SEABEE instructor requests help to inspire students

HOORAH Seabees,

My name is EO2(SCW) Michael S. Cincinati and I am an instructor at EO "A" school in FT. Leonard Wood Mo. We have been looking for some pictures or maybe some good stories to post in our classrooms and in the barracks. We have your web site in our classrooms for the students to go to.

My main goal is to build that feeling of Seabee pride in these newbees, teach them about our history so they will know and understand why we are so cocky all the time. I tell them all the time that our history has been put in place by people like those who set up this website and now it is our job to preserve that history and add to it. Any help you could give would be forever appreciated. My E-Mail address is cincinatim@wood.army.mil

Thank you for your time.

HOORAH!

EO2(SCW) Michael S. Cincinati

Below is the great response sent to Mike by Tom Marone after I shared the e-mail with him to illustrate the type of SEABEES that need to hear more about SEABEE history and how OSK can have a positive impact on those who will carry the "CAN DO" spirit forward into the future. Enjoy! "Stormin' "

Mike,

In case you haven't seen the story, the following website is a recent story about a 5 hour firefight in Iraq were the Bee's were protecting their EO's who were making a protective berm around the perimeter of their base camp. The fire teams were advancing and retreating right alongside the dozers with every pass they would make!

http://www.mercurynews.com/mld/mercurynews/news/world/8429983.htm?1c

Unfortunately, your "newbees" will probably not feel the real pride of being a Seabee until their later years. But that's not to say they shouldn't be proud today! They probably haven't thought long enough to realize that their simple unselfish task of enlisting is reason enough, but I understand how these young guys are, they watch too many movies.

The truth of the matter is, during all our wars, 100 guys a day would perform unbelievable acts of heroism and unselfish deeds not only to protect their fellow shipmates, but for the folks back home. Last year I went to our Pennsylvania All Seabee Picnic, where Seabees from all over the state get together. I met an old WWII Seabee who was a member of one of the Seabee Pontoon Battalions. As I'm sure you know, these guys, about 35 in a team, would ride those pontoon causeways or Rhino ferries into the beach from the LST's, under fire! These Rhino Ferries were loaded with ammo, equipment and supplies to support the invading troops. Anyway, this old Seabee told me how he made two landings on Red Beach, on D-Day on Iwo Jima. He would have made more but the surf was simply too rough and the pontoon causeways began to broach. When I asked him if he saw the Flag go up on Mount Suribachi, he replied, "I saw both Flags go up". Do your young Bees even know two flags went up, most people don't. When you learn what our Seabee's did in the past, how can you NOT feel the pride of being a part of what I believe is the greatest branch of service there is! Sure, we're a little rag-tag and love a "good-time", but when there's a job to be done, we CAN-DO!

There are some good books out there about the Bee's although they mostly only cover the WWII years, but they're well worth the time to read if you want to understand how most of these guys left high paying civilian jobs to enlist. That's why the average age of a Seabee during WWII was 37! Uncle Sam needed experienced construction men, and the Seabees were born!

If the guys want to read about WWII Seabees, they should get the 2 books by William Bradford Huie, "Can-Do!" and "From Omaha to Okinawa". Another interesting book is "WWII Special Assignment" by Clayton F. Rasmussen, this book is his story about being a Seabee in the 110th NCB and his eventual deployment to the Island of Tinian. The 110th built the runway that would later be the departure point from where the Enola Gay took off to deliver the Atomic bomb. Clayton was on the Island at the time. Interestingly, he also explains in the book how the Seabee's were assigned mop-up duty. When the Marines would invade one of those Islands in the Pacific, they would make the initial sweeps acrossed the island and then the Seabee's would go back thru the same areas and take care of the Japs that were hiding in tunnels. Then there's the "U.S. Navy Seabees: Since Pearl Harbor" by Jay Kimmel.

But for your guys, I would suggest that you go to the search engine Google, select "News", then type the word "Seabee". It will display all the latest news regarding anything and everything that's affiliated with the Seabees, but the nice thing about it is, that you can sign-up for what's called a "Google-Alert" and every time a news story is published somewhere, you'll get an e-mail with the link to the story. That how I keep up on the Bee's over in-country. I think the OPERATION SEABEE KNOWLEDGE website plans on adding a link that will provide stories of our Seabees overseas, keep checking back!

Have a great Seabee Day!

HOORAH, CAN-DO!

Tom Marone
Navy Seabee Veterans of America
Secretary, Island X-1PA
Harrisburg, PA

OPERATION SEABEES KNOWLEDGE seabeesinfohq.org E-Mail seabees@seabeesinfohq.org