ive been looking around through the older and more current posts and have become terribly, TERRIBLY confused!

first of all, what is the "green machine?" thats being on active duty? that isnt the marine corps, is it? no. what is it?

second, in one of the earlier posts( http://forums.military.com/eve/forums/a/tpc/f/3930048920001/m/5630027541001 ), someone mentioned transferring over to shore duty. from what i understand from the responses i skimmed through, this person wanted to change rates OUT of the CBs... SOOO "shore duty" means NOTHING to seabees? please tell me that's true! it means nothing! homeport, overseas, all the station vocab i need to know? YES!

third, BATTLESHIPS! WHAT!?
this kind of goes along with the shore duty thing.
( http://forums.military.com/eve/forums/a/tpc/f/3930048920001/m/1770023641001 )
response 1-- "you normally do not go through Seabee Combat training till you get to Battalion, Yes BU is a Seabee Rating only, But as a BU you could be Stationed anywhere."
----------------------------------
response to response 1-- "Like on a Battleship... "

ookay... "like on a battleship"-- kidding, sarcasm, unreal, RIGHT!? likeliness of EVER being stationed on ANY sort of water vehicle is VERY, VERY, VEEEERY low??? not a chance?
good! just clearing that up!
but really, NOT A CHANCE, right?

wheeew! green machine? what is that? ship duty- we've established that there is none of that with the seabees or at least with builders. oooookay.

thanks, guys, in advance.

and please, forgive my idiocy, i havent shipped out yet.................................... obvious, isnt it. ?

Jane-
While I'm not a Seabee and never have been one, I am aware that the utility uniforms worn by Seabees are green "jungle" camo pattern (excepting in the combat zone, where they wear desert cammies) so that's probably where the "green machine" comes from.

A future Seabee candidate needn't worry about being assigned to a battleship since the US Navy has no active battleships.

For everything else, let me gently suggest you spend 2-3 hours at www.seabee.navy.mil and read up on ACBs, NMCBs, UCTs, and NCRs. Focus particularly on the NMCBs and read through some of the battalion histories and mission statements. Then go over to About.com/Military and look up the listing of US Navy enlisted ratings to see what the group of Seabee ratings do. That will answer most, if not all, of your questions.

Don't be like a guy in my son's division at bootcamp, a recruit who, like my son, signed up for a Seabee rating and actually went to the same A School where they roomed together. In a bootcamp Q & A session, the kid raises his hand and asks what ports of call a CE would likely visit once he was permanently assigned to his ship. He had no idea it is entirely possible to serve a full career as a CE and never set foot aboard a ship. He was most surprised, however, to learn he'd be undergoing ground combat training and would likely soon deploy to Iraq with a NMCB. The kid actually got weeks into bootcamp and had no clue what he'd signed up for. His NMCB is, in fact, in Iraq as I type this.

HH

First off listen to HH suggestion and completely review the SEABEE site, great information.

The refference to the Green Machine is that SEABEES used to wear utility Greens the same uniforms as the vietnam era marines and other soldiers wore, they were considered non-combative uniforms...SEABEES started wearing BDU's in or around 1992.

The refference to staioned on a battleship was due to while the battleships were on active duty and had wood decks there were SEABEE builders stationed on them, no longer needed today.

That battleship deck thing is a new one on me, Mr Fubis, and a pretty cool story. Did the WWII-era carriers have Seabees aboard, too, as their decks were wood (I think)?

So, the Green in Green Machine was the all-green utilities, pre-BDU. More great info, and thanks.

Not that it's even remotely a regular thing, at least statistically given the overall number of present-day Seabees, but in the last year there has been a detachment from CBMU 202 aboard the hospital ship Comfort for 3-4 months on a Central and South American cruise, where they went ashore and did goodwill construction and repair jobs, while the docs, nurses, and HMs did their free clinic gigs onboard and ashore. Lastly, I know of a detachment which accompanied some sort of early warning gear to some up Alaska way and provided services to bring the installation site up to spec so the gear could be installed, and that was a "boat riding" gig.

HH

I've always thought the Green Machine, specifically, were any of the Seabee Battalions.

R/

Lady CB-
That's my assumption, too. I suppose all Seabee battalions wore the same all green utilities, so any/all were referred to as the Green Machine.

HH

The Green Machine was a reference to ALL CB Battalions...

We wore those aweful utility greens, when my chance came to wear the BDU I jumped with both feet there was never any reluctance on my part...so consider yourselves lucky today!

The best part of the old unforms was the pride in which each CB starched his soft cover, although when it rained or sweat started to bead...well you get the idea!

HH to my knowledge SEABEEs were not stationed aboarded ships during WWII (woodworker or pattern makers rates) performed those tasks.

During my first enlistment and while I was detached to NS Baharain I had the oppurtunity to tour the USS NJ and that is were I ran into a BU1 and BU3 who were stationed aboard ship as crew. The down side was they dressed like ships crew and I would have never identified them, but they noticed me and several of my my crew. there primary responsiblity was any thing wood, they maintained or repaired...

Then I guess we are correct, Hoy Hoy!

Jumbu, I would be happy to answer your question about shore duty, but don't entirely understand it (even after reading the link).

Shore duty to a Seabee means a non-deployable unit. After leaving NMCB-40, I headed to the 31st SRG, where I did 3 years of shore duty.

So yes, shore duty does mean something to Seabees. And boy, does it!

R/

THREE YEARS of shore duty? no deployments! wooooow. srg?
lemme look that up. .. . .. seabee readiness group? .. administrative tasks?
how did you like it? did ya miss the physical assignments, the deployments?

If you want to be a SEABEE, you should worry less about shore duty and concern yourself with finding a battalion. The GREEN MACHINE is were CB's go to learn there rate! if you want shore duty become a corpsman or dental assistant... Battalions is were SEABEEs belong and is were you will learn what it means to bee a true SEABEE...

After Battalion then worry about shore duty not the other way around...CAN DO!

quote:

Originally posted by jumbuliijane:
THREE YEARS of shore duty? no deployments! wooooow. srg?
lemme look that up. .. . .. seabee readiness group? .. administrative tasks?
how did you like it? did ya miss the physical assignments, the deployments?

Yes -- after 5 years of "green machine", it was a nice break.

SRG = Seabee Readiness Group. It is a training command responsible for the military component of training of Seabees, ie basic combat, weapons, etc.

I was an instructor, and I loved it.

We could still go to the field, which was nice. I suppose I did miss deployment... a little... very little...

LadyCB, Drop me a line, Have a Question. Seabee5@att.net

Done, Bill.

Jumbu: cbread68 is right. As a Seabee, you will look at a career consisting mostly of deployments. The Green Machine is where it's at. It's the tip of the spear where Seabees are concerned. It's where you develop your rating and military ('combat') skills.

R/

yeah, the green machine is what im looking forward to the most. i dont want anything to do with shore duty... .. or ship duty. i can hardly wait!

Jumb,
Based on my interpertaion of your thread I think I thought the same as CB that you were more interested in shore duty then becoming a real SEABEE...Thanks for taking the time to clear things up...Can Do!

LadyCB,

Can you e-mail me at cploense@att.net?

I believe you were an instructor for my land-nav class when my battalion was deployed in 06.

regards,
EO2(SCW)Ploense

Bill & Comm,

you guys are asking for trouble putting your emails on here...I hope the bots don't get you!!!

quote:

Originally posted by MrFubis:
Bill & Comm,

you guys are asking for trouble putting your emails on here...I hope the bots don't get you!!!

Blocked account, By invite only.

Sorry to be showing up so late, but you've handled things very well. I've been busy with some personal stuff, lately.

First, if you want to provide your e-mail address go to the persons "Send a Message" on their bio, nobody else can get ahold of it then.

Second, everything seems to have been covered nicely. But, SHORE DUTY is almost non-existant anywhere in the Navy for "first-timers, newBees, etc. You have to reup to hit the good times.

After 15 months in 'Nam I was offered nice stations like Adak, Alaska; Deigo Garcia and other voids Seabees disappear into. I requested my home town. LOL. Eventually, I was sent to Little Creek, VA to ACB 2, where I had NOTHING to do and finally returned to Davisville, RI where I became a Military Training Instructor to finish my time.

Seabees are ONLY authorized to do training type work in the US. The Sandcrabs (civilians) got mad during Vietnam because Seabees where getting 65 cents an hour (24/7) and doing the work, so the government blocked us from anything other than training purposes.

Stateside work for Seabees involves a desk or podium.

quote:

Originally posted by Bob058:


Seabees are ONLY authorized to do training type work in the US. The Sandcrabs (civilians) got mad during Vietnam because Seabees where getting 65 cents an hour (24/7) and doing the work, so the government blocked us from anything other than training purposes.

Stateside work for Seabees involves a desk or podium.

There was a shift in this policy in the mid-1990's and NMCB's were permitted to send dets to different US sites to do some work on US bases. We had dets in San Diego, Lemoore, Fallon, Camp David and other US locations while the Main Body and other dets deployed overseas. In San Diego, we turned an old warehouse into a gym, refurbished some ancient barracks, and completed miscellaneous other projects.

With the current OPTEMPO in Iraq, Afghanistan, and other locations, I'm not sure if the battalions, er green machines, are still doing stateside dets or not.

IS1(SCW)