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This Week in Seabee History: March 19-25

March 21, 2023 | By U.S. Navy Seabee Museum, Naval History and Heritage Command

March 19

1942: The Secretary of the Navy authorized officers of the Civil Engineer Corps (CEC) to exercise military command over all officers and enlisted men assigned to construction units. Prior to this date, military command of naval personnel was limited to line officers.

1967: The commanding officer, operations officer, supply officer, Alpha Company commander, and one chief petty officer of Naval Mobile Construction Battalion (NMCB) 11 departed Port Hueneme, California, to act as an Advance Planning Group for the battalion deployment.

1969: NMCB 3 relieved by NMCB 8 at Camp Haskins South, Republic of Vietnam (RVN); NMCB 3 main body returned to the continental United States (CONUS) via government and commercial aircraft.


March 20

1971: NMCB 5 s deployment to WESTPAC (Western Pacific) began, including Vietnam, Guam, and the Philippines.
 

March 21

1942: The first Seabee training camp was commissioned with the official name of United States Naval Construction Training Center (NCTC), Naval Operating Base, Norfolk, Virginia. It was named Camp Allen in memory of Capt. Walter H. Allen, who, during the First World War, commanded a Public Works Regiment at Great Lakes Naval Training Station in Illinois.

1944: Camp Hollyday, Gulfport, Mississippi disestablished.

1969: Capt. R.M. Fluss, Civil Engineer Corps (CEC), was relieved as commanding officer of NMCB 4 by Cmdr. R.D. Gaulden, CEC. The change of command ceremony was held on the Construction Battalion Center (CBC) main parade grinder, Port Hueneme, California.

1981: NMCB 133 was chosen Best of Type in the Atlantic Fleet for fiscal year 1980 for their labors in Diego Garcia. The Kangaroos went on to win the coveted Peltier Award, symbolic of the best Seabee battalion the Naval Construction Force. In a ceremony conducted on May 21, 1981, Captain Herbert H. Lewis, Commanding Officer of NMCB 133, accepted the Peltier Award on behalf of the entire battalion. The winning of the Peltier Award was to be repeated to historical proportions by the battalion during the 1980s.

2003: Seabees cross the line of departure into Iraq with the 1st Marine Expeditionary Force during Operation Iraqi Freedom.

 


March 22

1945: Seabee barges put Patton across Rhine River into Germany.

1966: Equipment Operator (Heavy) (EOH) 3 Arnold J. Faulkner of NMCB 4 was killed at Kham Duc, RVN, in a construction accident.

16138

1970: NMCB 1 was relieved at Camp Haskins North, RVN, by NMCB 5.

1970: NMCB 5 commanding officer, Cmdr. R.A. Schade, Jr., CEC, relieved NMCB 1 commanding officer, Cmdr. C.V.W. Popowich, CEC.


March 23

1944: 106th Naval Construction Battalion (NCB) split into Section I and Section II.

1967: First increment of the NMCB 11 advance party, consisting of two officers and 40 enlisted personnel, deployed from CBC, Port Hueneme, California via VR-21 aircraft to Da Nang, RVN.


March 25

1967: Seabee Team 0911 departed the main body at Da Nang, RVN, via C-118 aircraft, for the 31st Naval Construction Regiment (NCR) to commence military and technical training.

1969: Seabee Team 5301 deployed from Davisville, Rhode Island to RVN for assignment to the 30th NCR for duty at Da Nang, RVN.