SeaBees are the part of the Navy that rebuild. In 1940 civilians did the jobs of the SeaBees, but in 1942 they became a reality. They are the construction division that are sent to places around the world to build schools, roads, runways, wells and whatever else the Navy tells them to build.

Their symbol the Bee came about because they are workers, they build but they make sure that no harm comes to them either. That is why this Bee in the picture holds not only tools but a weapon. They can sting if they have to. They are highly trained men and woman for this field in the Navy and follow the marines ashore.

This SeaBee stands in front of the entrance of the base in Gulfport, Mississippi. I took this picture on my recent trip to visit my son.

This picture is right in front of the visitors center before you enter the base. I also took this one while there.

SeaBees are all over the world. Sometimes they build and sometimes they have to fight and protect themselves and others in battle. They are a very close knit group and I would be honored to have anyone of them by my side or have my back.

Right now they are working on a project in Djibouti, Africa.  They are hard at work drilling wells and building schools. The work they are involved in is helping many.

They are also in Iraq, Afghanistan and are bringing relief equipment to Pakistan. They are all busy little Bees, working hard and sometimes sacrificing their own lives to bring a better world to others.

This picture I took of my sons hat. To me it symbolizes what he has become, all grown up and quite a young man. Yes I am a proud Mom of a US Navy SeaBee !

More articles I wrote:

• Visiting My SeaBee
• A Mother’s Love
• For Jodi
• Lindalulu

I used to live in both Oakland and San Francisco, California, at different times in my life. Traffic flow on all the streets in those cities is continuous and the freeway traffic is near horrible–more people travel on some of those freeways in an hour than travel in some states in a month!

Sunday, April 29, 07, a tanker truck had a horrible accident and caused the collapse of 2 freeways! That is horrible and a bloody inconvenience. However, the time to inconvenient the travelers need not be more than 1-2 DAYS! While this sounds laughable, I will bring my perspective to this and challenge ANYONE to disprove my hypothesis!

Those of you under age 50 will probably not have ever heard of the “Fighting Seabees” but they were our World War 11 road engineers! They build roads, bridges and airstrips and probably other things. Some they built while under fire from the Japanese army and other times, they were fortunate and could take their time only fighting bugs and the heat.

In some circumstances, they were able to build runways of plain, hardened dirt in 1 day. Their bridges took a few days to a week! They did not need, of course, stress tests, governmental oversight or other REASONABLE safety measures or monitors. That was then and today is today.

HOWEVER

If a California National Guard engineering unit was directed to go to this curve in the road, they could set up a temporary lift and metal road way in 24 hours!

Let me further explain!

We have all seen fork lifts. We have seen different pieces of machinery that lift things in the air and hold them in the air. SUPPORT vehicles and support TRESSES can be built in hours that can temporarily hold almost unlimited weight!

In this case, we “ONLY “ need a lifting system with a temporary TRESS backup, to hold 2 sections of freeway! So, in my scenario, my metal roadways with walls which can be built in a few hours, is carried by truck to each site. We have the lift system lift the first TEMPORARY roadway steel piece into the air, and it becomes a detour 50 feet from where the freeway is broken. OUR detour just goes around the breech. We wind up with 2 detours. Two support systems but only one needs to be held in the air as one freeway is at ground level.

While the lift machine is holding this detour part of road for elevated freeway piece #1, a tress is below it giving it backup strength. This can be built in hours and delivered in hours and the freeway can be back to use with a detour on both levels tomorrow!