Seabee74

Hey buddy, I'm hard of hearing, and only got half of your phone number! Hope you got access, and get this message!

Hey Seabee, get to the Okie social group, and join up! We got a place for us Okies to go and palaver, thanks to Bro Bob. Get joined up, Scotty

I will keep you and your relatives in my thoughts and prayers. I had four kids over there at the same time, and about went nuts! Two of them came home with purple hearts, and some trauma, but are getting through it. Keep safe, and tell the others we pray for their safety, along with all our kids in harm's way. Be safe, and take care. Drop a line when you can, my email is seabee@lrec.org, and I check it daily. CAN DO, Scotty

My friend , and fellow Bee, we were always the stepchild, and we were always loved by the Corp! We fought alongside the Marines since we were born, and the old Corp loved us, as we loved them.
Any time I got around Marines, and they found out what I was, it turned into a party. I stayed at the MWTC, in Bridgeport, one weekend, and had a nice little vacation from real life. My oldest son was an instructor up there, and reserved the lodge for me. He had a gang of friends that included the sniper instructors, and I took 6 or 7 rifles, and 5 pistols, and we went to the range at Carson City, and had a great day, shooting. Those young men made me feel human again, and treated me with such dignity, I almost cried. My son lost one of his best friends from there, who went to Afganistan. He had to fly out there the same day he and his family got here for T-day, last year. I'm not ashamed to say I cried like a baby, because I knew Phil, too. He was the best!
We've been in harm's way, and done the job, and we have earned the right to say, we're the Seabees of the Navy! We are brothers with the Corp, and I'm glad to hear that we are once again in the good graces of the powers that be. They tried to do away with us, but discovered that we were the only ones who could do the job. We have gone into the thick of it, since the day we were born, and will ever do it with pride and honor!
CAN DO!!!!!!!

Damn! We used to do 8 over, and 6 at homeport. That's a nice reverse. And wow, the Seabees are specops now? Everyone used to treat us like the bottom of the barrel. Well, if you get out to Ok-land, try to make time to get by here. We'll go look at some stuff, and see what kinda rifle can be built for you. The gun shop is open, now, FFL and all. Maybe I can do a little something to help show our appreciation of your service.

We are going to be turning over with 4 in a few months. I am a CM2 and as always Alfa Co is always AP and the DP comming home. I don't know if you knew but we commisioned NMCB 11. It is the nineth Batt. Get it? 9th Batt. NMCB 11, (9-11). They thought it was cute. So now there is 3, 4, 5, 40, west coast and 1, 7, 11, 74, and 133.
74 has been busy the last couple of years. Fallujah April 2004 for the big push on that ass hole of Iraq and then Ramadi last year. Both places at the time we were there were known as the "worst fighting in the region". Ramadi is still pretty f'ed up. This deployment we are in Kuwait, Afghanistan, Horn of Africa (HoA) where we are playing front man for some ''special" guys in Kenya and Ethiopia, Peru, Croatia, Liberia in E. Afrika, and Rota, Spain. We are stretched out but doing a fine job.
This is my last deloyment with 74. I am off to a SBT (Special Boat Team) which is what the Swift boats are essentially today, Brown Water Navy. They are part of SOCOM so they have plenty of bankroll.
Navy "Special Operations" is getting new digitals like the Marines in '09. Don't confuse SO for Naval Special Warfare. The SEALS and SWCC (SBT/Swift boaters) like the Seabees are all SO being Naval Expeditionary Commands but Spec War answers to a higher command (SOCOM). Seabees are pretty much classified as SPecial Operations because we aren't floaters but Expeditionary.
Everyone else in the Navy, non-Special Operations (Fleeters), are going to adopt some silly blue camo pattern.
There are alot of changes and they are all going in the right direction. We are on a 10 month home 6 month deployed schedule. We've been doing that since before the wars, just changed deployment sites.
If I could do another tour or deployment in Battalion I would but I have been in this Battalion for 6 years. They said I have to go.

Can Do, man!! I knew a lot of 'Bees, from 74, in the old days. We used to follow them on deployment, and I was always advance party. I served with NMCB-4, and after I was injured at Holy Loch, I ended up at CBU-406, NAS Lemoore. My first three and a half years were spent as a North Vietnamese linguist, where I flew with a VQ-1 detachment, out of Danang. I loved the service, and planned on staying in as long as they'd have me, but fate intervened. Both of my sons chose the Corp, and one stayed in, and is now a platoon sargeant in 2nd Battalion, 6th Marines, out of Camp Lejuene. Ya'll get out this way, let us know when, and we'll give you directions. I'd love to talk to a present day 'Bee, and find out how much things have changed. Keep safe, and stay in touch, Scotty