81 years ago today Rear Admiral Ben Moreell, Chief of the Bureau of Yards and Docks, was granted the authority to activate, organize, and man a special organization whose mission would be to support the Navy and Marine Corps in remote locations, and defend themselves if attacked – Naval Construction Battalions, better known as ‘Seabees’ – with the motto Construmus Batumius – ‘We build, We fight.’

We also celebrate the 156th birthday of the Civil Engineering Corps (2 Mar 1867), and the soon 181th year of NAVFAC (31 August 1842). To be true, the history of Civil Engineers in the Navy transcend well beyond the years I just mentioned – back to the very birth of our Navy, when Benjamin Henry Latrobe was hired by President Thomas Jefferson to engineer the first dry docks to keep the Navy’s first twelve frigates seaworthy – but in respect to keeping this party moving, I’ll spare you my attempt, as a submariner, to impress upon this prestigious group the history and heritage of your own community.

-ADM Daryl Claude

4.85-miles run from WNY to Seabee Memorial.

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