page_title: Naval Mobile Construction Battalion 40
section_title: WWII
hierarchical_section_title: Naval Mobile Construction Battalion 40 / History / WWII
caption_attribution_description: English: Ventura County, Calif. (Dec. 13, 2002) -- Seabees of Naval Mobile Construction Battalion Forty (NMCB 40) load equipment onto an Air Mobility Command (AMC) C-5 “Galaxy” cargo plane. NMCB 40 is homported at Naval Base Ventura County and is headed for Guam in support of disaster relief efforts after Super Typhoon Pongsona passed over the island on Dec 8, 2002. U.S. Navy photo by Photographer's Mate Airman Lamel J. Hinton. (RELEASED)
context_page_description: Naval Mobile Construction Battalion FORTY, nicknamed Fighting FORTY, was a US Navy Seabee Battalion based out of Port Hueneme, California. Its primary mission was wartime contingency construction as well as peacetime construction and disaster relief.
context_section_description: On 6 November 1942 the battalion was commission at Camp Allen, Va. The battalion's first deployment was to Espiritu Santo to build Lion 1. Included on the project list was the construction of an airstrip . This project along with additional support facilities were completed in 1943. Los Negros was the next island X where 40 CB was attached to the U.S. Army's 1st Cavalry. The Seabees of 40 were assigned a portion of the defensive perimeter and came under fierce attack along the Army. 
  That attack lead to the battalions nickname "Fighting Forty".  After the attack 40 returned to rehabilitating the airstrip which they had in use within two days. Momote airfield became operational on 18 May 1944 and remains in use today. It became Hq for the 13th Air Force and had RAF elements from both New Zealand and Australia stationed there. General MacArthur put the battalion up for the  Distinguished Unit Ribbon which the President gave them for their part in the battle.  In 1944, FORTY returned home, regrouped and deployed again in late 1944. Port calls were made at  Pearl Harbor, T.H., Eniwetok Island; and Tanapag, Saipan. In 1945, the week after Easter, the battalion sailed for Okinawa.  There it immediately began the work of rebuilding the island's main supply routes. While doing that, the battalion had to fight Japanese forces and endure two major typhoons. At the end of World War II, 40 CB joined the ranks of the other CBs when it was decommissioned on 28 November 1945 for the post-war draw-down.
  The 40th earned the Army's WWII equivalent of the Presidential unit citation on Los Negros Island while attached to the 1st Cavalry Division. Special mention was made of the bulldozers going into the teeth of the enemies positions on 2 March 1944. Ref. Battle Honors citation dated 5 July 1944 by order of G. C. Marshall and signed by James Alexander Ulio, Major General, Adjutant General.
caption: US Navy 021213-N-1485H-001 Seabees of NMCB 40 load equipment onto an Air Mobility Command (AMC) C-5 "Galaxy" cargo plane
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