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The Men & Officers of Seventy-One

Our Battalion had around 800 men and officers--kind a hard telln', as men kept coming and going, off to schools, assigned to details and detachment up and down Vietnam. There were twenty officers, a dozen Chiefs, and the rest of us enlisted men, Seamen and Petty Officers. Around 80% of the  construction trade Petty Officers were IPOs, professionals who just a few months earlier were working on high paying projects in the States.

Pictured here are a few of the men I photographed for one story or another. Some of the men I can identify, and have, others I can't. If you recognize a face, please send me an email, postcard or letter with the name, and if known, rate and company. Please include the number of the photograph, so I can add their name.

Carpenters, electrician, cabinet-makers, truck drivers, heavy equipment operators, steel workers, and sea-going sailors . . .  were now Seabees in MCB 71.  We all went through military training, like standing in some sort of formation at Muster at Davisville (RI) in October 1966.

LT Ed Rüdiger (cente right), and the men of the new Seabee Team 7101.

01. John Murphy, EO1

02. Tuffy Lake EA1

04. Dick Stapleman EO3

03. Boyle and Poor, EAs on the Quang Ngai Project.

CMDR Coughlin. The CO

CMDR Brown, The XO

09.  _________________

11.  _________________

13. David Anderson SHB3

14. John Cliett. SNJO

15. Lt. Ed Rüdiger

16.  _________________

17.  _________________

18. Dennis Smith HM

19.  _________________

20. Wally Scop YN3 and David Lyman JO3

21.  _________________

22.  ____________________________

23. J.W.Davis C Co. Second Class Builder.

24. Ensign Johnson (Center), LTJG Dougherty, right ) and Lt. D.R.Wells far R

25.  _________________

26.  _________________

27. Chief R. J. Wade, C Company


05. CMDR Broiwn and LT Martin

06.Gary Hall steelworker C Co.

07.  _________________

08.  _________________

10.  _________________

12. Our "Honey Bucket" crew.

28.________________

31. Cumshaw Team in DaNang

34.  _________________

35. _________________

36. Jerry Montecupo, EO3

37.  _________________

30.Bu1 David Athman C Co.

29. _________________

38. _________________

40. Wayne Robinson EO3

42. Colota SNYN

43. Bill Johnson, Diver

41. _________________

39. _________________

31. _________________

32. _________________

The Book:

SEABEE71

IN CHU LAI

A 350 page memoir of a Navy Journalist's 14 months with the Seabees.

Photographs and text copyright © 1967 and 2019 by David H. Lyman