Seabees Return to Guadalcanal
Cyclone Namu brings the Three-Bees
By Steve
Karoly
It seems the Seabees have a calamitous relationship with Guadalcanal.
They only call on the tropical isle after tragedy shakes the island. Today
is no different than World War II.
Japanese occupation of Guadalcanal and construction of the airfield,
which threatened nearby Espiritu Santo and New Caledonia, brought the
Seabees in 1942. The watchwords of the day were stop Japanese aggression
and liberate conquered territories. This meant airfields — lots of them.
That’s what drew the Seabees to Guadalcanal the first time.
The force of nature brought them the second time. Cyclone Namu swept
across the island in May 1986, leaving a path of destruction. This time
natural disaster and the politics of the Cold War drew the Seabees.
EO2 Anthony Missico, Jr. remembers the political rumors about the
deployment. Originally, he remembers, they were to take an amphibious ship
directly from Port Hueneme. But because of political wrangling, the 93-man
detail deployed to Okinawa with the main body of the battalion. A New
York Times article reported on November 4, 1986 that the Seabee
deployment was part of an effort to counter increasing Soviet influence in
the region.
Seabees rebuild road and bridges
So 41 years after that last Seabees left the island, the USS Bristol
County (LST 1198) bearing NMCB 3’s Detail Guadalcanal eased into its
berth in Honiara. The Seabees came to repair the damaged infrastructure.
September 9, 1986 marked the first time since CBMU 520's departure on
August 22, 1945 that Seabees lived on the island.
Detail Guadalcanal arrived 44 years and eight days after the first
Seabees of the 6th NCB landed on Guadalcanal. After the 10-day sea voyage
from Okinawa, the Seabees initiated Operation Kennel Sun to "test
their capabilities in amphibious and construction operations." That
was the official reason for their deployment. In truth, they spent 90 days
on the islands of Guadalcanal and nearby Malaita repairing storm damage
from Cyclone Namu.
Instead of boarding in the luxurious hotels used by the thousands of
sport divers and environmentally minded tourists who flock to Guadalcanal
each year, they set up a tent camp on the west end of Kukum Field, an
airfield built by the 18th NCB. Although long abandoned, Missico said,
"The airfield was still flat and as straight as the day it was
laid."
The Seabees were tasked with setting up "a non-tactical military
camp in an austere and adverse environment." All the amenities of
home like showers, laundry and heads made the camp self-sufficient. A
Seabee master chief who visited the Seabees said it reminded him of the
Seabee camps in Vietnam, according Missico.
Their primary mission, however, was to "perform extensive disaster
recovery project work and civic action on the islands of Guadalcanal and
Malaita," according NMCB 3’s deployment completion report.
"Construction maintained a rapid pace throughout the 90-day
deployment as detail personnel worked 12 hours a day, 6 days a week under
arduous and extreme conditions of this remote site."
Seabee tours battlefields of World War II
Memorials are everywhere on Guadalcanal. Monuments to the dead have
been erected at several key locations. Thirteen American, Australian and
Japanese ships lay entombed in Iron Bottom Sound. And many battlefields,
like Bloody Ridge and Alligator Creek, remain littered with the
instruments of war.
Its nature resources and a long forgotten war are important elements of
Guadalcanal’s economy. Tropical beauty, breath taking scuba diving sites
and remnants of war draw some 11,500 visitors annually. The war continues
to play a substantial role in the struggling nation’s economy.
From the minute the airplane turns into its final approach, visitors
are reminded of battle. Henderson Field, built on the Lunga Plain by
Marines Engineers and Seabees of the 6th NCB, is the gateway to the
Solomon Islands. They drive over Seabee built roads and bridges to the
luxurious resort hotels of Honiara.
Missico called himself the tourist’s tourist. He many non-working
hours touring the battlefields. As the equipment dispatcher for the unit,
he had access to vehicles. "Being dispatcher I always drove a car. I
would rent [a car] and get some of my crew and some of the mechanics and
we’d tour," Missico said.
They made friends with a teenage boy who, when dismissed by his school
teacher, became their tour guide. He took Missico and his buddies to
Galloping Horse and Sea Horse Ridges on the Matanikau River, site of
fierce fighting between the Japanese and Americans late in the campaign
for Guadalcanal. And they visited Bloody Ridge, a flat north-south ridge
system that guards the approaches to Henderson Field.
Their guide knew all the war sites. As a child, he played around the
foxholes and ridges. He traced the battle lines and knew were war relics
were hidden in the thick jungle. He guided them to a Japanese Zero buried
deep in the forest. He took them on walking tours to battlegrounds
littered with the waste of war. "You could look down on the ground
and still see the canvas buttons, the bullet rounds, the shells. The place
is littered."
"What made Bloody Ridge so unusual was the grassy plain in the
middle of a jungle," Missico said as he described steep terrain
formed by a ravine along the ridge. "A lot of the trails going up and
down the ravine needed to be guarded. So you’re on these trails and it’s
hot and humid and you’re slipping and falling. You can barely keep your
footing."
Residents of Guadalcanal welcomed the Seabees into their homes and
their hearts. The young Seabees followed a time-honored American tradition
of giving chocolate to children as their fathers and grandfathers had in
wars past. Missico’s assessment of his hosts was to the point: "I
tell you those people loved us."
Once again, the Seabees had a lasting effect on Guadalcanal. Although
on a smaller scale than their World War II brothers, the Seabees of NMCB 3
built roads and bridges. This time, these infrastructure repairs were for
the people of Guadalcanal, not to support a massive war machine. Then on
December 6, 1986, the USS Schenectady (LST 1185) called on Honiara
to return NMCB 3’s Detail Guadalcanal to Okinawa.
Six years later, another group of Seabees came. This time a much
smaller group, Civic Action Team 0703, landed to support Marine Task Force
Guadalcanal for Operation Remembrance, a Marine led expedition to
commemorate the 50th anniversary of the First Marine Division’s landings
on the island.
The American Embassy characterized the influence a small group of young
Seabees had on Guadalcanal: "The Seabees returned to a dying World
War II legend on Guadalcanal, cherished by the elders but forgotten by the
youth. By their cheerful hard work they brought the legend alive."
The active duty battalions of today, NMCBs 1, 3, 4, 5, 7, 40, 74,
and 133, deploy to four camps from their homeports of Gulfport,
Mississippi and Port Hueneme, California. These camps are:
- Camp Covington, Guam
- Camp Mitchell, Rota, Spain
- Camp Moscript, Puerto Rico
- Camp Shields, Okinawa
From these camps, details are sent to such diverse locations as
Bosnia, Korea and Thailand.
Seabee Accomplishments
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Guadalcanal:
· 6 timber bridges rebuilt.
· Concrete low water crossing at
the Poha River.
· Water line beneath the Matanikau
River.
· 50 miles of road repairs on the
flood planes.
· Bridge abutments and approach
ramps for bridges on the Ngalimbiu and Mbalisuna Rivers.
Malaita:
· 100 miles of road reconstruction.
· Installed a sterilization unit
for the Kiluufi Hospital.
· Plumbing repairs to Kiluufi
Hospital.
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This story is found in No. 3 (Summer 1998) of the Seabee
Log. |
