Consolidated by Dr. Frank A. Blazich Jr., Historian, U.S. Navy Seabee Museum
70th Naval Construction Battalion (NCB) Seabees use a pontoon lighter barge to move a PBM (Patrol Bomber) flying boat aircraft on Okinawa in May 1945. The pontoon barge was used to bring damaged and powerless planes to repair bases. The propulsion barge was built of the same 5 by 7 steel boxes used to construct causeways and supply barges.
January 1
1946: The Advance Base Depot, Naval Construction Training Center (NCTC), Davisville, Rhode Island is inactivated. Concurrently, the Naval Supply Depot, Newport, Davisville Annex was established. Also, the 1st Naval Construction Regiment (NCR) was inactivated.
1959: The homeport of Naval Mobile Construction Battalion (NMCB) 10 was officially changed from Guam, Marianas Islands to Port Hueneme, California.
1967: NMCB 4 s advance party departed Port Hueneme, California for Da Nang, Republic of Vietnam (RVN).
1968: Seabee Team 0602 graduated from Seabee Team Training and was assigned to Officer in Charge, Construction Battalions, Pacific Detachment, RVN, deploying to Phouc Le.
1968: Seabee Team 0511 redeployed to Go Dau Ha Village, RVN.
1972: Seabee Team 7411 deployed to Tan An, RVN.
January 2
1942: Manila and Cavite, Philippines, fell to the Japanese.
1946: 141st NCB inactivated at Kwajalein Atoll.
January 3
1943: 61st NCB commissioned at Camp Peary, Magruder, Virginia.
1944: ACORN 18 arrived at Espiritu Santo. 10th NCR inactivated. (In World War II, Navy ACORN units, composed of Seabees and other components such as aircraft maintenance units, etc., were put together to design, construct, operate and maintain forward landplane and seaplane bases and operational facilities.)
1968: Detail Bravo One of NMCB 7 departed for Hoi An, RVN to begin construction work at the Cords Hospital.
1973: A small team of Navy Seabees went to earthquake-riddled Managua in Nicaragua. Their task was to recover as much as possible of the classified equipment and materials buried in the rubble of what was once the United States Embassy. The four-man team from the State Department s Naval Support Unit in Washington, D.C. made quick work of what was originally estimated to be a three-to-four week job. Within nine days, all of the equipment had been retrieved. Upon completion of that mission, the team then retrieved the major portion of the remaining office furniture and equipment from the wreckage. Following the work at the embassy, at the request of the wife of the Nicaraguan President, the Navy Construction Team proceeded to Managua s El Retiro Hospital for a similar job. The Seabees immediately employed their technical expertise and equipment to recover the valuable operating room and surgical gear from the ruins of the big hospital. Recovery of this equipment not only saved the hospital substantial money, but also enabled the hospital to be used in the much needed medical treatment of the earthquake victims. The team departed from Nicaragua on January 18th. Use of this team provided another example of the varied talents of the Seabees, who are almost as well known for their humanitarian accomplishments as their combat construction feats.
January 4
1968: Equipment Operator 1st Class H.C. Cousineau was killed when struck by enemy fire while riding in a helicopter north of Tan Ky, RVN.
January 5
1942: The Bureau of Navigation (now the Bureau of Naval Personnel) approved Admiral Ben Moreell s request for authority to recruit skilled craftsmen and artisans to man a Naval Construction Force. The original authorization was for a Naval Construction Regiment composed of three Naval Construction Battalions. This approval, in effect, was the actual beginning of the Seabees. Authorizations for additional battalions soon followed in rapid sequence.
1943: ACORN 3 arrived at New Caledonia.
January 6
1945: A Seabee whose unit was attached to a Marine Division doubled as a combat pilot during the invasion and battle for Cape Gloucester, New Britain. Machinist's Mate 1st Class Chester J. Perkins of NCB 19 flew a total of 218 hours, 105 of them during combat as the pilot of a light, unarmed reconnaissance plane. He made daily flights over enemy territory to transport rations and supplies to isolated jungle patrols and to spot for artillery batteries. In addition, Perkins carried blood plasmas to Marines wounded during the invasion operations and dropped medical supplies while fighting was still in progress. Perkins operated mostly from crude, improvised landing strips, usually roadways and sand bars. On one occasion, a fusillade of enemy bullets pierced the cabin floor of his tiny plane. Fortunately, all of them missed him. For his outstanding accomplishments, Perkins was awarded the Navy Air Medal on Jan. 6, 1945.
1967: The first aircraft of the advance party of NMCB 133 arrived in RVN.
1968: The first advance party of eight officers and 137 Seabees of NMCB 8 departed the continental United States (CONUS) via C-130 aircraft for deployment to RVN.
1970: 21st NCR Detail Yankee (of UCT 1) departed Davisville, Rhode Island and deployed to Atlantic Undersea Test and Evaluation Center (AUTEC) for test emplacement of the Project AFAR array.
January 7
1946: Last section of 38th NCB inactivates at Yokosuka, Japan; 17th Special NCB inactivated on Leyte, Philippines.
1970: Seabee Team 0410 returned to CBC, Port Hueneme, California from Vietnam.
January 8
1943: 64th NCB commissioned at Camp Bradford, Norfolk, Virginia.
1946: 47th NCR inactivated; 4th Special NCB inactivated at Okinawa.
1968: NMCB 8 s advance party arrived on board at Camp Wilkinson, RVN.
1970: Seabee Team 7102 arrived at Davisville, RI from Vietnam for reassignment to NMCB 7.
1973: Seabees of NMCB 71 complete construction of a geodesic dome at the new Amundsen-Scott South Pole Station. Over the next few decades, the dome becomes the iconic image of the South Pole station.
January 9
1969: Seabee Team 0914 completed training at the 31st NCR and deployed to Camp Kinser, Okinawa, on a C-118 aircraft from NAS Point Mugu, California.