Bernard McCauley IV (1912-1975) Served in the United States Navy for two years and four months from July 7, 1943 – November 10, 1945. According to military records he was assigned to the Navel Construction Battalion #118 as a Maintenance Mechanic Second Class.  This branch of the Navy was nicknamed the “Seabee’s”.  Their mission was to build infrastructure the armed forces needed to support larger operations and troop movements in time of war.  This would include building roads, landing strips, airports, docks, shipyards to name a few.  While these troops were not on the front line, these operations were subject to enemy attack. The enemy was one threat; malaria, dysentery and the physical demands on hard construction work were the others. The nature of building and delivering projects on a tight deadline was grueling, not to mention the challenges of the tropical weather and ideal quality of supplies.

Although he never discussed these experiences with me directly, he would caution my brothers and I against exerting ourselves in the heat when working in his back yard.  Once, he insisted that I put my tee shirt back on saying that when he was in the war, soldiers were disciplined is they became sunburned and could not work. This good advice probably came with his lived experiences, some of those he didn’t want to share with a young boy.

As other American citizens, Bernard McCauley registered for the draft on October 16^th, 1940. He was 28 years old.  Below is a copy of his draft card.

118^TH NAVY CONSTRUCTION BATTALION

Commissioned in the summer of 1943 at Peary, the 118^th NCB moved to Davis Ville Rhode Island in August, then to Gulfport in September. On Feb. 25, 1944, the Battalion shipped out, arriving at Gama dodo, Milne Bay, sometime the next month and remained there on duty until March 1945, when 19 officers and 900 men departed for Mindanao, P. I., leaving a small detachment behind. While at Gama dodo, the 118^th operated at ABCD and ASPD at Milne Bay. On April 6, a detachment of 100 men left Mindanao for Zamboanga on additional duty orders. When the war ended, the Battalion had orders to move to Subic Bay, in the Philippines.

The battle of Milne Bay was raging one year before Bernard’s deployment there. The Australian efforts were key to helping the allies taking the Island and this was a turning point in the pacific war. For a more in-depth investigation of the place and time I have links regarding the history of the Seabees, and the battle of Milne below.

Historical Information on the Seabees; https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Seabee

Battle of Milne Bay – Wikipedia

HOW THE US Seabees Built The South Pacific’s Largest Naval Base In Record Time Bing Videos 

Milne Bay, New Guinea

                                       Subic Bay, Philippines

Larger map of the region including Milne Bay, New Guinea and Subic Bay

Below is the Christmas card that was sent home to the Family in 1944. He would miss two Christmases with his family to the second world war. It is possible he extended one years service into two years. His discharge date from the US Navy was November 10, 1945.

If you have other memories related to Bernard’s World War II service, please leave them in the commnet lines below.