Sea Power - February-March 2017

How are the Seabees celebrating
the 75th anniversary of their
establishment during World War II?

SAUM: Rear Adm. Bret J. Muilenburg, chief of civil engineers, was out to kick it off with the Seabee Historical Foundation at the museum here in Port Hueneme, Calif., and we had a great turnout for that.

There is a series of events that are going on around the country, including Seabee Balls going on around the world that will be big events. We’re expecting about 1,300 people here for our ball. We’re taking opportunities to talk to folks like you and looking for opportunities for fleet weeks, like the one kicking off in Gulfport, Miss., in the not-so-distant future.

What is the force structure of Naval
Construction Group One?

SAUM: We are a component of Navy Expeditionary Combat Command [NECC], along with explosive ordnance disposal, coastal riverine and expeditionary logistics forces. Now, for the Seabees, we have two groups: Naval Construction Group One [NCG- 1] here in the Pacific and then Naval Construction Group Two out of Gulfport.

NCG- 1 falls under NECC-Pacific. Underneath NCG- 1, we’ve got two regiments — one active, one Reserve. We have six battalions — three active, three Reserve. There is an underwater construction team. There also is a construction battalion maintenance unit out of San Diego; that unit is half active duty, half Reserve.

Is your force structure adequate for
the tasks you are assigned?

SAUM: Yes. The C2 [command and control] structure we have is that if we had to expand in the future, we can certainly do that. Over time, the Seabees have grown and shrunk based on the requirements of the Navy and the nation. In World War II, we had 325,000

Seabees. In 1946, I think we were down to about 2,000

Seabees. We were at 3,500 before the Korean War; we got up to about 14,000.

Recently, in OIF/OEF, we were up as high as 20,000 folks and, today, we’re at about 11,000. Based on what

We Build. We Fight.’
SEABEES CELEBRATE HERITAGE AS THE NAVY’S COMBAT CONSTRUCTION FORCE

‘
As a Seabee combat warfare
officer, CAPT. MICHAEL R.
SAUM is the commodore of
Naval Construction Group One,
one of two such groups and the
major Seabee command in the
Pacific region. A civil engineer, he
began his career in a naval mobile
construction battalion and, from
there on, served in assignments that encompassed the
whole range of Seabee missions.

As a lieutenant junior grade, he was the first officer in charge of Construction Battalion Unit 427 at San Diego. After language training, Saum served as assistant resident officer in charge of construction at Naval Air Station Sigonella, Sicily. Qualifying as a diver, he served as diving and littoral operations branch head at the Space and Naval Warfare Systems Center, San Diego, from which he supervised the installation of undersea systems.

Saum later commanded Underwater Construction Team One, which deployed in support of Operations Enduring Freedom and Iraqi Freedom (OIF/OEF), theater security cooperation in Europe and recovery efforts following Hurricanes Ivan and Katrina. He served at Naval Facilities Engineering Command Mid-Atlantic and, later, in the Office of the Chief of Naval Operations.

He commanded Naval Mobile Construction Battalion One, which deployed to Afghanistan conducting contingency construction operations. Subsequently, Saum served as public works officer at Joint Base Pearl Harbor-Hickam, Hawaii, and later as deputy commander for operations for Naval Facilities Engineering Command Pacific.