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The Naval History & Heritage Command is remembering Steelworker Second Class Robert D. Stethem, USN, of Underwater Construction Team ONE, who was killed on this date in 1985 by the terrorist hijackers of TWA Flight 847. He posthumously received the Bronze Star for his heroism during this situation. USS Stethem (DDG-63) is named in his honor. Petty Officer Stethem, we salute you!

Cmdr. Frost chats with families at a newly opened primary healthcare clinic. USACE photo by Norris Jones. BAGHDAD — Using his skills as a Navy Seabee, he successfully managed construction projects in some of Baghdad’s most turbulent neighborhoods. Navy Cmdr. Steven Frost is concluding a year-long deployment as the Deputy Commander with the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers Gulf Region Central district. His staff oversaw hundreds of construction projects including a new $50 million water treatment plant for Sadr City, hospital and school renovations, new courthouses, fire stations, sewer and water line installations, and road paving. But the work Frost...

CAMP AR RAMADI, Iraq (NNS) -- Three Seabees attached to Naval Mobile Construction Battalion (NMCB) 1 returned from Iraq Jan. 5 after serving as a part of the Lioness program for a month. While serving alongside the 3rd Battalion, 23rd Marine Regiment, the three women served in roles unusual to their specific ratings within the Seabee community, but critical to the success of current operations in theater. They were not only able to aid the interests of our country and allies, but they helped to make a connection between our two cultures by respecting the differences between the two. Muslim...

FORWARD OPERATING BASE DELTA, Iraq, July 17, 2008 – The Navy’s amphibious construction battalions usually build water structures such as piers and bridges. Navy Petty Officer 2nd Class Kenneth Collier, a steelworker with Team 2, Detachment India, Amphibious Construction Battalion 2, prepares wood for the 41st Fires Brigade tactical operations center annex. The Seabees also built the brigade's TOC. U.S. Army photo by Spc. Allison Churchill, 41st Fires Brigade  (Click photo for screen-resolution image);high-resolution image available. In just over six months, Seabees from Team 2, Detachment India, Amphibious Construction Battalion 2, completed more than seven projects and lent their talents...

Jacqueline Stowers husband is currently serving in Iraq and unable to protect his family from predatory government on the homefront. Contact the “Vote Freedom First” President George W. Bush and ask him how this will look on his legacy!

When officers from the Lorain County Sheriff’s Office in Ohio arrived last Monday at the Manna Storehouse food cooperative in LaGrange with weapons drawn and trained on Katie Stowers and her children, along with her in-laws, there was one member of the family missing. Katie’s husband, Chad, is a U.S. Navy Seabee, helping in construction projects in the midst of combat in Iraq. He’s been there, separated from his family, for the last five months, supposedly protecting our rights from abuse—the sort of abuse that appears to be taking place on an ever-more-frequent basis at farms and food outlets around...

WASHINGTON, June 8, 2007 – After having breakfast with some of her fans in Nashville, Tenn., yesterday, country music singer LeAnn Rimes, as one of her songs says, had absolutely “Nothin’ Better to Do” than present a handicap-accessible van to a severely injured veteran. LeAnn Rimes hands the keys to a brand new Chevrolet to Navy Petty Officer 1st Class Peter Reid on June 7, 2007, in Nashville, Tenn. His wife, Michele Reid, right, and his full-time caregiver, Brian Kroen, look on. Chevrolet and Rimes teamed up at the Country Music Association Music Festival to present the vehicle to...

A year ago, Navy Petty Officer 2nd Class Jennifer Sizemore was in the mountains of Pakistan, helping earthquake victims. What she saw was a “primitive lifestyle,” made even more so by the destructive force of Mother Nature. The job of Navy Construction Battalion 74, more affectionately known as Seabees, was to build facilities for those engaged in rescue work and the residents of the area. Winter was beginning to come, Sizemore said in a telephone interview from an undisclosed site in Iraq, where Naval Mobile Construction Battalion 74 out of Gulfport, Miss., finds itself now. The daughter of Nick and...

A servicemember assigned to Amphibious Construction Battalion 2, Kuwait Detachment 1, is greeted by a loved one at Naval Amphibious Base Little Creek, Va., March 31, 2006, after a six-and-a-half month deployment to Kuwait. U.S. Navy photo by Airman Apprentice David B. Danals Seabee Battalion Returns Home from Kuwait While deployed, the battalion supported public works operations for the U.S. Army’s Area Support Group-Kuwait. By U.S. Navy Airman Michael Starkey,Fleet Public Affairs Center Atlantic NORFOLK, Va., April 3, 2006 — U.S. Navy sailors from Amphibious Construction Battalion 2, Kuwait Detachment 1, returned to Naval Amphibious Base Little Creek, Va.,...

PORT HUENEME, Calif. (NNS) -- For the first time in the global war on terrorism, a reserve Seabee regiment is scheduled to relieve its active-duty counterpart in Iraq about mid-spring. Following the completion of Seabee readiness training at Naval Base Ventura County, the 9th Naval Construction Regiment (NCR) is slated to take the job of providing construction engineering support to the 1st Marine Expeditionary Force, Forward (MEF) from the 30th NCR in Western Iraq. Cmdr. Mark Bellis, operations officer for the 9th NCR, said the reserve regiment is preparing to manage joint coalition construction assets over an area about the...

Part Two 'The Straight Scoop' A Seabee's Firsthand Account of Life in Al Kut, Iraq Senior Chief Art Messer, a Navy Seabee serving with 22 Naval Construction Regiment (Forward) Task Force Charlie in southern Iraq, shared his perspective on post-war life in Iraq in a series of letters he sent this spring to American Legion Post 45. With Messer’s permission, DefendAmerica now shares his views with you. Dear American Legion.Things as usual are going very well. Of course we have the now and again problems but they are subsiding. We have been in Al Kut on the Tigris River...

Seabee Ingenuity Creates New OIF Vehicle ArmorStory Number: NNS040504-08Release Date: 5/4/2004 7:16:00 PMBy Chief Journalist Siegfried Bruner, 1st Marine Expeditionary Force Engineer Group Public AffairsCAMP MOREELL, Kuwait (NNS) -- Seabees from Naval Mobile Construction Battalion (NMCB) 74 used ingenuity and initiative to fabricate vehicle protection for convoys heading into harm’s way during Operation Iraqi Freedom in April. Steelworker 1st Class (SCW) Jeffrey Ballas and a crew of eight other steelworkers from NMCB 74 developed an enterprising armor concept and presented the cardboard templates to the 1st Marine Expeditionary Force Engineer Group (MEG) for review. Once the brainstorm was approved,...

Sen Hillary Clinton visits the front line, as seen here talking to a Seabee.

NORFOLK, Va. (NNS) -- The U.S. Navy Seabees are currently deploying additional personnel to the Gulf Coast to help with Hurricane Katrina recovery operations. Two active-duty Seabee battalions from Port Hueneme, Calif., Construction Battalion Maintenance Unit (CBMU) detachments from both coasts, and Reserve Seabee volunteers from various areas will join those already in Gulfport, Miss., for a total Seabee force of up to 3,000. As currently envisioned, their initial mission will be to clear roads so that civil organizations can reach hurricane victims and to set up logistics centers to distribute food and water as well as to provide emergency...

I just got this, this morning. Thought some of you might be interested.

July 21, 2004, 8:36 a.m.Hey, Sailors! A fuller look at the servicemen in Iraq. By W. Thomas Smith Jr. Stories from the front are often misreported: Not intentionally, but combat correspondents often apply the title "soldier" or even "Marine" loosely to those engaged in the fighting on the ground in both Iraq and Afghanistan. In fact, many of the combatants on the ground are neither soldiers nor Marines, but sailors who have been directly involved in some of the most bitter ground combat in the ongoing war on terror. For instance, when elements of the 4th Marine Regiment were ambushed...

Part Three 'The Straight Scoop' A Seabee's Firsthand Account of Life in Al Kut, Iraq Senior Chief Art Messer, a Navy Seabee serving with 22 Naval Construction Regiment (Forward) Task Force Charlie in southern Iraq, shared his perspective on post-war life in Iraq in a series of letters he sent this spring to American Legion Post 45. With Messer’s permission, DefendAmerica now shares his letters with you. Dear Post 45,I have more information on the British cemetery we cleaned up in Al Kut. We had a ceremony today to mark the end of the cleanup and honor the dead....