11 in the Pacifc in WW II.
Ward Cleaver was a “fighting Seabee,” and often regaled Wally and the Beav with tales of his Seabeevious exploits in the war.
As he drew to the end of each tale, and puffed on his pipe, the Beav would ask, “Uh, gee Dad, why are you always regaling us? Uh, what’s that mean anyway?”
And then Wally would say, “Gosh, Beav, why are you such a goof?”
Good times, good times.