William Bradford Huie

Can Do! The Story of the Seabees William Bradford Huie

Born in 'the hellish aftermath of Pearl Harbor, ' the Seabees began as barely armed civilians with no military training. They had an average age of 35. GI's would joke, "Never hit a Seabee, for his son might be a Marine." America's bulldozing, jungle-hacking, 'Jap-cracking' Construction Battalion or the Seabees ('C. B.'s) soon proved themselves miracle-construction-workers in seemingly impassable combat zones. Before World War 2, Marines were the ones to 'get their first, ' but the need for roads in the muddy battlefields of the Pacific meant that claim would pass to the Construction Battalion. Their early motto was 'Can Do!'