Editing Seabee (section)

===Seabee North Slope Oil Exploration 1944===
[[File:Winterized wildcat Seabee 1 in NPR 4,at Umiat, Alaska.jpg|thumb|Winterized [[Wildcat well|wildcat]] Seabee#1 at Umiat]]

Construction Battalion Detachment (CBD) 1058 was formed from "screening Camp Peary and the NCF for [[geologist]]s, [[petroleum engineer]]s, [[driller (oil)|oil drillers]], [[tool pusher]]s, [[roustabout]]s and [[roughneck]]s" and later designated 1058.<ref name="NPR4">[https://pubs.usgs.gov/pp/0301/report.pdf Exploration of Naval Petroleum Reserve No. 4 and Adjacent Areas Northern Alaska, 1944–53 Part 1, History of the Exploration By John C. Reed, CDR, USNR, Geological Survey Professional Paper 301 Prepared and published at the request of and in cooperation with the U. S. Dept. of the Navy, Office of Naval Petroleum and Oil Shale Reserves, US GPO, Washington: 1958, pp. 4, 23]</ref><ref name="CBD1058">{{cite web| url = https://www.history.navy.mil/content/dam/museums/Seabee/Cruisebooks/wwiicruisebooks/cbd-cruisebooks/1058%20%20CBD.pdf| title = ComIcePac, CBD 1058, 1945, Seabee Museum, Port Hueneme, CA}}</ref> Additional personnel were chosen for their [[arctic]] experience with CBs 12 and 66.<ref name="NPR4"/> They mustered at Camp Lee Stephenson for Operation Pet 4. Congress put $1,000,000 aside to wildcat for oil in U.S. Navy Petroleum Reserve No. 4 (NPR-4) in 1944. NPR-4 had been created and placed in the [[Office of Naval Petroleum and Oil Shale Reserves|oil reserve]] in 1923.<ref name="NPR4"/> Today NPR-4 is the [[National Petroleum Reserve in Alaska]]. The detachment's mission was:
* Do a detailed geologic study at Umiat and [[Smith Bay|Cape Simpson]]
* Drill test and core holes
* Drill a deep well
* Do complete aerial and overland [[Pipeline transport|pipeline]] surveys for NPR 4.<ref name="NPR4"/>
* Build a base camp with a runway at Point Barrow
* Build field camp runways at Umiat and [[Bettles, Alaska|Bettles]]

On July 19 the [[USS Spica|USS ''Spica'']] headed north with the [[List of Liberty ships (Je–L)|SS ''Jonathan Harrington'']] for [[Point Barrow]] and [[Cape Simpson]]. The det's base camp was constructed at [[Point Barrow]]. Four [[Caterpillar D8|D-8]]s with twenty sleds of supplies were prepped for the 330-mile trek to Umiat once the [[tundra]] had frozen.<ref name="Kiska">{{Cite web|url=https://www.ibiblio.org/hyperwar/USN/Building_Bases/bases-23.html|title=HyperWar: Building the Navy's Bases in World War II [Chapter 23]|website=www.ibiblio.org|accessdate=May 11, 2022}}</ref> The first tractor train delivered supplies, the second, heavy well equipment.<ref name="Kiska"/> The D8s would make eight trips total. When summer arrived a wildcat was drilled to 1,816' before the cold shut down operations. The hole was designated [[Oil wells#By purpose|Seabee#1]]<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://certmapper.cr.usgs.gov/data/pubarchives/of00-200/WELLS/SEABEE1/SE1DOC.HTM|title=Dept. of the Interior U.S. Geological Survey Selected Data from Fourteen Wildcat Wells in the NPR in Alaska, USGS Open File Report 00-200, Wildcat Well Seabee 1, Dept. of the Interior, U.S. Geological Survey, Central Region Energy Resources Team, Denver, CO|accessdate=May 11, 2022|archive-date=11 February 2017|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170211005952/https://certmapper.cr.usgs.gov/data/PubArchives/OF00-200/WELLS/SEABEE1/SE1DOC.HTM|url-status=dead}}</ref> It was near four known [[petroleum seep|seeps]] at [[Umiat]] in the very south-east of NPR 4.<ref name="NPR4"/><ref name="Kiska"/> The rock strata there was from the [[Upper Cretaceous]] and a [[stratum]] of it was named the "Seabee Formation".<ref name="Geolog">[http://dggs.alaska.gov/webpubs/dggs/pir/text/pir2008_001.pdf Div. of Geological & Geophysical Surveys Preliminary Interpretive Report 2008-1, Preliminary Results Of Recent Geologic Field Investigations in the Brooks Range Foothills and North Slope, Alaska by Marwan A. Wartes and Paul L. Decker, March 2008, Released by State of Alaska, Dept. of Natural Resources, Div. of Geological & Geophysical Surveys, Fairbanks, AK.]</ref> On the coast the Seabees drilled test holes at Cape Simpson and Point Barrow.<ref>[https://pubs.usgs.gov/pp/0301/report.pdf Exploration of the Petroleum Reserve No. 4 and Adjacent Areas, Northern Alaska 1944–53, Part 1, History of the Exploration, John C. Reed, Cdr, CEC, Geological Survey Professional Paper 301, U.S. Gov. Printing Office, Washington, DC, 1958, pp. 21–46 ]</ref> Once the runways were completed additional supplies were flown in. In March 1946 civilians took over the project. Some Seabees of CBD 1058 were hired immediately upon discharge to continue doing the work they had been doing"<ref name="Geolog"/> The Navy applied the cold weather experience from CBD 1058 for [[Operation Highjump]] and [[Operation Deep Freeze]]. Seabee #1 remains a [[USGS]] monitor well today.<ref>[https://www.blm.gov/sites/blm.gov/files/documents/files/PublicRoom_Alaska_Legacy_Wells_Summary_Report_2004.pdf Alaska Legacy Wells Summary Report:NPR Alaska, Rob Brumbaugh, Stan Porhola, BLM/AK/ST-05/004+2360+941, November 2004, U.S. Dept. of Interior Bureau of Land Management ]</ref>

'''Land surveys'''

Twice the Seabees have been tasked with large-scale land surveys. The first was done by CBD 1058 for a proposed NPR 4 pipeline route to Fairbanks. The [[Trans-Alaska Pipeline System|Trans-Alaskan pipeline]] follows a portion of their survey from roughly the [[Arctic Circle]] to Fairbanks. The second would be done by a Seabee team from MCB 10. They went to Vietnam in 1956 to survey and map the existing [[road network]].<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=Koejt5WIaFAC&dq=Seabee+team+1956+survey+of+Vietnam+roads&pg=PA16|title=Southeast Asia: Building the Bases: The History of Construction in Southeast Asia|first=Richard|last=Tregaskis|date=May 11, 1975|publisher=U.S. Navy Seabee Museum|accessdate=May 11, 2022|via=Google Books}}</ref> That survey was extensively used during the [[Vietnam War]].

'''Malaria and Epidemic Control Group'''

[[Bureau of Medicine and Surgery|Navy Medicine]] created the Malaria and Epidemic Control Group to deal with insect-borne diseases. Between August 1942, and February 1943, American troops in the Pacific averaged 10 [[malaria]] cases for every combat injury. Seabees oiled, drained and sprayed mosquito breeding areas and inspected and fumigated ships and aircraft transiting malaria-infested areas.<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://www.med.navy.mil/sites/nmrc/Pages/NMRD.aspx|title=News Releases, R & D Chronicles - The Mosquito Fighters, Part VIII: Malaria Control in the Pacific War, BUMED, Naval Medical Research and Development Enterprise Laboratories, André B. Sobocinski Released: 11/18/2016|accessdate=May 11, 2022|archive-date=18 January 2021|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210118005725/https://www.med.navy.mil/sites/nmrc/Pages/NMRD.aspx|url-status=dead}}</ref> It was an important task that absolutely needed to be done in order for the United States to field an effective combat force. On Guadalcanal the 63rd CB had malaria control as its primary task.<ref>[https://archive.today/20121212033725/http://history.amedd.army.mil/booksdocs/wwii/Malaria/chapterVIII.htm Malaria Control, Chapt. 8, Office of Medical History, U.S.Army Medical Department, P.A. Harper MD, W.C. Downs MD, P.W. Downs MD, N.D. Levine MD.]</ref> At Gulfport a school was established to train Battalions for the Malaria and Epidemic Control Group.