Consolidated by Dr. Frank A. Blazich Jr., Historian, Naval History and Heritage Command
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This World War II-era advertisement showcased the Seabees' rhino ferry. It was a huge barge constructed from pontoons with two propelling units. In the first 10 days of the invasion of Normandy, 85 percent of all vehicular equipment was transported to shore using the rhino ferry. It was critical to defeating the Germans and proved to be a "bridge to victory," as the ad says. (Photo courtesy of the U.S. Navy Seabee Museum)
June 30
1943: American armed forces stormed ashore on Woodlark and Kiriwina Islands in the western Solomon Sea. Seabees of the 20th and 60th NCBs landed on Woodlark on D-Day. In the jungle, the Seabees hacked out a network of trails in order to dispense supplies unloaded on the beach. Soon they converted the trails to coral roads. On Woodlark, the Seabees also built a 6,500-foot airstrip. They then completed two more airstrips on Kiriwina. From these airfields, allied bombers swept north to bomb New Guinea and Rabaul.
1943: The 98th NCB was formed at NCTC Camp Peary, Magruder, Virginia.
1946: The 31st NCB was inactivated at Sasebo, Japan.
1967: NMCB 53 was recommissioned at Davisville, Rhode Island and assigned to the 21st Naval Construction Regiment (NCR).
1968: Seabee Team 0101 arrived in Saigon, RVN.
1969: Seabee Teams 0605 and 0606 were assigned to the 21st NCR for 18 weeks of specialized training.
1976: NMCB 10 was decommissioned.
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2008: Seabees assigned to Beach Master Unit (BMU) 1 guided a Lighter Amphibious Re-supply Cargo (LARC) from the surf at Red Beach Camp Pendleton, California during Joint Logistics Over-The-Shore (JLOTS) 2008. JLOTS 2008 established command and control of Army and Navy units, constructed a Life Support Area (LSA), conducted force protection operations, executed an in-stream offload of shipping from a sea echelon area, employed Offshore Petroleum Discharge System (OPDS), retrograde and safely redeploy allocated forces. (Courtesy of U.S. Navy Seabee Museum)
2010: Capt. John Korka, CEC, relieved Capt. James Worcester, CEC, as commander, 31st Seabee Readiness Group and Naval Facilities Expeditionary Logistics Center, Port Hueneme, California.
2016: Capt. Jeffrey Kilian, CEC,relieved Capt. James (Gordie) Meyer, CEC, as commander of the 3oth NCR during a
change of command ceremony in Port Hueneme, California.
2016: Lt. Cmdr. Benjamin Wainwright, CEC, was relieved by Lt. Cmdr. Joseph Dunaway, CEC, as commanding officer of Underwater Construction Team (UCT) 1.
July 1
1942: The 11th NCB was established at Camp Bradford, Little Creek, Virginia.
1943: ACORN 9 arrived at Noumea, New Caledonia; the 9th NCR commissioned; the 100th NCB commissioned at NCTC Camp Peary, Magruder, Virginia.
1967: Senior Chief Petty Officer Joseph R. Herrara of NMCB 11 was driving a truck near the Danang Air Base in the RVN. Before the day was out, he was involved in one of those thriller episodes. At 0640, a lone Viet Cong trooper shot a poisonous dart at the Chief. The dart shattered the wing glass of the truck and deeply gashed his arm. As soon as he realized he was under attack, he turned off the ignition and bailed out. Then as he ran toward the back of the truck, a rifle bullet hit his belt loop. To protect himself from the enemy hidden in a grove of trees, Chief Herrara withdrew his pistol and ran across the road to a ditch. When he saw the enemy trooper, he fired four rounds and then chased him. As the Chief approached a sand mound, the enemy soldier hurled a hand grenade and the Chief, seeing an object flying through the air, dropped to the ground. The grenade landed about 30 feet from him. However, after a short wait, the grenade failed to explode. Chief Herrara rose and slowly approached the grenade. As he examined it, he noticed that the pin was still partially inserted and thus, it was prevented from detonating. Rather than press his luck further, he returned to his truck and signaled nearby Marines for help.
1968: Seabee Team 5801 arrived in Davisville, Rhode Island from RVN for reassignment to NMCB 58.
1969: Seabee Team 0411 moved from NCBC, Port Hueneme, California to Thailand where they began their deployment.
1969: Seabee Teams 0103 and 0104 deployed to RVN for duty at My Tho and Xuan Loc.
1972: The brig at NCBC, Port Hueneme, California closed its doors after 26 years of almost uninterrupted operation dating back to the end of World War II. During the war years, there were 11 brigs in the area. Not so many when you consider that the military population was over 27,000 at the time. With the reduction of operations and personnel at the wars end, correctional facilities were reduced to one building. Operation of the brig was continuous from 1946, except for a brief 10-month hiatus from October 1949 until August 1950 when the brig was temporarily closed for economic reasons. The brig or correctional center, as it was officially called from 1969 until it closed, was closed because of the low prisoner population.
2015: Lt. Cmdr. Samuel Werschky was relieved by Lt. Cmdr. Elizabeth Durika of Construction Battalion Maintenance Unit (CBMU) 202 during a change of command ceremony at Joint Expeditionary Base Little Creek-Fort Story, Virginia.
2016: Capt. Michael Saum, CEC, relieved Capt. Christopher Kurgan, CEC, as commander, Naval Construction Group 1, during a change of command ceremony at Naval Base Ventura County, Port Hueneme, California.
July 2
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LIFE magazine July 2, 1965. Chief Johnny McCully, AIC of Seabee TEam 1104, is being assisted to a waiting helicopter. (Courtesy of U.S. Navy Seabee Museum)
1943: Lt. j.g.George Stephenson, CEC,and Lt. Irwin Lee, CEC,of the 24th NCB, were killed on Rendova in the Solomons, the first CEC officers to be killed in action in World War II.
1944: Less than a month after D-Day in France, while the Normandy invasion was still underway, the 81st NCB experienced one of those odd happenings of war on which legends are built. Early on the morning of July 2,Lt. Cmdr.Richard Anderson, Seabee medical officer for the recently-landed battalion, was visited in his foxhole by a breathless American military policeman. A woman in the nearby village of Sainte-Marie-du-Mont was about to have a baby and a doctor was urgently needed. Anderson immediately dispatched his assistant medical officer, Lt. Douglas Butman. Butman arrived at the house only to discover that the young woman had spontaneously delivered her child, a little girl, only moments before. The doctor immediately rendered the appropriate postnatal care. In the days that followed, the medical staff of the battalion paid many visits to the home of Henri and Marie Fouchard. Finally, the time came for christening the baby girl. The mother asked Commander Anderson if the baby could bear a part of his wifes name. Anderson delightedly suggested the initials of his wifes maiden name, C.B., for he knew that such a choice would serve a two-fold purpose. The initials would honor his wife and also would honor the battalion as Sea Bee. Thus, Sea Bee Paule Fouchard was christened in honor of an informal battalion of godfathers who had attended her birth at the height of fighting in Normandy.
1966: NMCB 62 was commissioned and was the first battalion assigned to the NCBC, Gulfport, Mississippi, after the Centers mission was increased to provide home base facilities for naval construction battalions.
1969: Seabee Team 0913 returned to NAS Point Mugu, California on a DC-8 aircraft from Da Nang, RVN.
July 3
1965:Naval Mobile Construction Battalion (NMCB) 10 completes construction of the 8,000-foot Short Airfield for Tactical Support at Chu Lai, Republic of Vietnam, for the 1st Marine Air Wing.
2013: Lt. Cmdr. Jason Fahy, Civil Engineer Corps (CEC),relieved Lt. Cmdr. Charles Kubic, CEC,as commanding officer of Underwater Construction Team (UCT) 2, at the commands headquarters at Naval Base Ventura County (NBVC) Port Hueneme, California.
July 4
1942: Advance Base Depot (ABD), Davisville, Rhode Island, formally commissioned.
1968: Twelve Seabees reportedto the Republic of Vietnam (RVN) for duty with Construction Battalion Maintenance Unit (CBMU) 302 two days late. While bound for Vietnam, the aircraft was forced down by Russian jets on a small island near Japan. The American crew and passengers were detained for 48 hours before the U.S. military-chartered aircraft was released by the Russians. The incident occurred because the Russians claimed the aircraft had violated Soviet air space.
July5
1942: The 4th Naval Construction Battalion (NCB) arrived at Dutch Harbor, Alaska. This was the first Seabee battalion to arrive in that area. Because of the variety of construction needs in Alaska, the battalion was employed at three different locations: one detachment of approximately 200 men went to Eider Point; another detachment of about 350 men went to Unalaska Village on Unalaska Island; and the remaining men were quartered in the Fort Mears Area on Amaknak Island.
1943: The 95th NCB was commissioned at Naval Construction Training Center (NCTC), Camp Peary, Magruder, Virginia.
1966: A change of command for NMCB 6 was held with Cmdr. J.D. Day Jr., Civil Engineer Corps (CEC), relieving Lt. Cmdr. H.A. Tombari, CEC.
1970: At an awards ceremony in Davisville, Rhode Island, the 21st Naval Construction Regiment (NCR) and 20th NCR, and Commander, Construction Battalions, Atlantic (COMCBLANT) were awarded the Navy Meritorious Unit Citation for meritorious service from September 1,1965 to December 31, 1969.
July 6
1944: ACORN 9 was decommissioned. (Used during World War II, an ACORN was a tailored unit designed to carry out the rapid construction and subsequent operation of a landplane and seaplane advance base. Each ACORN had a construction battalion attached to it, as well as trained personnel to operate the control tower, field lighting, aerological unit, transportation, medical, berthing and messing facilities. A CBMU also accompanied each ACORN to maintain the base after the initial construction was completed and the construction battalion had been withdrawn. During the war, ACORNs were sent to such places at Guadalcanal, Espiritu Santo, Green Island, Rendova, Treasury Island and Majuro.)
1945: The 51st NCR was commissioned.
1953: NMCB 11 was activated.