My Dad in the SeaBees at Okinawa

130th Naval Construction Battalion, Company B

Camp Peary, Williamsburg, VA-1943 Camp Thomas Naval Advance Base Depot, Davisville, R.I.,1943 Oahu, Hawaii-1944 Okinawa-1945

130th BATTALION: Commissioned at Peary, the 130th NCB received further training at Endicott, shipping from adjacent Camp Thomas for Pearl Harbor in February 1944. At the end of that year, the Battalion was preparing to move forward, and two survey detachments left Hawaii. On Jan. 18, 1945, the outfit embarked and arrived in Saipan early the following month to join the Second Marine Division for the Okinawa invasion. Detachments were assigned as malaria control teams and to strengthen a Marine Pioneer (engineering) Battalion. The first echelon reached Okinawa April 16, and the remaining personnel in two groups followed in May and June. The 130th was in Okinawa at war's end.

April 1, 1945 beside being April Fools Day was also Easter Sunday. It was also D-Day morning. The log read:" ARRIVED OKINAWA AT 0138, AND SOUNDED GENERAL QUARTERS FOR ENEMY TORPEDO BOMBER WHICH FLEW OVER CONVOY AT 100 FEET. CONVOY OPENED FIRE-PLANE DESTROYED. AT 0500 MANEUVERED INTO BATTLE POSITION AND LAUNCHED ALL L.V.T' S LOADED WITH 400 ASSAULT WAVE MARINES. SMALL BOATS 1 AND 2 CARRYING FLAG OFFICERS GUIDED THE L.V.T. INTO THE BEACH. AT 0830 THE FIRST WAVE LANDED ON GREEN BEACH, OKINAWA."

130th CB's, Company B, Platoon 5