Island MCB 7 At Large 

On 11 October 1963 MCB 7 Seabees departed Quonset Point NAS, Rhode Island, on a flight one-third of the way around the world to North Africa and the U S Naval Communications Station at Asmara, Ethiopia. Here Detachment QUEBEC undertook “Project Patsy”, the construction of a communications site at Gura, Ethiopia, about 25 miles away. 

Comprised of 43 men of MCB 7 and one officer and six men of MCB 6, Detachment QUEBEC became the first group of Seabees to set foot on Ethiopian soil. The job was to slightly alter the silhouette of Ethiopia’s mountains by erection of 22 antenna towers ranging in height from 20 to 130 feet. Eight thousand feet above sea level they found themselves knee-deep in mud and up to their necks in trouble. The rolling stock was not equipped to run constantly at high altitudes, nor was it equipped with pontoons for navigating in the thick ooze. In contrast to the mud problem, several of the tower footings had to be dug in hard, coral like rock, and hardly penetrable with jackhammers. In spite of these difficulties they completed the towers on schedule. They also poured 24 piers for four electronic gear vans, cut a road from the main highway to the communications site, and laid out a parking area. Then, in early December, they headed home to spend Christmas with families before joining the Battalion in Puerto Rico. 

The main body of the Battalion arrived at Roosevelt Roads, Puerto Rico, on 19 November Here they resurfaced roads, installed 4160 feeder cables, did rehabilitation work on a water filtration plant, raised 600 feet of railroad, (yes railroad), and built a new addition to the public works building. There were also the pier jobs for which they had to send a number of the men to special diver’s school to learn the unusual skills needed for the task. The pier jobs were among the first projects undertaken and the last to be completed. All of this was in addition to routine camp maintenance, military training, and technical training. They were all big jobs and they did them the best they knew how while the big men of the Navy looked on and smiled. 

The Seabees also licked the pants off the softball and basketball teams, lengthened the chow line, filled the Club El Scorpion, boosted the economy of the nearby town of Ceiba, left many footprints in the sands of Luquillo Beach, and generally let Puerto Rico know that they were around. 

Alpha Company did the roadwork. They scarified, bladed, and compacted 4.58 miles of road, and hauled 5,000 yards of select fill material and 2,000 yards of stabilized base aggregate to increase the road elevation along a 2,200-foot distance. Then they laid 2 inches of asphalt on the roads and resurfaced the parking lot inside gate one. 

Bravo Company installed the 4160 volt feeder system line to the dry-dock. The CEs repaired two high voltage feeders from the power plant to the dry-dock substation. That included removing existing conductor cables and cleaning out the ducts, then pulling in new cable and making 23 splices. The length of the cable was 8,200 feet. The UTs repaired the filtration plant by replacing ten gate valves and five check valves in the pump room and installing a six inch gate valve and 60 linear feet of drain pipe to the inlet channel of the sedimentation basin. Then they installed one 16-inch check valve in the main water distribution line. The SWs built a heavy equipment shop for the Naval Station Public Works Department. They erected a 24 x 96 lean-to type structure as an addition to building no. 31.

Charlie Company was involved in three projects relating to pier repair, these included replacing pilings of nearly every type, driven piles, socket piles, and suspended piling. The major problem encountered was damage to the fender systems during the construction work. Civilian barges and Navy vessels were continually using the facilities, making it necessary for them to repair already accomplished work before the finishing touches could be made. 

And for the first time in several years the Seabees undertook the rebuilding of a railroad. They ripped up and re-laid 600 feet of track eight inches above the original bed. 

The Vieques Detachment was perhaps the most widely publicized group during the Puerto Rico deployment. MCB 7 Seabees moved into an almost forgotten Naval installation, overgrown with weeds, thorny vines, bushes and strange plants. Five thousand cattle inhabited the deserted naval ammunition depot, along with a myriad of crawling insects, animals, and lizards. Left behind by WWII sailors and marines were a large number of magazines, a warehouse, and a raised concrete slab, which a wartime unit had built. Delta Company had to erect 28 large tents for living and operations. They cleared the area, and immediately began the endless fight to keep the Brahma cattle at bay. They stretched the tents over strongback frames built on the site and cooks began “batching” over six field stoves. Dishes were washed in GI cans filled with soap and water heated by kerosene immersion heaters. 

One of the larger jobs on Vieques was the operation of a support activity, a quarry and rock crusher which ultimately turned out 33,000 tons of crushed rock. Seven and a half miles of magazine road had to be cleared, graded and surfaced with crushed rock then compacted. Duties included the reactivation of 53 magazines, repairing or rebuilding the steel doors. The largest Vieques project was the restoring of an inert warehouse, building no. 401. First a new roof went on, then electrical wiring was replaced and improved and new plumbing was roughed in. Larger window openings were blasted in and the Seabees smoothed them up and installed aluminum jalousies and screens. Partitions were built and the interior was painted. The old structure was almost entirely rebuilt and made into an 80 man barracks with cooking facilities, heads, a recreation room, and berthing area. 

The St “T” phase of Caribbean deployment began in February 1964. The difficult project here was the building of a small boat-launching ramp, which required a large earthen cofferdam to allow forming eight feet below Normal Ocean level. In addition, they had to scarify, grade and compact 7,000 yards of existing roadway and parking area. They then coated this surface with crushed rock and bituminous surface. On pier Alpha they installed 183 lengths of conduit, installed three adjustable poles, 12 floodlights, a panel board, and eight waterproofed lighting receptacles. Repairs to the two barracks included: replacing all fresh and hot water lines in building no. 18; replacing all salt water lines with plastic lines, repair to the roof with a covering of glass cloth and cold process adhesive; repairs to 15 windows and six doors in building no. 10; electrical repairs to both buildings; a fire alarm system for building no. 18; and many miscellaneous repairs to both. They bladed, scarified, and compacted 4,000 linear feet of roadway, provided a six-inch select fill surface, and eight reinforced pipe culverts for the magazine area roads. 

On 21 April 1964 the Battalion returned to Davisville C.B.C., Rhode Island.
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