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. Look 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. The 3rd began arriving at the "newly" opened Camp Rousseau mid-May 1942 as the first CB at Port Hueneme. 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. 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. 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). The 2 officers and 40 men were what remained of the original A Company, the balance was what remained of the Bobcats.