Brought a rapid demobilization of our armed forces, including the seabees. There were a mere 3,000 down from 125,000 at the height of the war. What happens to these guys . Seabees were originally a temporary organization, but then very quickly they realized, you know what, these guys did a really good job for us and maybe we should keep them around. And so 1947 they became a perfect part of the navy. 25 june 1950, over 100,000 communist north korean troops storm across the 38th parallel, invading the democratic south. On september 15, 1950, seabees of amphibious construction battalion 1st brought the First Marine Division ashore at inchon. Battling treacherous 30foot tides, they built a pontoon causeway and helped land 30,000 of general mcarthurs marines and soldiers. A curious incident occurred. Great seabee train robbery is a piece of seabee lore. As they were landing in inchon, the equipment was backing up because there was nowhere to take it. So the seabees went across enemy lines and went to a beer factory. They found a plethora of leftover trains. They ended up taking the trains, a few packs of beer, and crossed back over to the harbor so they could bring all the supplies. One of the most incredible seabee feats took part in wodu, a key supply place for north korea. Navy task force 77th pounded the enemy stronghold almost daily. When we were launching combat flights from the aircraft carriers offshore, airplanes would be damaged and couldnt make it back to ship. General sturman grew up in new mexico, and joined amphibious construction battalion 1st. Someone came up with the idea, lets build a Landing Strip on udo, big enough than an aircraft carrier. The ncb 1 says, we can do it. Sturman, make it happen. I load up with pontoons on the side and Construction Equipment and we moved up to juanson. We offloaded all the equipment and seabees and the job started laying a marsten matting steel planking runway from shore to shore across the rice paddy island. Seabees were under a fire a lot in korea. Yes, specifically there. They could easily throw down on the runway where they were building it. So, the guys would just hold off and run out and fill the hole when the shell had landed. And just about the time it was finished, we saved, i think it was, seven navy fighter planes that came in on their way back, that were out of fuel and landed and saved all of them. As war rages in korea, five seabee battalions were away in the philippines. Their project, a major air and sea facility at cubi point on subic bay. They spent five years crossing jungle and mountains into a first modern base for the free. They could not find a civilian contractor at that time that would even bid on the job out there. Never one to shy away from a tough job, 21yearold oklahoma farm boy Johnny Mccully signed up for the monumental challenge. There was basically Three Mountains taken out like this. And the bay was in between here. And they basically lopped off the entire top of a mountain. They used that material to backfill swamp land and they built one of the largest bases in the world. There was more moved in constructing that base than what was moved in construction of the panama canal. Another role of the seabees in the 1950s era was being involved in operation deep freeze. The u. S. Started looking at antarctica and see if it was possible to do any kind of construction there. This is, obviously, part of the entire cold war movement and trying to spread as far possible. Like always, the seabees said, of course we can do. That runway was actually built. They would have to go through with specialized dozers and create entire you know, 6,000foot long runways on ice. Outnumbered 100 to 1, 9 seabees endured an assault in the jungles of vietnam. You make me wear my bike helmet. You taught me to never run with scissors. You tell me to stay away from drugs. To always buckle my seat belt. And to follow the swimming rules. Youre always looking out for me, and trying to keep me safe. So why do you keep a loaded gun in your drawer . Here in the garage . Closet . Shoebox under the bed . Where anyone can get to it . How safe is that . [repeated] you ask them to follow some safety rules. Now theyre asking you. In fact, theyre counting on you. Never let your gun get into the wrong hands. If you own a firearm. And are not using it. Please be responsible and be sure that its stored in a safe place. Remember, always. Lock it up. For more information on firearm storage safety visit ncpc. Org during the postkorea previetnam era, the need for a new kind of seabee developed. A peopletopeople seabee. This new breed of bees served as a member of a seabee team. 13 dedicated men helping people to help themselves. Throughout the 1960s there was an entire push from the top down to use the u. S. Military as an agent of civic action in terms of cold war, its a way of helping people who might be more apt to go toward the communist side, instead, go for americans. Make sure its clean before you put any grease on it. You basically just went out and built rooms in the countryside and helped the natives out. Master chief equipmentman john mccully had been a seabee for 18 years when he deployed to vietnam in 1965 as part of team 1104. We had lieutenant j. J. Peterlin, officer in charge. Johnny mccully was assistant officer in charge. Equipment operator, mechanic and builter, you had two of each of those. And then engineering, your electrician, your steel worker and your corpsman. 27yearold Frank Peterlin from illinois was in charge of team 1104. They were tasked with building a camp for Armys Special forces in dong xoai, south of the vietnamese capital, saigon. Special force ateam is all thats there. Mutual respect between the two groups. William stokes from lynchburg, virginia, led the special forces ateam with the 20 americans at the camp were some 250 local militiamen. Having the seabees there was a bonus for us because it gave us more americans to help supervise defense. We are there because the nation has asked us for help against the communist aggression. Ten years ago our president pledged our help. Three president s have supported that pledge. And we will not break it now. At the time seabee team 1104 landed in dong xoai 1965, there were some 10,000 american boots on the ground in vietnam. Among them, 26yearold construction mechanic 3rd class marvin shields. Marvin was a lumberjack kind of from the northwest. Very gentle guy. He was the type of person that in his spare time, he made chopping blocks for all the vietnamese women that needed that type of thing. The seabees hit the ground running, hauling gravel and building the camps defensive perimeter. Just five days after they arrived, all hell broke loose. The attack started 15 minutes before midnight on the night of 9th of june. Mortar rounds and rifles and knocked out the communication right away. Outnumbered 100 to 1, the 20 americans, including the 9 seabees, were surrounded by an estimated 2,000 determined viet cong. They were coming in continually for the next couple of hours. Then it quieted down about 10, 15 minutes, and then it started again. Thats when we were really hurting because we didnt have the ammo. We didnt have we couldnt even find rocks to throw back. That type of machine gun, right shoulder. I had a shot at right leg, something through my left arm and a broken left ankle. I couldnt walk. Marvin shield was along that northwest berm, that was basically his firing position. Had some marvin was running around, making sure everybody was ammo. It was about to get worse. At 0230, three hours after the first shots were fired, rolling waves of enemy troops armed with automatic weapons and flamethrowers reached the perimeter and overran the camp. I just got knocked on my on my face with an explosion. The real damage was a wound in my foot. It hit a nerve. Every time i would try to get up, i would fall on my face again. Marvin shields put me on his back in a firemans carry and together with Sergeant James taylor, carried me to the district compound. I owe my life to marvin shields and jim taylor, who carried me to safety. Peterlin and mccully were now behind enemy lines, surrounded and cut off from the rest of the americans. Meanwhile, a few hundred yards away, stokes and shields were pinned down by machine gunfire, coming from this nearby schools. One of stokes men decided to take it out. Lieutenant williams picked up a 3. 5 Rocket Launcher we had available. Asked for someone to load for him. Of course, shields, even though he was seriously wounded, volunteered right away. He had the ammo before he could even finish asking for it. And they shot off the machine gun. They started pulling back. And another machine gun that they had mounted, shields was hit in the leg, basically tore his leg off. With four dead and marvin shields hanging on for dear life, the welcome sound of helicopter blades grew close. Shields was still alive, but barely. Thats when he told him, move me gently, boys. Unfortunately, you know, marv died on helicopter. Not even a second after it took off. Seabees peterlin and mccully were left for dead as the choppers took off with shields and 13 others. Separated with no communications, little did they know, they were the only two americans left on the ground. Hit the entire campsite. Dropping bombs and straight bombs, big time. That bombing would consume you the next 12 days and nights. And i was in fighting hole at the vc all around me. The only time i even dared to leave that area was the following morning, when helicopters flew over and there was no return fire. And just as i came out of the woods, a chopper was taking off the ground and he saw me coming out and he set me down. When i pulled myself up on the chopper, there laid frank in there, second row of stretchers. I was happy to see him. 1104 suffered 12 wounded, 100 casualties. Frank peterlin and Johnny Mccully both received the silver star and marvin shields was posthumously awarded the congressional medal of honor, the only seabee to receive one. X÷x÷ a one hour ago, the body of a Young American hero navy diver robert dean was returned to his native soil in a coffin. 14 june 1985, athens, greece, the world watched in horror as islamic militants hijacked twa flight 347. He had two cans of mace. He sprayed all the passengers with mace and started flying the aircraft. 23yearold see bae driver robert stood up to defend a fellow passenger. The terrorist tortured him and then shot him at pointblank range and tossed his body from the aircraft. He was really the first seabees First Casualty on the global war of terrorism. I have directed the secretary of transportation in cooperation with the secretary of state to explore immediately an expansion of our armed Sky Marshal Program for better protection of passengers. Two months after this order, congress created the current faacontrolled federal air marshal program. Dont move which added arm the marshals to International Flights operated by u. S. Carriers. 16 years later it was toughened again, following the terrorist attack of september 11, 2001. All Saddam Hussein has to do is get out of kuwait and this war is over. After Saddam Hussein invaded kuwait, seabees were called on to build some 200 miles of highway for general Norman Schwarzkopfs counteroffensive. When did the women start coming into the seabees . Since 1972. However, they didnt begin serving in combat roles until 1994. And actually, recently, the seabees have lost their first woman killed in action, a petty officer regina clark in iraq. I have about 16,000 seabees. 40 active force and 60 reserve force. How many of your seabees are deployed overseas . About 5200. Charles phillips from charleston, north carolina, is at the helm of all current seabee battalions. A hefty number of my troops are suspecting the special Operations Forces both in afghanistan and iraq. Weve been over there and its 120 degrees. Theyre in full combat gear, taking indirect fire on a day in, day out basis with a smile on their face, nose to the grindstone, making it happen. Whats done today to recruit a youngster that who has those kinds of skills that the seabees need . When the seabees were started, they brought folks in that built the National Transportation system or the skyscrapers in new york. Its different today. Today we train our troops. This is where thousands of todays seabees hone their skills, ft. Hunt eer liggett, califora, south of san francisco. A trainingap we have listed as provinces. Thats pretty much what were focusing on over in iraq. A 12year veteran of the seabees and current war on terrorer, 33yearold chief builder is with the 31st Seabee Readiness Group in charge of all the training. Whats your mission here . Construct bridge over a creek. Okay. Is there a defensive perimeter here, a weapon of 50 cal up there, m2, covering the avenue approachment to their camp, ensuring nobody comes through thats not supposed to. They can probably construct this bridge in about eight hours. One, two, three. Getting the marine corps rolling forward and low gist tal supplies to support the marine corps as they advance. Were in mach level 1, as we get more intel about threats and then we would go up and do that. Go ahead, go ahead in all of our training we try to achieve the troops going from zero without their chemical suit on to 4 in less than two minutes. About 10 30, 12 00 this morning when we come out, now its about 1530 and its almost complete. Good time for that bridge. They got something to go home and be proud of. This is good work. War stories vietnam veteran Johnny Mccully came to watch the new generation of seabees. You know who marvin shields, right . Yes, sir. He was the chief in charge of marvin shields where he lost his life. Put a full load on them and you can still cruise 55, 60. How many people, two squads . We usually haul about 24 bodies. I think its great. They do a good job. The opf on top of the hill behind us has a notified react team that they see something suspicious out there. [ gunfire ] during this exercise, some seabees keep out the insurgents while others continue to build under fire. They wanted to attack the unit, with the objective of dismantling or damaging the bridge the seabees were doing down here. Hey, we need more rounds down here we also went through survival training. That type of training saved us. And anyone on my team, i think, would tell you the same thing, because it showed you that your human endurance was much greater than you yourself actually believed it was. More on the navys construction battalion. Thats next on war stories. Admiral earnest king, chief of Naval Operations in world war ii said seabee inagain youty and fortitude was legendary. From the jungles of guadalcanal and mountains of afghanistan, theyve upheld their proud tradition as fighters that build and builders who fight. With the famous cando spirit, no other branch our navy has served in more theaters of war or tackled more Challenging Missions than the navy seabees. Theirs is a war story that deserves to be told. Im oliver north. Good night. Jooishgsz. Tonight on war stories from stallen grad to berlin. The most intense fighting man kind has ever seen. Russians trying to withstand stallen and fighting hitler. Americans come to help with planes, trucks and spam and even join the front lines. All hell breaking loose. And theyre chattering in russian. Old russian boys said the untold story of the eastern front. Thats just ahead on war stories. Good evening. Im oliver north. Welcome to war sto