WWII From Camp Bradford, the battalion caught a train to the Advance Base Depot, Port Hueneme. NCB 11 was the very first CB to embark from that port for the Pacific. In the early record, 11th's first assignments are referenced by their code-names: Straw-hat, Straw-stack and Fetlock. "Straw-hat" was
Upolo, Samoa, "Straw-stack" was
Tutuila, Samoa, and "Fetlock" was
Pago Pago. From there, the battalion embarked the
USS Wharton (AP-7) for the
Admiralty Islands campaign. On
Los Negros Island 11 built the operational home for the 2nd NCR and started a Lion for the 7th Fleet. Shipmates with them on AP-7 was the 58th CB. At Milne Bay, Los Negros the 11th and 58th CBs joined the 71st. Projects the 11th had were the construction of three repair bases on
Seeadler Harbor for seaplanes, landing craft, and the fleet. a 400' marine railway. and a 1,200-foot pier to serve a supply depot. On 1 December 1945 the battalion was inactivated. The record does not give the date that the men reached CONUS. • One of the Seabees first
Civic action projects, possibly the first, happened on Island X early in the war. A project was formulated that CB 11 would build a
dam and
reservoir to supply an
airfield, naval base,
hospital as well as a neighboring
village. • 11 NCBs original WWII Log and documents are at the NHHC-Seabee Museum website (click on "Naval Construction Battalion"). • AP-7, formerly
SS Southern Cross, was one of the ships for
Antarctic exploration by
Admiral Byrd.
Cold War era , Bataan, Philippines. The photo is an iconic Seabee image. (USN)|alt= In August 1953, the battalion was reactivated as Mobile Construction Battalion 11 (MCB 11) at Port Hueneme, CA. The battalion did not deploy to
Korea. Instead, her first deployment returned the battalion to its last World War II duty station,
Subic Bay. In June the program gave STAT 1104 another
Special Forces assignment, construct a new camp at Dong Xoai. Though already wounded twice, CM3
Marvin Glenn Shields helped retrieve a badly wounded Stokes and then volunteered to carry ammo for 1st Lt
Charles Q. Williams assault on a machine-gun position. Both men survived the night and were awarded
Silver Stars. The other team members all received
Bronze Stars with Vs for valor. Every man received a
Purple Heart and the team received the
Navy Unit Commendation. CM3 Shields is the only Seabee to ever be awarded the Medal of Honor. The Republic of Vietnam awarded Marvin Shields posthumously with the Republic of Vietnam Gallantry Cross with Palm and the Military Merit Medal. For their part, the Seabees named their bases at Chu Lai, Vietnam and on Okinawa "Camp Shields" in his honor and named their base in Da Nang for SW2 Hoover. • 1965 USMC base
Camp Hansen on
Okinawa was completed after 29 months of construction by MCBs 3, 9, and 11 repurposing
Chimu Airfield. • 1966 1st Tour: Battalion deployed to Camp Adenir at
Da Nang from February–October.
John Wayne paid the battalion a visit in June to dedicate the enlisted-men's club. • 1967 2nd Tour: This time the battalion went north to
Dong Ha USMC Combat Base, just 13 miles south of the
DMZ. There, they came under enemy fire 128 times that resulted in 5 KIA and 52 purple hearts. Eleven's first casualty was Senior Chief Barnes and the Seabee Camp at Dong Ha was named for him. The battalion saw the most severe enemy fire experienced by any CB since WWII while on this tour. The primary projects were the air field at
Dong Ha Combat Base, CB Camp, and twenty eight 50-foot observation towers. The battalion had too many other projects to enumerate here. The project was designated
"top secret", site "X", and to be completed in under 45 days. MCBs 1, 3, 4, 7, 11, 74, 121, and 133 all sent detachments of men and equipment to get the job done. Those detachments dubbed themselves the "Ghost Battalion" and chose the
Jolly Roger for the battalion's colors. The Ghost Battalion was relieved by NMCB 10 disbanded 1 November 1967. • 1968 3rd Tour:
Quang Tri air base. The battalion made history in just getting to Vietnam. They were the first CB to deploy by air to the theater. The first couple of months saw the battalion living in tents pitched on sandy soil that did little for morale. There were a number of "High Priority" projects, starting with an Ammunition Supply Point. A "Minimum Essential Requirements" project (MER) for camp upgrades in the Quang Tri Combat area for the Army, Navy, and Marine Corps was also on that list. The project lead was NMCB 11, augmented by 200 man detachments from CBs 1, 3, 4, 7, 10, 11, 74, 121, and 133. The MER project was to build over 2000 basic structures to get "ALL" U.S. troops out of the sand and under cover before the next
monsoon began. Another "High Priority" was roadwork on Rt 1, the length of Vietnam. In addition to NMCB 11, CBs 1, 4, 7, 8, 53, 58, 62, 71, 74, 133, and 138 all worked concurrently on the route. Another bridge was on Route 1 at Bau Phu. NMCBs 1 and 11 did the construction work while 128 and 133 provided material support. On Okinawa, the battalion was on the island when
Typhoon Cora passed with its 175 knot winds. NMCB 11 assisted in the recovery there. The battalion returned to homeport to be decommissioned in December. • See the MCB 11 Association website for a detailed account of this period and complete listing of all construction done. In 1968 the Marine Corps requested that the Navy change its use of "MCB" for Mobile Construction Battalion as the Marine Corps were using "MCB" for "Marine Combat Base". The dual usage was creating confusion in Vietnam. The Navy agreed there was an issue and changed the Navy's CB name format. The USN from "United States Naval" Mobile Construction Battalions was changed to U.S. and the N was moved to the "MCB" creating the "NMCBs" that exist today.
Seabee Technical Assistance Teams • 1103 Nam Pot, Thailand, 1964 • 1104 Ben Soi Special Forces Det. A-321 (Feb-June) 1964 • 1104 Đồng Xoài Special Forces Det. A-342 (June) 1964
Seabee Teams • 1105
Pleiku Special Forces Det. A-334A ( July-Dec) 1965, When team 1105 left Pleiku on December 23 the" Seabee Team Program in support of the U.S. Army Special Forces and
Civilian Irregular Defense Group (CIDG) Program" came to an end. • MMT Thailand (During 1965 the Seabees had 5 "Mobile Training Teams" for well drilling. MCB 11's team was made up of Equipment operators and Construction mechanics.) • MMT #2 Pleiku 1965 • Seabee Team "Project Demo" U.S.State Department: de-bugging U.S. Eastern European Embassies and repairing the removal damage. 1965 • 1108
Bình Dương, Awarded
Navy Meritorious Unit Commendation • 2009: The battalion was deployed in support of
Operation Enduring Freedom (OEF) and
Operation Iraqi Freedom (OIF). The battalion's civic action component was tasked to Exercise SHARED ACCORD 2009. • 2010: The battalion had a deployment of civic action projects.(FIG. 15) NMCB 11 also went to the aid of the
U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID) offices in Timor-Leste. In June NMCB 11 broke ground a Community center in
Timor-Leste as part of Exercise Crocodilo, a Marine Corps exercise conducted by the
15th Marine Expeditionary Unit (MEU). • 2011: Requested by
Kiritimati Island(Christmas Island) the U.S. sent a team from NMCB 11 to build the first health care facility on the island. • 2012: The battalion deployed to FOB
Camp Leatherneck in
Helmand Province,
Afghanistan. Work there was primarily in support of the Marine Corps and
Special Operations Forces (USA). Much of this work took the form of building FOBs. There were also a fair number of civic action projects. • 2015: Deployment projects were carried out in support of
OEF, as well as force protection, camp maintenance at various camps and civic action. • 2018:
Hurricane Michael support == Insignia ==