The Seabees in Guam

While I was in Guam I found the most awesome shore duty billet ever created: Barracks MAA for the Proteus submarine barracks. These were off base and in the middle of nowhere, so the only time this guy saw other squids was twice a month when he drove back to the base to pick up his pay check. He never wore a uniform and got to keep whatever people left behind in their rooms - let's just say his hair was a tad long and he had the single biggest collection of alcohol on the island. And, all he really did was make sure no one burned the place down.

I got to know him pretty well, because there just wasn't that much to do during the day in Guam. Other than scuba diving and drinking, which weren't mutually exclusive, there wasn't anything going on but a lot of sweating. But I didn't know that before we arrived, and I was dumb enough to take two weeks of leave there.

E-div had a rotating leave schedule so that everybody got a chance to take leave at least once every year and a half. Originally, my turn was going to be while we were in the PI, but one of the senior electricians convinced me that it would be a waste, as they wouldn't be letting anyone off the base due to the locals protesting outside the gate. Since he didn't plan on leaving the base anyway, he graciously agreed to swap with me. As some of you may have already guessed, they never actually closed the base, so he got to disappear into Subic City for two weeks, and I got scenic Guam.

But at least I got a room. There was a Seabee battalion in port with us, who were on their way to Desert Shield (that's the first Gulf War, the one we wrapped up inside a football season) when their transport ship broke down. When it looked like they'd be in Guam a while, they asked the Navy base for a place to stay other than a 110F cargo hold. But they were told there just weren't enough rooms; if they wanted a barracks, they'd have to build their own.

So that's just what they did.

First they build a huge barracks complex (really more like a BOQ or a hotel than a barracks), big enough that even the E-3's had their own air-conditioned rooms. Then they added a chow hall and paved a four-lane road out to their camp, which was out in B.F.E.

Much like the Doozers in Fraggle Rock, the longer the Navy left them stranded, the more they built. They eventually added a giant swimming pool, tennis courts, a movie theater, and a go-cart track. I got to see all this splendor once when I snuck on their bus (which was the easiest way to get back from town at night - much more reliable than our duty drivers) and they stopped there on the way to the Proteus. I'm telling you, it was like being at a luxury resort compared to the crap hole we lived in. They were still there, and still building, when we finally left for Singapore.