My son-in-law, Dave, is a Seabee and just got home from Afghanistan! Long trip home from an extended detail, but he finally arrived in Gulfport, Mississippi - he was tired from the trip, but so happy to be back home with his family.
The Seabees are only allowed to take 300 lbs in their gear when they are sent overseas. With the necessary tools, clothes, sleeping bag, guns and other work accessories, there is not much room left for personal things.
Most of the packages that the families send are full of food - snacks, cheese, baby wipes, chocolate, gum, socks, cigarettes.
Most people, even some in the armed forces, do not even know what a Seabee is.
The name Seabee comes from CB - Construction Battalion - they get dropped off with a group of Marines at remote places all over the war zones to build the bases or quarters for the rest of the military to live and work to defend our country. Dave didn't even know where he was at the time - in this detail, it was to build an outpost on the border of Pakistan and Afghanistan
The Official Seabee Motto is "Construimus, Batuimus" - translated into English as "We Build, We Fight".
Another Seabee Motto:
With compassion for others, we build, we fight, for peace with freedom.
With willing hearts and skillful hands, the difficult we do at once, the impossible takes a bit longer.
Miracles by appointment only.
What is a Seabee, anyway? What do they do?
From the website Operation: Seabees Knowledge -
'Seabees are trained for combat, but usually don't serve in front-line offensive operations, yet their weapons training and qualifications standards are very rigorous -- they are difinitely not support or rear-area personnel. Their specialty is erecting good things and neutralizing bad things, whether this is building roads leading inland from an amphibious assault beach or through a swamp, or sealing up caves containing enemy snipers, or laying water pipelines to serve parched areas, or building and improving hospitals and schools.
The level of ingenuity in solving open-ended problems while under fire, demonstrated by each generation of Seabees, is something of legend. Seabees routinely operate bulldozers or jackhammers while enemy bullets and shrapnel fly on their often-hellish worksites around the globe. They do so with the same courage and determination that Soldiers or Marines operate main battle tanks, or machine guns. The only difference is that their primary implements are "unconventional" as weapons go: They are construction tools.'
Welcome Home, Dave. Good job and thank you!
