WWII With pressing construction needs in the Pacific, Naval Construction Battalion 5 was "rushed" in its formation. With its ranks full of qualified tradesmen the battalion was quickly given its
military indoctrination and processed in less than a month for transit to
Port Hueneme, Ca. From there the battalion boarded ship and was the first CB into the
Hawaiian Territory. "NAS Honolulu" was actually
Naval Air Station Barbers Point and it was on CB 5's work list. From Camp Parks the battalion was transferred to Port Hueneme. While there the battalion was given its next assignment and attached to
Cub-16. That was canceled with the battalion attached to the
7th Fleet and
General MacArthur. On January 10, 1945 CB 5 departed Port Hueneme for
Leyte where it arrived February 15. Nine days later the battalion would land at it new job site on
Calicoan,
Samar. The main projects would be an ABCD, ACEPD, There were several detachments, one to both Advance Base Unit 10(NABU-10) and NABU-12. Able Company went to
Balikpapan,
Borneo to help the
Aussies joining Detachments from the 111th and 113th CBs. On 13 August the battalion learned it was assigned Operation Olympic the first element of
Operation Downfall. Downfall was the plan for the invasion of
Japan. Set to begin in November 1945, Operation Olympic was intended to capture the southern third of the Japanese island of
Kyūshū. This was to be followed by Operation Coronet, the second element, which was planned to land near
Tokyo.
VJ-day terminated these Operations leaving NCB 5 in the Philippines. • October 1966 - June 1967, East Danang ~ Camp Adenir, assigned to III Marine Amphibious Corps • November 1967 - July 1968, Camp Barnes
Dong Ha Combat Base, assigned to
III Marine Amphibious Corps • January - October 1969, Danang ~ Camp Hoover • January - October 1970, North Danang ~ Camp Haskins, During this deployment the battalion was visited by many flag officers some of whom visited multiple Detachments multiple times. •
VADM E.R Zumwalt Jr., Chief of Naval Operations NMCB 5 was the last battalion to deploy to Vietnam March to November 1971. • 0501 Buom Me Ga, Apr 1963 7th Special Forces airstrip SERT-5 was augmented by three members of UnderwaterConstruction Team 2. SERT-5 was relieved by the SERT-4 at the airfield outside Qalat Sukkar. • NMCB Five was called into action again in support of the Global War on Terrorism during its 2005 deployment. Personnel from NMCB Five were integrated with reserve unit NMCB TWO SEVEN sending over 330 personnel to various locations throughout Southwest Asia. Majority of the work was in support of Special Operations Command with many sites being classified. Many personnel provided direct support to the Iraqi Army by constructing bases and facilities to support their ongoing struggle for stability. • NMCB FIVE was deployed to
Afghanistan from February to August in 2009 to work on
Camp Leatherneck. The battalion returned again in 2010.
Disaster recovery • 1962
Typhoon Karen Guam Naval Base, MCB 5 set up 500 tents for the islanders • 1989
Hurricane Hugo Charleston, SC,
Antigua and
Puerto Rico • 1995
Hurricane Luis Antigua,
St. Thomas,
St. John • 1995
Hurricane Marilyn Antigua, St. Thomas, St. John • 1993 Ventura County fires • 2000
Alaska Airlines Flight 261 crash == List of commanding officers ==