MCB 11 1959

From October 15, 1959 the main body of the Battalion left aboard the USS General Breckenridge for Okinawa, Camp Kue. This deployment was extended until July 20, 1960.

The Okinawa project consisted of building permanent Staging Out Facilities for the U.S. Marine Corps. This included 5 large warehouses each 100 x 400 feet, 2 Engineer Shop Buildings, 1 Motor Transport Shop, 1 Ordnance Shop, a Supply and Administrative Building, a Central Head, wash and grease racks, and retaining walls along with necessary water, sewer and electrical services and roads and parking areas. MCB 11 worked on all of these except the central head, gasoline dispensing station and wash and grease racks. The construction involved consisted primarily of pre-cast, heavily reinforced, concrete units, some of which weighed 20 tons.

The battalion poured 10,215 yards' of concrete and fabricated and placed over 63,000 pounds of reinforcing steel. There was over four acres of concrete floor slabs poured. A total of 106,438 man-days were put into the project and the supporting camp facilities while the battalion completed about 40% of the project. The battalion functioned as a completely independent and self-sustaining unit on Okinawa, even operating its own Enlisted Men's Club. They organized an intramural basketball league, company softball teams and a varsity team which won 19 out of 20 league games and took the championship of a league conducted by Kadena Air Force Base.

The battalion had a People to People program with the Okinawans, where the Seabees built and installed playground equipment and moved classrooms at a public school in Jaqaru. They entertained 350 1st grade children at a Christmas Party.

On February 16, 1960, CDR H. F. Liberty was relieved by CDR John P. Williams.

November 1959, CWO Munson, officer in charge and 35 enlisted men were detached to Midway where their jobs consisted of building stabilized area adjacent to the runways that birds might favor rather than the Air Station runways where they caused heavy damage to aircraft. Detachment Bravo returned to Okinawa March 1960.

The USS Mann brought MCB 5 to Okinawa on July 19, 1960 to relieve MCB 111. The battalion headed out aboard ship July 20, for Port Hueneme, arriving August 3, 1960.

MCB 11 1959-60 Okinawa Cruise Book
From October 15, 1959 the main body of the Battalion left aboard the USS General Breckenridge for Okinawa, Camp Kue. This deployment was extended until July 20, 1960. The Okinawa project consisted of building permanent Staging Out Facilities for the U.S. Marine Corps. This included 5 large warehouses each 100 x 400 feet, 2 Engineer Shop Buildings, 1 Motor Transport Shop, 1 Ordnance Shop, a Supply and Administrative Building, a Central Head, wash and grease racks, and retaining walls along with necessary water, sewer and electrical services and roads and parking areas. MCB 11 worked on all of these except the central head, gasoline dispensing station and wash and grease racks. The construction involved consisted primarily of pre-cast, heavily reinforced, concrete units, some of which weighed 20 tons. The battalion poured 10,215 yards' of concrete and fabricated and placed over 63,000 pounds of reinforcing steel. There was over four acres of concrete floor slabs poured. A total of 106,438 man-days were put into the project and the supporting camp facilities while the battalion completed about 40% of the project. The battalion functioned as a completely independent and self-sustaining unit on Okinawa, even operating its own Enlisted Men's Club. They organized an intramural basketball league, company softball teams and a varsity team which won 19 out of 20 league games and took the championship of a league conducted by Kadena Air Force Base. The battalion had a People to People program with the Okinawans, where the Seabees built and installed playground equipment and moved classrooms at a public school in Jaqaru. They entertained 350 1st grade children at a Christmas Party. On February 16, 1960, CDR H. F. Liberty was relieved by CDR John P. Williams. November 1959, CWO Munson, officer in charge and 35 enlisted men were detached to Midway where their jobs consisted of building stabilized area adjacent to the runways that birds might favor rather than the Air Station runways where they caused heavy damage to aircraft. Detachment Bravo returned to Okinawa March 1960. The USS Mann brought MCB 5 to Okinawa on July 19, 1960 to relieve MCB 111. The battalion headed out aboard ship July 20, for Port Hueneme, arriving August 3, 1960.

The first precast concrete construction ever undertaken by the "bees of "Eleven --Preview of things to come. The finished product . . .we never did figure out what they were
	On October 15, 1959, MCB 11 departed Port Hueneme for a long deployment in the Far East. Destination -- Okinawa, R. I. Mission -- to build a staging-out facility for the United States Marine Corps consisting of warehouse and shop buildings, a total of ten major precast tilt-up structures. We were the middle men as MCB 9 had started the project and we would be followed by MCB5.

Our portion of the camp area was located directly behind the army hospital and just below the local village of Jagaru. The army bus serving both Kadena Air Base and Naha Air Facility stopped at the hospital giving the men free transportation to the southern part of the Island, while local buses made connection to the east side of the island and the recreational area of Ishakawa Beach.
Project Crews

20 man crew who took forty rations from the galley and poured what would normally take fifty men twice the time - over 10,000 yards of concrete.	Quonset erection crew	Gradebeam Crew

Crane Crew	APEX Crew	Steel yard crew

"Pappy" Knight's Footing and Pedestal Crew	Carpenter's Siffener Crew	UT Crew

Equipment Operators - Mud Movers	Transportation	CE Crew - lamplighters of Okinawa
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