Naval Mobile Construction Battalion THREE (NMCB 3) is a United States Navy Seabee that was one of the three original Construction Battalions authorized to be formed in 1942. In May 1942 Naval Construction Battalion 3 deployed to the Territory of Hawaii and designated Brigade Headquarters Battalion for the Hawaiian Area NCF. After seeing service in the South Pacific, the battalion was decommissioned mid-1944. In 1950 the battalion was reactivated and today is home-ported at Port Hueneme, California.
History WWII, CB 3
In December 1941, Rear Admiral Ben Moreell, Chief of BuDocks, recommended establishing Navy Construction Battalions and on the 28th requested authority to carry this out. On 5 January 1942, he got the go-ahead from the Navy's Bureau of Navigation to recruit construction tradesmen for three Naval Construction Battalions. When those three Battalions were formed the Seabees did not have a base of their own yet. So, upon leaving Navy boot, those men were sent to National Youth Administration camps in Illinois, New Jersey, New York or Virginia to receive military training from the Marine Corps.Building the Navy's Bases in World War II, Dept. of the Navy Historical Center, 805 Kidder Breeze SE., Washington Navy Yard, Washington DC 20374, Chapter VI p. 138 The 3rd began arriving at the "newly" opened Camp Rousseau mid-May 1942 as the first CB at Port Hueneme.Historic California Posts: When the Navy came to Port Hueneme, Dr. Frank A Blazich, Seabee Museum From there the 3rd CB deployed by Company as Seabee detachments do today. An A Company detachment joined the Bobcats of Construction Detachment 1 on Bora Bora, B Company went to Nouméa, New Caledonia to build Cub 1, and C & D Companies went to Fiji.
A Co sent 2 officers and 100 men to Bora Bora to augment the Bobcats. In the fall of 1943 the Bobcats had completed their work and had received orders to join B Co at Nouméa. However, those orders changed redesignateing the Bobcats and A Co. as 3rd battalion 22nd Marines commanded by Colonel Ayers. At that time the remainder of A Co. (5 officers and 292 enlisted) was transferred to the Marines. Since neither the Bobcats nor A Co had received any advanced military training in the States the 22nd put them through USMC boot training in the field. When the Marines finished they took the Seabees back to Hawaii where the regiment received amphibious warfare training. With that completed the 3rd Battalion was tasked as shore party, engineers and demolitions men for the landings in the Marshalls. At Kwajalein, Roi-Namur, and Eniwetok 3rd Battalion was the assault Reserve. The 22nd Marines took part in the Battle of Eniwetok as an element of the 1st Marine Provisional Brigade. The 3rd Battalion was heavily involved in securing the island and had landed in the assaults on both Engebi and Parry Islands as well. However, at Eniwetok the Seabees were committed at 14:25 D-day to eliminate the Japanese on the western side of the island. The Army identifies them as "Marines" recording that they battled long into the night. At 0900 the next morning the Japanese launched a counterattack that reached the Seabee command post before being repulsed.H-026-2: Operation Catchpole—The Invasion of Eniwetok, 17 February 1944, NHHC, Samuel J. Cox, Director NHHC, NHHC Hq Washington Naval Yard, Washington D.C., May 2019 All toll, the U.S.lost 37 while the Japanese lost 800 on Eniwetok. For its actions on Eniwetok the 22nd Marine Regiment received the Navy Unit Commendation.Navy Unit Commendation - Continued (GROUP III), Navy and Marine Corps Awards Manual [Rev. 1953] Part. 2 - Unit Awards, p.25, NHHC website, published: 29 July 2019 When the Marshall Islands operations were completed the 22nd was sent to Guadalcanal. There it learned that over 1800 men had contracted the slow developing tropical disease Filariasis from the Bora Bora jungles. It manifests as the dreaded Elephantiasis. With the military operations over the Bobcats and A company were released by the Marine Corps (totaling 2 officers and 225 enlisted).NCB 3 History, NCB History List, NHHC, Seabee Museum Archives, Port Hueneme, CA The 2 officers and 40 men were what remained of the original A Company, the balance was what remained of the Bobcats.
B Co On 30 October the USS Enterprise (CV-6) pulled into Nouméa after taking two hits and two near misses during the Battle of the Santa Cruz Islands and B Co. was tasked to help. The Big E was the only aircraft carrier remaining in the Pacific West of Pearl Harbor, but had bomb damage to the flight deck at the bow and just aft of the forward elevator. The 500-pounder that struck there split in two upon penetrating the flight deck. The smaller portion detonated on the hangar deck putting a 4' bulge in the flight deck measuring 30'x60'. The larger portion passed down to third deck blowing out bulkheads, killing the ships Repair Party Number 2 mustered below.Damage Report: 26 October 1942, Santa Cruz Battle Damage, USS Enterprise CV-6 Association website, 2003 A third bomb was a near miss, midships below the waterline, that broke ship frames 30, 31, and 34. The concussion cracked a cast iron after-bearing support on one of the ship's turbines. The jolt caused the fore-mast to rotate in its socket enough to disable all the electronics mounted on it. It also affected the midships elevator. The other 500 lb. miss was starboard below the waterline at elevator number 1. It caused rivet failure, ruptured an oil tank and flooded two more plus the machinery room for an ammunition elevator.Sections F & G, USS Enterprise (CV-6) War History, 7 December 1941 to 15 August 1945, War Damage Report 59, The Naval Battle of Guadalcanal 12-15 NOV. 1942, NHHC, U.S. Hydrographic Office, 1947, p. 17-26 (section G1-1) That forced Damage control to flood additional compartments to restore trim. Upon docking in Noumea the damage assessment Officer off the repair ship USS Vestal told Adm. Halsey repairs would take 3 weeks.Then There was One, The Jersey Brothers, Sally Mott Freeman, Simon and Schuster, 2017, p.184-7 Halsey replied they had ten days and he would give them some Seabees to get it done. B Company put 75 Seabees aboard to effect emergency repairs with 40 men from the Vestal.The Pacific - Chapter XII, The King Bee - Biography of Admiral Ben Moreell, Captain A. N. Olsen, CEC, Naval Institute Press, 2007, p. un-numbered ACTION REPORT - 13–15 November 1942, USS ENTERPRISE CV-6 Association website, 2003, p. 1.A.2. On day eleven the repair crews remained aboard when Adm. Halsey ordered the Enterprise back to action for what would be the called the Battle of the Solomons. Underway to engage the enemy, the men of CB 3 focused on effecting repairs even into the battle. They had worked round-the-clock under the Enterprise's damage control officer. They even had had Nouméa harbor lit up during blackout to get the ship operational. The damage control officer wrote that on 11 November: "She made the open sea with her decks shaking and echoing to air hammers, with welders' arcs sparking.. without watertight integrity.. leaking oil.. and with her forward elevator still jammed." On 13 November the ship's Captain notified Halsey at SOPAC that "The emergency repairs accomplished by this skillful, well-trained, and enthusiastically energetic force have placed this vessel in condition for further action against the enemy". Those repairs enabled Enterprise aircraft to take part in the sinking of the Japanese battleship Hiei that day in the First Naval Battle of Guadalcanal.ACTION REPORT - 13–15 November 1942, USS ENTERPRISE CV-6 Association website, 2003, p. 1.B.1. Over the next three days the Enterprise was involved in the sinking of another fifteen and damaging eight more. While it appeared that the forward elevator had been repaired the Ok to use it was not given until after the battle. It worked. Admiral Bull Halsey (Commander SOPAC Nouméa) knew how those Seabee repairs contributed to the battle's outcome. He sent a commendatory letter to the OIC of B Company, Lt. Quayle: "Your commander wishes to express to you and the men of the Construction Battalion serving under you, his appreciation for the services rendered by you in effecting emergency repairs during action against the enemy. The repairs were completed by these men with speed and efficiency. I hereby commend them for their willingness, zeal, and capability."News Letter Bureau of Aeronautics Navy Department, number=187, February 1943, Seabees Repair Carrier During Sea Battle, p.15–16. The Enterprise returned to Nouméa on 16 November for the Seabees to complete the repairs. She departed again on 4 December. The Naval Battle of Guadalcanal was included in the Enterprises Presidential Unit Citation The men off the USS Vestal and B Co. meet award protocol for eligibility: "they were physically present and participated in the action for which the Enterprise was cited."Chapter 3 Unit Decorations, Navy and Marine Corps Awards Manual SECNAV 1650.1, August 2019, p. 3.1b.2a. B Co. set up operations on Ile Nou upon arriving in Noumea. It was originally tasked with building a tank farm which was cancelled. War developments led to the components of Cub 1 being delivered to them instead of New Zealand. In addition to building the destroyer base they set up a pontoon assembly facility utilizing the labor of a Company of buffalo soldiers from the 24th Infantry Regiment. They also set up an aviation motor rebuild facility on Ile Nou.Noumea, South Pacific, Building the Navys Bases in WWII, Vol II (Part III), GPO Washington DC, 1947
Over the next two years a number of smaller detachments were sent to islands in both the Samoan and Fijian groups.Seabee Unit Histories In 1944, the battalion was reformed in New Caledonia and departed Nouméa on 22 May to return to Camp Parks, California where on 12 July it was ordered disbanded and then subsequently decommissioned on 16 August 1944.
Korean Era, MCB 3
The battalion was re-activated as MCB 3 on 15 July 1950 at Naval Construction Battalion Center Port Hueneme, California. In November the battalion's first deployment was top secret on Amchitka, in the Aleutians. The DOD wanted to know the suitability of the island for the nuclear tests of upcoming Project Windstorm. The battalion drilled 34 test holes to learn the hydrology and cratering potential of the geologic strata on the island.Amchitka and the Bomb, Nuclear Testing in Alaska, Dean W. Kohlhoff, University of Washington Press, 2002, p.35 1951, 1.2 Summary of Site Usage, AMCHITKA ISLAND, ALASKA, POTENTIAL U.S. DEPARTMENT OF ENERGY SITE RESPONSIBILITIES, DOE Nevada Operations Office, Las Vegas, Nevada, December 1998, p. 1-3 (Amchitka photos), Thinking Outside the Box: Ingenuity is Key to Seabees’ Success, Steve Forbes Seabee Diamond Anniversary Ambassador, CEC/Seabee Historical Foundation, PO Box 657, Gulfport, MS
On 2 October 1951, the battalion arrived in the Philippine Islands where it spent the next 5 years building Naval Air Station, Cubi Point. The first problem encountered was moving the fishing village of Banicain, which occupied a portion of the site for the new airfield. The town and its residents were moved to Olongapo, which became New Banicain. The former village site is now under of earth. The next, and biggest, issue was cutting a mountain in half and moving the material to fill in Subic Bay to create a long runway. CBs 2, 3, 5, 9 & 11 all blasted coral to fill a section of the bay as well as adjoining swampland. They removed trees as large as tall and in diameter from the construction site. It was one of the largest earthmoving projects in the world, equivalent to the building of the Panama Canal. The construction took five years and an estimated 20 million man-hours. The $100 million facility ($ in dollars) was commissioned on 25 July 1956 and comprised an air station and an adjacent pier that was capable of docking the Navy's largest carriers.