New York V

While traveling through western New York, we came upon a memorial to the Navy's Sea Bees. I had never seen one just like this so we stopped. The term Sea Bees, as you may know, comes from Construction Battalions (CBs) and in one form or another these CBs have a long and storied history. I was surprised to find that the first U.S. intervention in Vietnam took place in 1845 when The Constitution was in Danang harbor and heard of an imprisoned Bishop. The Captain sent marines and Sea Bees to rescue him. To make a long story shorter, he was eventually freed.

The memorial is in North Tonawanda, New York in Fisherman's Park and is really impressive.

 

A Medal of Honor awardee from the Vietnam War is honored here.

An artist vision of a Sea Bee.

A whole wall of Sea Bees lost in Vietnam.

I have written before about the fact that nearly 9 out of every 10 guys in 'Nam was doing something other than direct combat and these numbers show that they paid the price, too.

North Carolina is next; meet me there on the 12th, as always, at 9:00am.

To see other memorials from New York, or any other state, click the state name on the left side of this page.