Communiqué
Recruited from construction trades to join special battalions, “THE SEABEES ON IWO JIMA” – May 25
< < Back toTHE SEABEES ON IWO JIMA
Thursday, May 25 at 9 pm
Narrated by CBS Sports’ Jim Nantz, THE SEABEES ON IWO JIMA focuses on the story of the United States Naval Construction Battalions of World War II. The “Seabees,” some of whom were in their 60s, were recruited from the construction trades to join special battalions that built the airfields and bases needed to stage a successful war effort.
Best known for their work building runways out of jungles on the coral islands in the Pacific, these construction battalions helped the United States take the war to Japan’s doorstep in 1945.
The “Seabees” not only built the infrastructure for the Allied war effort in Europe and the Pacific, but also often had to put down their shovels to pick up rifles and fend off enemy attacks.
Their most critical and violent fight was on Iwo Jima, where they went ashore in the first wave with the Marines. It’s on Iwo Jima where their “We Build, We Fight” motto was most famously put to the test.