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Submitted by Comments:
BERNARD DAVIS RET/BUC
From: CONCORD, CALIF
Website:
E-mail: gaildavis1958@sbcglobal.net		 My Daughter found this site, This is Great I Was in MCB10 & MCB8 I Was
on SeaBEE Team 0808 & 0806 does any one know were Yogi, from index.html east
is and also Chief Farron, he should be in San Diego & also LT. jg
Owens? I have Lung Cancer but like a true SEABEE I'm hanging in there. Let
me hear from you.God Bless The SeaBees 7 god Bless The USA.Once a SeaBee
always a SeaBee!!Greatsite Thank You for your hard work.
Added: February 20, 2006      Delete this entry
Submitted by Comments:
Bernard Davis RET/BUC
From: Concord, California
Website:
E-mail: gaildavis1958@sbcglobal.net

 

Private post. Click to view.

Added: February 20, 2006      Delete this entry
Submitted by Comments:
Ray Slavinsky
From: New York
Website:
E-mail: ray_slavinsky@yahoo.com		 Served 1966 through 1969.
Added: February 20, 2006      Delete this entry
Submitted by Comments:
Jeff Harrison
From: S.A., Tx
Website:
E-mail: opfortxeqcm@axs4u.net		 I am curious to know if there is anyone out there that may have served with
my first father-in-law during WWII. His name was Ed Yoakum, CWO/Civil Eng
Corps. He served in the Pacific but don't know what unit he was with. I
didn't get to know him very well as he passed away very soon after my
wedding.
Please contact me.
EQCM(SCW)Ret.
Added: February 19, 2006      Delete this entry
Submitted by Comments:
James Comee
From: MASS
Website:
E-mail: comee1@comcast.net		 NMCB 133 1976-1980 "C" Co
Added: February 19, 2006      Delete this entry
Submitted by Comments:
Joseph Gonzales
From: SantaFe/Albuquerque, New Mexic
Website:
E-mail: jgandbb@aol.com		 Served with MCB FOUR...Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, Missile Crisis of
1962...Argentia, Newfoundland deployment of 1963...any of my old buddies
still out there? Have great memories of my days "camping out" as
a "Seabee". Have pictures. Long live the Red Dog Saloon!
Served as a Yeoman striker in the Personnel Office.
Added: February 18, 2006      Delete this entry
Submitted by Comments:
John Ratomski
From: New York
Website:
E-mail: Jonathon17pim@aol.com		 Iwo-Jima Anniversary 2/19/45

Dedicated to those Brave Seabees the "Unsung Heroes of Iwo-Jma"

Two Battalions of the 41st Seabee Regiment were operating with the Marines
at Iwo-Jima. The 133rd Battalion attached to the Fourth Marine Division,
and the 31st Battalion attached to the Fifth Marine Division, hit the
Iwo-Jima beach in the second wave of the initial assault. Seabee
correspondent Robert Evans, on the beach with the assault troops said the
Seabee battalions landed less than 60 minutes behind the first assault
wave, made up of amphibious tanks and armored amphibian tractors. In the
face of heavy fire from mortars already zeroed in on the beach positions,
the Seabees unloaded Higgins boats with cranes and bulldozers. Over the
treacherous volcanic sand, in which many landing vehicles had mired down
almost at water's edge, the Seabees laid Marston matting. The matting
permitted medium tanks to rumble into the battle, reinforcing
lightly-armored amphibious tractors which almost alone had been able to
cross the loose volcanic ash. The tractors had taken the brunt of the first
attacks on enemy pillboxes and strongholds, ordinarily the job of light and
medium tanks.
The Seabees had two jobs:
1. To secure the beaches as the first assault waves swept inland to make
contact with the enemy.
2. To unload supplies on the beachhead and to provide runners to keep
contact between the beach, and the forward battle lines.
Four days after D-Day, the seabees had another job, repairing the newly
one, main Iwo airfield, battered and shell-pocked by the battle which had
swept across it. With the entire surface of the island ablaze with combat,
the Seabees worked in the half-light of dawn, dusk and moonlight to put
the Japanese airfield into shape for American planes to use. Japanese
gunners, in caves which honeycombed the hills, laid down a heavy but
intermittent fire on the field.

Marine fliers started to use the Seabee repaired southern airfield
February 26, providing land-based air support for the ground troops and an
American airfield less than 750 miles from Tokyo. The second wave,
including Seabees were permitted to land on the beach without strong
opposition from enemy positions in the hills. A strong fire was opened
against the third and succeeding waves and concentrated on positions on the
beach.. One Marine described the mortars used against the Seabees and
Marines on the beach as the largest used against us. Unofficial reports
said casualties were highest among members of the beach parties who had to
work without seeking cover. From the blazing beach, the Seabees and Marines
hauled supplies by hand for two days. Only a few trucks were able to get
ashore early, and even some of the Seabees powerful bulldozers were unable
to gain traction on the shifting volcanic cinders. On some beaches a shelf
slowed vehicles and made them easy prey for Japanese gunners in the hills.
Not only enemy shelling imperiled the beach positions, where Seabees stood
perimeter guard. The Japanese counter-attacks, some supported by tanks,
threatened the beaches early in the battle, and enemy groups in strength as
great as 100 men attempted to infiltrate to the beach.
On a beach held by Marines of the Fifth Division and Seabees of the 31st
Battalion, Japanese with light machine-guns infiltrated during the night
and the first men to venture from the foxholes and trenches in which they
had slept became casualties. Marine Riflemen eliminated the enemy parties.
Flares and Searchlights from the ships made an eerie picture on the bloody
beaches of Iwo, as they maintained a flickering light throughout the night
to discourage parties of infiltrating Japanese. Landing of supplies by
Seabees was hampered by great quantities of wrecked equipment, tanks,
tractors, cranes, bulldozers and landing boats. Seabee Demolition men
blasted beach obstructions, opening up unloading points. Bulldozers cleared
debris on the beach, and smoothed access roads for amtracks and dukws. Some
of the battalion members assigned to security duty even went up on the
front lines and fought beside the Marines until their specialties were
required for the beach operation. For twenty six days the Seabees lived
under conditions of intense discomfort, violence, and destruction. The men
learned how to identify the sounds of battle, when to duck, and when to
ignore them. They learned by bitter experience how to avoid mines, and to
spot booby-traps. There were highlights, When the flag was raised on Mount
suribachi, when an occasional LST offered the use of its showers, when the
commissary department made fresh doughnuts and everbody had a couple.
Unpleasant memories include air-raids from the receiving end, and rockets
and rocket mortars as large as the average water heating tank. Dust hung in
the thick pall over everything, and everwhere the overpowering odor of
death. Iwo-Jima was declared secure on March 16.

Seabees "Assault Phase" - 31st NCB,133rd NCB,23rd Special NCB
Detachment,62nd NCB,70th Pontoon Detachment,106th NCB Detachment,The 133rd
suffered ovver 40% percent casualties!, higher than many of the Marine
units suffered.

Second Echelon - 8th NCB,90th NCB,95th NCB,106th NCB,23rd Special NCB,301st
Harbor Stretcher Battalion.
Added: February 18, 2006      Delete this entry
Submitted by Comments:
Bob Thickman EA3
From: Dallas Texas
Website: http://imageevent.com/bobspics
E-mail: bobspics.blt@gte.net		 I was with MCB-4 in Chu Lia and DaNang, RVN.. from 1965 - 1967... There are
a number of photographs from these camps on my web page.. your welcome to
take a look..
Added: February 18, 2006      Delete this entry
Submitted by Comments:
Norm Kime
From: Vancouver, Wa.
Website:
E-mail: Coulee35@aol.com		 WWII CBMU 612 South Pacific
Added: February 18, 2006      Delete this entry
Submitted by Comments:
Kathy Jones
From: Georgia
Website:
E-mail: ccacad@bellsouth.net		 Looking for Jeffery S. Webb last know was San Diego in 1995. He is from
Fenton Michigan I you can help please let me know. Thanks and Be Blessed
Added: February 18, 2006      Delete this entry

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