Seabee
History
Main Page
Seabee Log Index
Today's Seabees
Home

Offsite links
Museum
Seabee Veterans
Official History
Marvin Shields

Korean War Seabees

Three units deployed to Korea: 

• Amphibious Construction Battalion 1 -- ACB 1 was originally commissioned as the 104th Naval Construction Battalion on March 6, 1947. It was re-designated as ACB 1 on October 31, 1950. The first detachments of ACB 1 arrived in Korea during the defense of the Pusan perimeter in August 1950. ACB 1 deployed in and out of Korea throughout the war.
  

• Naval Mobile Construction Battalion 2 -- Detachment 2 of NMCB 2 arrived in Korea on April 14, 1951. Another group of Seabees from NMCB 2 at Naval Air Station Atsugi, Japan became the nucleus for CBD 1804. The main body of NMCB 2 was deployed to NAS Atsugi during the summer of 1951.
  

• Construction Battalion Maintenance Unit 101 --Originally commissioned as Construction Battalion Detachment 1804, the 101st was stationed at K3 (Pohang) throughout the war. CBD 1804 was  formed at K3 on September 1, 1951 with 64 men from NMCB 2. It was re-designated CBMU 1 on July 1, 1952. Its name again changed on October 1, 1953 when it became CBMU 101. The maintenance unit was de-commissioned on May 1, 1956 at NAS Atsugi, where it had moved to after the end of the Korean War. 

ACB 1 sailed in and out of Korea throughout the three-year war from its Western Pacific base at Camp McGill, near Yokosuka, Japan. Two of its missions stand out. The first, the landing of X Corps (1st Marine Division and 7th Infantry Division) at Inchon, is possibly Gen. Douglas MacArthur’s most brilliant maneuver of his 52-year military career. It was one of those missions the pundits said could not be done.

104th NCB's Advanced Party to Korea By Edward Scruggs
The advanced party of 104th NCB started in the last week of June in San Diego. We were training at the time for the annual supply run to Point Barrow, Alaska. They needed an icebreaker to get in close enough so 104th NCB’s barges and Boat Unit 1’s LCMs could transport supplies to the beach.

Running High and Dry By Steve Karoly
Four vintage LSTs drifted toward the transport area off Green Beach. Seabees, like SW3 Edward Scruggs on the USS LST 611, scanned the horizon. Their island objective of Wolmi Do jutted out from the port city of Inchon. Black acrid smoke billowed skyward from the destruction rained on the island by a flotilla of destroyers and rocket ships. Overhead, a flight of Marine Corsairs pulled out of their last dive.

Seabee Beer Drives Economy By Edward Scruggs
We were getting ready to leave for Yokosuka when Lt. Cmdr. Jacobs come down to where we were finishing our welding. He told me, "Cut the top out of that pontoon in the middle of that Rhino barge." "Captain?" "Yes, Scruggs. I said cut the top out of that pontoon. I got something to put in it."

Seabee Train Kidnapers A Coverall story
Six Seabee chiefs and four petty officers, led by Chief Ernest A. Sidney, who had previous experience with steam engines volunteered to go and recapture the locomotives. All returned safely in spite of intense mortar and sniper fire. Three of the locomotives were at the Kirin Brewery.

Bridge-Building Team By Robert Clubb
A Marine Corps public affairs story, circa January 1952. These Seabees were from Construction Battalion Detachment 1804, which was attached to Marine Air Group 33 of the 1st Marine Air Wing at airfield K-3 at Pohang, Korea.

Operation Crippled Chick By Steve Karoly
The assignment to build the emergency landing strip on Yo Do fell to ACB 1’s Det. George. Led by Lt. T.E. Rowe, Det. Six of these Seabees proudly wore the blue, yellow and red ribbon for the Presidential Unit Citation, which was awarded to ACB 1 for the landing at Inchon almost two years earlier.

Seabee Impressions of Yo Do By Steve Karoly
Henrick Thode faced two choices in January 1951: One took him home to the town of Yaphank, on Long Island—for a few months, at least. The other ultimately sent him to Inchon on 1950 and to the island of Yo Do in 1952.

ACB 1 Det. George Muster List
George was composed of one warrant machinist, six chief petty officers and 69 Seabee enlisted men.

Seabee Faces Seabee compassion in Korea
Seabees are men and women who have a reputation for being hardened construction workers. After a 12 to 16-hour day moving several thousand yards of fill with a D7 Caterpillar bulldozer or pounding a couple hundred 16-penny nails into concrete forms, they drink all night—or at least, that’s the myth.

Seabee activities in Vietman and elsewhere

ACB 1 in Operation Passage to Freedom A field report
If there is one truth about Seabee deployments, it is that every war brings the Seabees to an unfamiliar land. Like a one-two punch, the Seabees deployed to Korea and Vietnam early in the 1950s. The Seabees’ association with Vietnam grew like a festering boil. From August 22, 1954 -- the day Det. Peter of ACB 1 arrived in Haiphong -- to 1965, numerous detachments and 13-man Seabee teams deployed into the abscess.

30th NCR on Guam An order of battle
From November 1, 1947 to March 24, 1953, the 30th NCR was located on Guam, where it directed all Seabee units in the Pacific.

Sailors on the Ground An All Hands article
After World War II, the Navy set up a permanent beach group organization. Two commands—Naval Beach Group 1 in Coronado, Calif. and Naval Beach Group 2 in Little Creek, Va. -- were established in 1948 to direct the Navy’s beach party. Each beach group was originally composed of an pontoon construction battalion, an underwater demolition team, a beachmaster unit, a boat unit and an assault craft squadron.

New Seabee Ratings Group VIII construction ratings
Here’s the new Seabee ratings that went into effect on April 2, 1948. The new ratings were part of Occupational Group VIII (Construction).

Many of these stories are found in No. 5 (Winter 1999) of the Seabee Log.

Bulletin Board	Keyword Search
Bookstore	Links
About Us	Recent Additions