For a military history buff and Navy officer really into civil engineering, Cmdr. Tim Wallace says these are exciting days to be a Seabee — one of the team of sailors who build the things onshore that ...

AL ASAD, Iraq — The old drilling rig shuddered as it slowly ground into the desert floor, spitting pale gray, watery mud into a trough. Petty Officer 2nd Class Michael Petit dug his hands into the ...

The desert environment is excruciating. It is very hot during the day and freezing cold at night. As the Seabees endured working in the harsh conditions, a sand storm came to camp. "The soil out there ...

In one picture, a Seabee in the foreground grins as others stand with hands on their hips expectantly, waiting to be set in motion with the sea on either side of them. In another, a group of locals ...

AL-ASAD, Iraq — In the faces of the boys at the chow hall, Teresa Dougherty sees her own son. “And I think, ‘Please don’t let him join the Marines,’” she said. “I wouldn’t want him here. “I look at it ...

Don Carragher, 90, of St. Augustine, was just 17 years old when he went off to join the U.S. Navy in World War II. The kid from Newark, N.J., had already been through plenty before taking on the harsh ...

But when the Japanese attacked Pearl Harbor on Dec. 7 of that year and the United States was thrust into war, the call went out for skilled tradesmen to join the Navy, so as to become part of the sea ...

David H. Lyman, like a good number of potential draftees in the 1960s, joined the military reserves in a desire to stay out of Vietnam during the war. Ironically, he ended up in Vietnam as a member of ...

Before heading back to the Naval Base at Port Hueneme, Construction Mechanic 2nd Class Russell Alber visited the place where his U.S. Navy career began — the deck of the former USS LCI (L) 1091. Alber ...