What needed to be done was build staging bases to take the war to the enemy, across both oceans, and create the construction force to do the work.

In the field seabees became renowned for the arts of obtaining materials by unofficial and unorthodox means,[note 1][3] and souvenir making.

[5] Before that happened Seabees had volunteered for many tasks outside the NCF: Naval Combat Demolition Units, UDTs, Marine Corps Engineers/Pioneers and the top secret Chemical Warfare Service Flame tank Group.

By 1941 large bases were being built on Guam, Midway, Wake, Pearl Harbor, Iceland, Newfoundland, Bermuda, and Trinidad to name a few.

Battalions that followed were sent to an ABDs at either Davisville, Rhode Island, or Port Hueneme, California, to be staged prior to shipping out.

[15] Battalions attached to the 7th Amphibious Fleet were staged at Camp Seabee next to the ABCD in Brisbane, Australia, then to other US Naval Advance Bases.

To complete the defensive line these bases made, Seabees were sent to Londonderry, Northern Ireland, Lough Erne, Loch Ryan, and Rosneath, Scotland.

[17] It was there that 80% of the NCF literally built the road to VJ-day constructing nearly all the airfields, piers, ammunition bunkers, supply depots, hospitals, fuel tanks, and barracks required to make it happen on over 300 islands.

And, CBMU 1058 was sent into Naval Petroleum Reserve 4 to drill for oil as well as survey a potential pipeline route that remains utilized today.

They encountered typical issues of the tropics: incessant rain, multiple types of dysentery, numerous skin problems, and the dreaded elephantiasis.

That detachment was beset with difficulties, but gained satisfaction when the island's tank farms fueled Task Force 44 for the Battle of the Coral Sea.

[19] B Co. from CB 3 put 75 men aboard her to assist effect emergency repairs en route to the first naval Battle of the Solomons.

[21] He wrote that on 11 November: "She made the open sea with her decks ... shaking and echoing to air hammers, with welders' arcs sparking ... and with her forward elevator still jammed ... since the bomb ... broke it in half.

"[22] On 13 November the ship's captain notified SOPAC in Noumea 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".

He sent a commendatory letter to the Seabee's OIC, 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.

"[24] At Pearl Harbor in November 1942, 120 steel workers, riggers, and electricians from the 16th CB were responsible for salvaging the USS West Virginia far faster than Navy estimates.

News worthy to the troops at the time, off Tassafaronga Point on Guadalcanal, Seabees in a Higgins boat ran into the periscope of a sunk Japanese two-man sub 300 yd (270 m) offshore.

As the war island-hopped the Seabees landed in assaults with New Zealanders and Australians on multiple islands to build airfields for joint RNZAF, RAAF, U.S. Army Air Corps operations.

Prior to Cape Gloucester the 1st Marine Division posted notice requesting flight qualified volunteers to form an aviation unit of Piper L4 Grasshoppers.

He logged over 200 hours dropping flares ammo, medical supplies, observing troop movements, and providing taxi service to officers.

[32] For this Maj. Gen. Rupertus, USMC promoted him to Staff sergeant/Petty officer 1st class and Admiral Nimitz wrote him and the other flyers commendations for the Navy Air Medal.

When the USS Indianapolis (CA-35) delivered the atomic bomb to Tinian[39] 6th Brigade Seabees unloaded the components, stored and posted guard.

These included Air compressors, Arc welding, BAR, Bridge building, Bulldozer, Camouflage, Carpentry, Concrete, Cranes, Dams, Diving, Diesel engines, Distillation and water purification, Dock building, Drafting, Drilling, Dry docks, Dynamite and demolition, Electricity, Electric motors, First aid, Fire fighting, Gasoline Engines, Generators, Grading roads and airfields, Ice makers, Ignition systems, Judo, Huts and tents, Lubrication, Machine gun, Marine engines, Marston Matting, Mosquito control, Photography, Pile driving, Pipe-fitting/plumbing, Pontoons, Power-shovel operation, Pumps, Radio, Refrigeration, Rifle, Riveting, Road building, Road Scrapers, Sheet metal, Soil testing, Steelworking, Storage tanks wood or steel, Tire repair, Tractor operation, Transformers, Vulcanizing, Water front, and Well-drilling.

[75] At Halavo on Florida Island divers from the 27th CB would recover a Disburser's safe full of money plus change 160 props on vessels of all sizes.

At Pearl Harbor Seabee Divers were involved in the salvage of many of the ships hit on 7 December as well as the recovery of bodies for a long time after the attack.

However, the divers of CB 96 used 1,727,250 lbs of dynamite to blast 423,300 cubic yards of coral for the Ship repair facility on Manicani Island, at the Naval Operating Base Leyte-Samar.

"[2] The Seabee's machinegun-toting bumblebee insignia was created by Frank J. Iafrate, a clerk at the Camp Endicott, Quonset Point, Rhode Island.

[81] During WWII Seabees modified/created all of the main armament flame throwing tanks that the USMC put in the field on Saipan, Tinian, Iwo Jima, and the U.S. Army on Okinawa.

As Satans were produced Colonel Unmacht had the Seabees conduct a comprehensive series of 40-hour classes on flame tank operation with first and second echelon maintenance.

[88] Mid-September the Army decided to officially form a CWS "Flame Thrower Group" with Col Unmacht requesting 56 additional Seabees.