Can anyone tell me what A School is located in Port Hueneme, Ca? My son enlisted this past Thursday and will be sent to Port Hueneme after Boot Camp in Great Lakes, Il. He scored highly on the ASVAB for Mechanics. Everything it seems I find on Port Hueneme is talking about SeaBees, so I am very confused. After A School would he stay in Port Hueneme or is he stationed somewhere else? Thanks

Mom-

The responses to your other post, on the Joining the Navy forum, indicate Aviation Mechanics have A School in Pensacola, FL. If there are A Schools for ratings (jobs) other than Seabee ratings (which include CM-Construction Mechanic) there at Port Hueneme, it's news to me.

Generally speaking, most of those bound for an A School for a Seabee rating will emerge with orders to one of the two Naval Mobile Construction Battalion homeports--Gulfport, MS and Port Hueneme, CA. Since the A Schools in both places train ratings used by both places, I would imagine going to A School at one has little or no bearing which base the A School graduate would be assigned to. In short, I doubt there is any way, at this point, to do anything other than guess where he'd be posted after A School.

Your other post has responses advising you to look at his contract. With him saying he's going to Port Hueneme after boot, it sure sounds like he's signed up for Seabee training. If that's not what he wanted or thinks he did, now is the time to find out. When he goes back to MEPS for the second time on the scheduled ship out date, he'll sign another contract, and that one will be legally binding. He has the opportunity to negotiate changes in the one he signed to enter DEP. Some consider it dishonorable to do so, but I'm personally of the opinion that 18 year-olds can be fairly easily swayed by recruiters and MEPS personnel, and leaving some leeway for subsequent redress of questions or concerns over the contract seems fair, at least to me.

Finally, do some reading here and elsewhere about the Seabees. Qualifying for Seabee training and duty isn't easy, and not everybody is allowed to do it. He may have just found out about the Seabees and decided becoming one is more what he's interested in than going to sea.

Check his contract out, do some reading, and get back in here and/or the Joining forum with questions or concerns.

HH

Thanks so much for your reply. I don't think he is all that jazzed about going out to sea, as you stated in your last paragraph, but he will if he has to. Do the seabees spend alot of time at sea? Or are they more land based? How about overseas? Does this group spend alot of time overseas in other countries?

SeaBees arn't based on ships but they and their equipment do have to get to where they are going somehow, so sometimes they are shipboard.

Most people don't realize that the SeaBees are where the Navy and Marines go constructing bases, airfields and anything needed to support the mission at hand. If it has to be built the SeaBee's are there.

I think it's a safe generalization that many Seabees serve their entire active-duty terms without setting foot on a ship. That said, within the Seabees are Naval Mobile Construction Battalions (NMCBs), Amphibious Construction Battalions (ACBs), Underwater Construction Teams (UCTs), and Construction Battalion Maintenance Units (CBMUs). The ACBs obviously do shipboard work since they're tasked with building operating facilities for moving equipment to shore from Amphib ships. Ditto the UCT guys. Presently there is a small detachment of CBMU-202 onboard the hospital ship Comfort, tasked with doing shore projects alongside the medical humanitarian missions Comfort is doing in Central and South America and the Carribean. So, one can never say never, but suffice it to say shipboard duty is on the rare side of things for Seabees.

In time of war, like now, the Seabees' #1 customer is the US Marine Corps. The Corps has very little in the way of civil engineering of its own, so virtually all of their facilities are built, maintained, repaired, and defended by Seabees. That, of course, means no matter how far out at the end of the food chain a Marine post is, there are Seabees right there or close by. For this reason, Seabees receive regular weapons and defensive combat training before joining their battalion and regular updates (Field Exercises, or FEX) while serving.

I've found it very informative to read through the pages at www.seabee.navy.mil. There is lots of information about the various Seabee units, their histories, their current projects, and their enlisted and officer leadership on that, the official website of the Seabees.

Your son is headed for a most professional and honorable part of the US Navy. Congratulations to him.

HH

Thanks so much for your response. And to you, HoyHoy....I will be printing what you last wrote and hanging it on my refrigerator! What you wrote about about him being headed for the most professional and honorable part of the US Navy, really makes me proud!! Now, how to I get over the whole being nervous thing??? ha-ha! California is soooooo far away from Ohio!

Well said Hoy Hoy. And NicksNavyMom, I would bet you will get over your nevousness after you hear from him the first time after he leaves.

Nick's Mom-
Just a small correction to avoid the appearance of my slighting non-Seabee Navy personnel:

I wrote that the Seabees are "A" most professional and honorable part of the US Navy". To say Seabees are "THE" most professional and honorable.......etc could be read as a slam on other perfectly professional and honorable Navy people, and I sure don't want to do that.

Congrats on you son's enlistment.

HH

HH...Us Seabees don't have a problem with that.

WE ARE THE BEST!!!!

Ain't nuttin' but Seabees 'round here.

Thank you so much Hoy

quote:

Ain't nuttin' but Seabees 'round here.

NicksMom,

Greetings and salutations from Naval Construction Battalion Center, Port Hueneme, California, home of the Pacific Fleet Seabees, the greatest organization within the entire United States Navy. If I didn't believe this, then I don't deserve to be here supporting my Wife who is most definitely a PacFlt Seabee.

Ask me this question when we arrive at her next duty station and I'll tell you THAT is the greatest organization within the entire United States Navy. It's known as pride in unit which is something your Son will display once he reaches his final duty station.

As usual, HH gave you great information that totally tells it like it is. Af for your Boy deploying, have no fears because everytime Wife went to Iraq she had Marine Infantry Battalions all around her or they where at least in her general vicinity. You see, it's one team out there and the Corps is tasked to provide cover for our Seabees because they assumed the general engineering mission within the Department of the Navy during the 92-95 military cutbacks when everyone lost 40% of their force structure straight across the board.

As a former Marine eighteen-nineteen year old brain for an M16 and current Seabee Husband, I can tell you first hand that our young Devil Dawgs don't leave Bees out there hanging. Once the call comes in the Corps comes running like the Cavalry charges on the old western plains and the young Devil Dawgs don't play. Forgive this Ma'am, but we smoked anything and everything if thats what it took to get our Bees and any other American out of a bad situation. We didn't like it but I won't apologize for it, I'll only ask forgiveness because we weren't very nice when it came to our people being in harm's way. Like I said, everybody goes home was and still is the Marine way.

As for the Seabee side of the house, people like my Wife take their Seabees health and welfare extremely seriously. Our Son is Fleet Air so like many we view your Boy as our own. He's not just some kid passing thru, he's someone trying to do something with his life and we're here to help him achieve his dreams. So rest assured your Son is very safe and in very capable hands no matter where he goes in the world.

He'll be graduating from boot camp in about a month and a half before coming here. What is his job (rate)? Let me know and I'll fill you in from there. Heck, my Wife's friends will most probably be his instructors.

Have a great Seabee day Ma'am. Semper Fi.

This message has been edited. Last edited by: Deanosaur,

Knock it off, guys...your starting to embarass us Seabees. But, I do have to agree with these guys.

I'm a 1967-68 Vietnam Seabee. Everything I did was with the Marines, boot camp and dress parades is the only time I wore the Navy (sailor suit) Uniform. When I arrived at Port Hueneme for A School (learning to operate Heavy (Construction) Equipment I was issued the same green utilities the Marines wore. We were sent to Camp LeJeune or Pendleton for Military Training and Marines usually guarded our bases. Seabees work for anybody who needs our services, but mostly it's the Marines. I became a Military Training Instructor after my 2 tours in Vietnam, we had our own private training base. The CO was a Marine 1st LT, XO was an Marine Top Sgt and the OPS Officer a Marine Staff Sgt. In 'Nam we had a pier where Navy Landing Craft (LST) would unload, we tried to go unboard and were refused because the 'fleet sailors' thought we were Marines.

The saying is, "Be nice to Seabees, they might be a Marines father". And we take good care of our boys. We only throw the tear gas at 'em when the winds blowing the right direction.

Ha ha ha ha, you're killing me Bobby! Why do you think we carry gas masks?!! We're crazy but not that stupid! Ha ha ha ha!!!

One of your Dets was really razing one of their Boots who just got in country and we almost died laughing. They were using his steel pot to make field stew when two of them started grinning at eachother and we backed away knowing what was coming.

Remember the old break open a claymore to use a piece of C-4 to heat c-rats? You guessed it. They rolled up a tiny ball, showed him how to use it and he was pretty happy feeling he was doing something right. They told him to borrow barrel change out mits from one of our machinegun crews so he wouldn't burn himself when he served everyone as it was his turn.

As soon as he got the mits on the two of them started yelling incoming and sure enough, not only did the Boot toss their chow, he actually put the liner in the pot and put it on as he tried to stomp out the fire! Blew a chunk out of his steel soled boot and he was sweating like a dog wearing the helmet which was steaming.

The Kid was pissed when he realized it was a joke, drew down on them and said if they ever messed with him again he'd kill them all. Ha ha ha ha! He looked at us and we said "no problem, we'll shoot them for you, just put the weapon down." Ha ha ha ha that fool was ready to waste everybody.

Like I said, we're crazy but not that stupid! Ha ha ha ha. You Bees are insane!

Paul, I keep hearing that...Seabee's are insane. There is no insanity here...I've got it ALL. We always had this belief that if we couldn't have fun, even in a combat zone, we weren't gonna play the game.

When I was an Instructor, I assisted with compass reading. One day when we had teams in the field, one guy brought back one of our simulated booby-traps. It was the most dangerous one we used because it was metal, and we buried them so no shrapnel would fly out. I couldn't understand how it got in the field, so I decided to open it to see if it was ok. I pulled the 'coffee can' key off the bottom and the students started to gather around. I explained it was safe as long as the 'cotter' key wasn't removed and then it took 25 lbs. of pressure to set it off. As I opened the can, everybody moved in closer, I knew I had them. I pulled the explosive out of the can and everybody stepped back, I kept telling them it wouldn't explode, but they didn't seem to trust me. I showed them the 'cotter' key holding the pressure plate up...and pulled it out. They were GONE!!! And I was yelling at them, "But it takes 25 lbs of pressure"!!! They didn't seem to care.

We're gonna have FUN, OR ELSE!!!!

Bob,

Please get your machine out of garage and chase that wanna-bee out of our LZ...I don't know how much more I can take of the overly-happy Mr.rogers neighborhood talk ...

Fubis, what wannabe?

Bobby, I heard that! They're still pulling the same smack on the boots and reserves now. My Devils are putting them thru their paces.

You'd be proud to see the pride in the battalions here at PH. A regular battalion did a salute "run by" to honor one of the reserve battalions that had just got off the airplanes from the desert. They held their company guideson's high as they ran past chanting welcome home. It was very moving to see the comraderie among the Bees. But I still think you're all still insane! Ha ha ha ha!!! Semper Fi!

Wannabee = Non-SEABEE or former SEABEE!

I'm sorry Fu...or maybe I'm not. I dropped off some of the PTSD threads because people didn't like want some of us were talking about. I moved to the Seabees because I thought EVERYONE was more civilized here.

Personally, I feel this is a public domain for Seabees, wanna-Bees, Marines or ANYONE who wants to BS and enjoy. Paul's wife is a Seebee, deployed right now, but still in the 'Bees. We have made others (HH) honorary 'Bees. I ENJOY talking with my Brother's who were in 'Nam when I was, I enjoy talking to Boots who are curious about the 'Bees or parents and spouses of 'Bees.

There is NOTHING wrong with Deanosaur chatting on our thread. Maybe he and I should move it over to 'Smile, Seabees' so we don't interfere with your privacy. I started that page so we could have fun. PAUL I'LL MOVE THERE.