Naval Mobile Construction Battalion 5


Naval Construction Battalion 5 was commissioned on May 25, 1942 at Camp Allen Va. The battalion went to Port Hueneme and shipped out for the first of two deployments in the Pacific. When the war ended CB 5 was decommissioned in the Philippines. On July 10, 1951 the Battalion was re-commissioned as a MCB and remains an active unit today.
docked adjacent the field.
Communication System Antenna on Monkey Mountain during the 1966-67 Vietnam deployment.

History

WWII

With pressing construction needs in the Pacific, Naval Construction Battalion 5 was "rushed" in its formation. With its ranks full of qualified tradesmen the battalion was quickly given its military indoctrination and processed in less than a month for transit to Port Hueneme, Ca. From there the battalion boarded ship and was the first CB into the Hawaiian Territory. "NAS Honolulu" was actually Naval Air Station Barbers Point and it was on CB 5's work list. Also on the list was Midway Atoll. Sand Island had another airfield in need of attention. Rounding out the first deployment were projects on French Frigate Shoals, Canton Island, Johnston Atoll and Palmyra atoll. At French Frigate shoals an island had to be made for the base and airfield to be constructed upon. CB 5 was rotated CONUS on 19 March 1944, arriving Camp Parks, Ca on March 24. Five's Midway replacement was the 50th CB who arrived on April 4. From Camp Parks the battalion was transferred to Port Hueneme. While there the battalion was given its next assignment and attached to Cub-16. That was canceled with the battalion attached to the 7th Fleet and General MacArthur. On January 10, 1945 CB 5 departed Port Hueneme for Leyte where it arrived February 15. Nine days later the battalion would land at it new job site on Calicoan, Samar. The main projects would be an ABCD, ACEPD, NSD and roads and water supply for all of it. At Calicoan CB 5 had divers doing shallow water work for a seaplane ramp. There were several detachments one to Naval Advance Base Unit 10 and NABU-12. A Company went to Balikpapan, Borneo to help the Aussies along with Dets from the 111th and 113th CBs. On 13 August the battalion learned it was assigned Operation Olympic the first element of Operation Downfall. Downfall was the plan for the invasion of Japan. Set to begin in November 1945, Operation Olympic was intended to capture the southern third of the Japanese island of Kyūshū. This was to be followed by Operation Coronet, the second element, which was planned to land near Tokyo. VJ-day terminated these Operations leaving NCB 5 in the Philippines. CB 5 was then scheduled to move to China but received notice on October 15, 1945 that the battlion's participation was canceled. Naval Construction Battalion 5 was deactivated on December 3.

Korea

On July 15, 1951, CB 5 was reactivated as a MCB. The Korean War had begun and the Navy realized it had a need for an air station in the region. Cubi Point in the Philippines was selected, and civilian contractors were initially approached for the project. After seeing the Zambales Mountains and the surrounding jungle, they claimed it could not be done. The Navy then turned to the Seabees and was told no problem, Can do. The first Bees to arrive were surveyors of CBD 1802. MCB 3 arrived on 2 October 1951 to get the project going and was joined by MCB 5 in November. Over the next five years, MCBs 2, 7, 9, 11 and CBD 1803 also contributed to the effort. They leveled a mountain to make way for a nearly runway. NAS Cubi Point turned out to be one of the largest earth-moving projects in the world, equivalent to the construction of the Panama Canal. Seabees there moved of dry fill plus another 15 million that was hydraulic fill. The $100 million facility was commissioned on 25 July 1956, and comprised an air station with an adjacent pier capable of docking the Navy's largest carriers. Adjusted-for-inflation, today's price-tag for what the Seabees built at Cubi Point would be $906,871,323.53.
The Philippine government did not renew the base's lease with the United States in 1992. The airfield now Subic Bay International Airport.

Vietnam

From 1965 to 1972, NMCB FIVE made six consecutive deployments to Vietnam.
In 1972, the battalion moved all its troops and equipment to Thailand. The project there was the construction of Nam Phong Air Base.

Seabee Teams

NMCB 5 history
built by NMCB 5 CCAD in Timor-Liste 2015

Unit Awards

Campaign and service awards
Vietnam Service
MCB 5 saw service in 13 of the award periods.