Seabee Teams

In the late 1950s and early 1960s, Seabee Teams were born. This era marked the first use of these small detachments for local military aid and socioeconomic projects in underdeveloped countries. By 1963 this vital aid program had been refined in both organization and aims, and had become a regular feature of Seabee activity abroad. The Seabee Team usually consisted of thirteen carefully selected, experienced men -- one junior Civil Engineer Corps officer, eleven construction men, and a hospital corpsman. Such teams proved exceptionally effective in rural development programs and for teaching construction skills to people in such diverse locations as Africa, Central and South America, Southeast Asia, and later in the Trust Territories of the Pacific Islands. For instance, in 1962 a Seabee Team arrived in the Republic of Haiti to restore a collapsing municipal pier that was vital to the national economy. The following year Spanish-speaking Seabees built and staffed a technical school in Santo Domingo. A Seabee Team in Costa Rica protected the imperiled city of Cartago from a disastrous mud-flow by building dams and dikes. In other far-flung locations Seabee Teams constructed roads, schools, orphanages, public utilities, and many other community structures.

However, much more important than the actual construction work they accomplished were the skills team members imparted to the local residents. Their true success was in enabling the local populous to continue old projects and initiate new ones long after the Seabees have left the region. There is no doubt that the "Can Do" Seabee Teams have more than earned their additional measure of recognition as the "Navy's Peace Corps."

It was during the summer of 1964 that the Seabees first went to work for the State Department. The program was initiated following the discovery of electronic surveillance devices planted throughout the U.S. Embassy in Moscow. To prevent future incidents of this nature, Seabees were used to perform all construction and renovation in security sensitive areas of Foreign Service facilities abroad. In addition, they were tasked with the supervision of private contractors assigned to do construction work in non-sensitive areas. Despite its beginnings in 1964, it was not until 1966 that the Naval Support Unit, State Department, was officially established to administer Seabees assigned to support the Foreign Service. Because of the superb on-the-job performance of these Seabees, the State Department happily made them a permanent part of its operations.

In 1963 Seabee Teams were sent to Thailand to assist in the Royal Thai Government's Accelerated Rural Development Program. In the northern provinces these diversified units taught and advised local Thais in an effort to help them form the cadre of essential rural public works organizations. Three years of diligent work in this region was finally concluded in May 1966.

In early November 1966, the Seabee Team program in Thailand shifted from rural development to the Thai Border Patrol Police Program for the development of remote area security. The program's underlying aim was to win village support for the government in regions continually plagued by communist insurgency. Before the termination of all Seabee Team efforts in Thailand in 1969, these skilled units had made significant progress toward the attainment of this national aim.

In 1963 Seabee Teams were sent to Thailand to assist in the Royal Thai Government's Accelerated Rural Development Program. In the northern provinces these diversified units taught and advised local Thais in an effort to help them form the cadre of essential rural public works organizations. Three years of diligent work in this region was finally concluded in May 1966.

In early November 1966, the Seabee Team program in Thailand shifted from rural development to the Thai Border Patrol Police Program for the development of remote area security. The program's underlying aim was to win village support for the government in regions continually plagued by communist insurgency. Before the termination of all Seabee Team efforts in Thailand in 1969, these skilled units had made significant progress toward the attainment of this national aim.

Also in 1963, two years before the first full Seabee battalion arrived, Seabee Teams were laboring in South Vietnam. They constructed small support points throughout the interior of South Vietnam to counter Viet Cong political influence in the villages. The teams built U.S. Army Special Forces camps, performed civic action tasks, and conducted military engineering projects under the Civil Irregular Defense Group Program.

Seabee Team activity in South Vietnam continued to grow. Generally working in remote rural areas, away from large population centers, the Seabees served throughout twenty-two provinces scattered from the Mekong Delta, along the Cambodian border and the Central highlands, to the North Vietnamese border.

In the early years, only two teams at a time were employed in these regions, but by 1969 the number of teams in-country had grown to 17.

Seabee Team accomplishments were many and varied. The U.S. Army Special Forces, who were engaged in training and advising Vietnamese Strike Forces and the Civilian Irregular Defense Group in anti-guerilla fighting and defense tactics, required fortified camps in advance areas able to withstand recurring ground and mortar attacks. Besides constructing these special camps, Seabee Teams were called upon to build access roads and nearby tactical airstrips. Further, in South Vietnamese hamlets and villages, teams carried out numerous civic action projects. From training local inhabitants in basic construction skills to providing desperately needed medical assistance, the Seabees made a significant impact on the Vietnamese populace.

While they were primarily builders and instructors, Seabee Team members were sometimes directly involved in battle. Perhaps the most famous such battle occurred in June 1965 at Dong Xoai, 55 miles northeast of Saigon. When Viet Cong troops overran a Special Forces Camp containing 400 South Vietnamese and allied Asian troops, 11 men of a U.S. Army Special Forces team and nine men of Seabee Team 1104, seven of the Seabees were wounded and two killed. One of the dead was Construction Mechanic 3rd Class Marvin G. Shields, USN, who was posthumously awarded the Medal of Honor for conspicuous gallantry in carrying a critically wounded man to safety and in destroying a Viet Cong machine gun emplacement at the cost of his life. Not only was Marvin Shields the first Seabee to win the nation's highest award, but he was also the first Navy man to be so decorated for action in Vietnam.

Beginning in 1970 Seabee Teams departed from South Vietnam without relief. This initiated a phase-down program which corresponded to United States troop withdrawals. Finally, on 18 April 1972, the last Seabee Team site located in Ham Tan, Binh Tuy Province, was closed. Although these unique units were physically gone, the common people of Vietnam continued to reap the benefits of their many civic action projects.