"If anyone asks you if you can compact a runway using only loaded 10-wheel dump trucks while being shot at, the answer is yes." Here's to my shipmates in the Sea Bees

December 7, 1941, the Empire of Japan attacked the United States at Pearl Harbor, Hawaii. This single action practically destroyed the fleet and launched the United States into World War II against a well equipped Japanese military.

With no bases in the Pacific or Asia, the United States had to move fast to position it's military forces, which in turn, meant building bases and airfields to island hop in the Pacific.

After the attack on Pearl Harbor, some Rear Admiral of Yards and Docks of the Navy suggested establishing a Naval Construction Force to satisfy the new demands of a naval presence in both Europe, and the Pacific. Naval Construction Training Center was commissioned at Davisville, Rhode Island, and trained over 100,000 Seabees during the course of World War II.

The first Seabees were recruited from civilian construction trades, and were controlled by the Navy's Civil Engineer Corps, (CEC), and because of the experience requirements for this new kind of sailor, the average age was 37. Many of these original Seabees came from the government's prior Conservation Corps, (CC) program, which constructed many of our current parks around the country.

From 1942-1945, over 325,000 Seabees paved the way across the globe, building airstrips, roads, bridges, storage tanks, and Quonset huts for hospitals, barracks, and warehouses, fighting and building, with U.S. forces on more than 300 islands.

During the Korean War, at Cubi Point in the Philippines the project was to be civilian contractors, but once they saw the rugged mountains, and thick jungles they thought it would be impossible. So, they called up the Seabees in 1951, for a successful completion. Seabees cut a mountain in half and paved the way for a 2 mile runway.

http://hubpages.com/education/fightingseabees
http://www.seabeesmuseum.com/history.html

http://www.nww2m.com/2012/09/b-29s-first-flight/

In 1944, Seabees at Camp Hueneme, California (present day Port Hueneme Naval Base) wrote to Hank Porter, head of the ‘Military Insignia’ Department, at Walt Disney Studios. According to Yank Magazine they requested a sketch of a Seabee pin-up girl. They wanted a “deliciously feminine queen bee, with rosebud lips, dewy bedroom eyes and an atomizer to make her deadlier than the male, who carries only a Tommy gun”. Porter, who was busy producing more than 1,000 designs for the Army and the Navy, fulfilled the Seabees’ request and created a real beauty, Phoebee the Female Seabee.

https://seabeemuseum.wordpress.com/2015/05/04/curators-corner-introducing-phoebee-the-female-seabee/

the Navy ordered a PT-boat Base to be built. Lieutenant Harold Liberty handpicked fifty-five of the best construction men who were experienced in all phases of construction and eager to work hard.

“Each man had a place in at least three operations,” Liberty explained “The cook could drop his skillet and run a winch or string a pipeline. The hospital corpsman didn’t tie his last bandage and go to bed – he manned a crane or drove a truck.” And each one of them was a potential gunner. Each man could pick up and do another man’s job and do it well.

Just like a swarm of bees, everyman also knew his position and what was expected of them the second they hit the ground. There was no fumbling, no lost motion. Like bees building a hive, the men went in and began going through the hard work of base building.

And build they did, they worked so well together that they started setting records! The Mios Woendi base was built in just 21 days. That feat set the pace for the rest of their operations; soon the detachment was zigzagging from island to island building entire Naval Operating Bases in just 20 days.

https://seabeemuseum.wordpress.com/