Ben Moreell Admiral Ben Moreell ( September 14 , 1892 – July 30 , 1978 ) was the chief of the U . S . Navy ' s Bureau of Yards and Docks and of the Civil Engineer Corps . Best known to the American public as the Father of the Navy ' s Seabees , Moreell ' s life spanned eight decades , two world wars , a great depression and the evolution of the United States as a superpower . He was a distinguished Naval Officer , a brilliant engineer , an industrial giant and articulate national spokesman . As a young civil engineer with a Bachelor of Science degree from Washington University , St . Louis ( 1913 ) , he chose to defend his country by joining the ranks of the Navy during World War I . He was commissioned in June 1917 as a Lieutenant ( junior grade ) in the Navy ' s Civil Engineer Corps and spent the next 30 years in the service of his country . During the war , he was stationed in the Azores , there getting to know an Assistant Secretary of the Navy named Franklin D . Roosevelt , and afterwards served at Navy yards and installations in Massachusetts , Haiti , Virginia , and Washington . Recognized early for his exceptional capabilities he was sent as a Lieutenant Commander , to the École Nationale des Ponts et Chaussées in Paris to study European military engineering design and construction practices . In 1933 , he returned to the States to supervise the planning of what would eventually be called the David W . Taylor Model Basin in Carderock , Maryland . On December 1 , 1937 , President Franklin D . Roosevelt personally selected Commander Moreell to be the Chief of the Bureau of Yards and Docks and the Chief of Civil Engineers of the Navy , and advanced him to the rank of Rear Admiral ( without having ever been a Captain ) . With foresight and prudence , Moreell urged the construction of two giant drydocks at Pearl Harbor and initiated Navy construction projects on Midway and Wake Island long before Japanese bombs began to fall on December 7 , 1941 . The docks were completed in time to repair battleships damaged at Pearl Harbor , and the facilities at Midway were completed in time to play a strategic role in the Navy ' s first significant victory over Japanese forces . World War II requirements for advanced bases strung throughout the Pacific called for construction crews to be able to drop their tools and take up weapons at a moment ' s notice . Moreell had the answer – sailors who could build and fight . The need for a militarized Naval Construction Force to build advance bases in the war zone was self - evident . Therefore , Moreell determined to activate , organize , and man Navy construction units . On December 28 , 1941 , he requested specific authority to carry out this decision , and on January 5 , 1942 , he gained authority from the Bureau of Navigation to recruit men from the construction trades for assignment to a Naval Construction Regiment composed of three Naval Construction Battalions . On March 5 , 1942 permission was granted for the construction battalions to use the name " Seabees " . This was the beginning of the renowned Seabees , who obtained their designation from the initial letters of Construction Battalion . Moreell personally furnished them with their official motto : Construimus , Batuimus – " We Build , We Fight . " Seabee History : Formation of the Seabees and World War II . Moreell ' s Civil Engineer Corps was given command authority over what was to become an organization of 250 , 000 people that built $ 10 billion worth of facilities to support the war effort . In 1943 , Moreell became the Chief of the Navy ' s Material Division ; and at the request of Vice President Truman , negotiated a settlement to the national strike of oil refinery workers . When the government seized the nation ' s strikebound bituminous coal industry a year later , Moreell was designated the Coal Mines Administrator . On June 11 , 1946 , he became the first staff corps officer to achieve the rank of Admiral and transferred to the retired list three months later . For the next 12 years , Moreell turned his attention to industry , serving first , briefly ( October 1946 – March 1947 ) as President of Turner Construction Company then as President , Chief Executive Officer , and Chairman of the Board of Jones and Laughlin Steel Company . Moreell served as Chairman of the Task Force on Water Resources and Power of the Second Hoover Commission , directing a twenty - six man committee from November 1953 through June 1955 . President Herbert Hoover called the work of this Task Force " the most far - reaching and penetrating inquiry into our water problems ever made in our history " . Always an active and exemplary citizen he was instrumental in organizing American for Constitutional Action ( ACA ) , a national nonpartisan political action organization . This citizenship and service to country was further exemplified through his significant contributions to the Naval Academy itself . He was a member of the Board of Visitors ( 1953 – 1955 ) and Chairman of the Board in 1955 . His accomplishments as Chairman of the Special Advisory Commission on Future Developments of Academic Facilities is seen today in the Naval Academy ' s superb educational complex . Awards . Moreell ' s life was punctuated by accomplishments , awards , and well - earned recognition . He was honored 12 times with doctoral degrees , was elected to the National Academy of Engineering , and was named one of the 10 men who contributed most to the advancement of construction methods in the United States between 1925 and 1975 . In 1957 Moreell was awarded The John Fritz Medal , referred to as the highest award in the engineering profession , the award is presented each year for scientific or industrial achievement in any field of pure or applied science . It was established in 1902 as a memorial to the great engineer whose name it bears . When asked which of his honors meant most to him , Moreell replied : " They are all very meaningful and deeply appreciated by me . I accepted all with pride and humility . The following excerpt from the citation for the Distinguished Service Medal presented in 1945 for World War II service gives me the greatest sense of a job ' well done ' " : " ' Displaying great originality and exceptional capacity for bold innovation , he inspired in his subordinates a degree of loyalty and devotion to duty outstanding in the Naval Service , to the end that the Fleet received support in degree and kind unprecedented in the history of naval warfare . ' " Legacy . The Society of American Military Engineers ( SAME ) Moreell Medal is named in honor of Moreell . This medal is presented for outstanding contribution to military engineering by a civilian or military member of the U . S . Navy ’ s Civil Engineer Corps . This medal was first awarded in 1955 . Moreell was one of the founders along with Dr . Samuel Moor Shoemaker , rector of Calvary Episcopal Church in Shadyside ( Pittsburgh ) , of The Pittsburgh Experiment , a Christian interdenominational ministry that provides spiritual resources to business , professional and working people . The birthing vision challenge for The Experiment in the 1950s was " to make Pittsburgh as famous for God as it is for steel " . . . In Moreell ' s honor the Seabees named their Kuwait facility Camp Moreell , a military compound in Kuwait , Southwest Asia . The facility was home to U . S . Navy Seabees operating in the Persian Gulf region under Task Force Charlie as of early 2003 . As of April 2003 , Task Force Charlie comprised Seabees from several Naval Construction Force commands . Post - military career . After retirement from the Navy , Moreell became president of Jones and Laughlin Steel Company , then one of the nation ' s largest steel manufacturers . In 1951 , Moreell denounced attempts by the United Steelworkers of America to win an 18 . 5 - cent - an - hour wage increase . In government hearings on the issue , Moreell doubled the cost of the union ' s wage increase and demanded a $ 12 a ton increase in the price of steel to make up the labor costs . Jones and Laughlin Steel was one of the steel companies seized by President Harry S . Truman on April 8 , 1952 . The seizure was overturned by the Supreme Court of the United States on June 22 . The union struck the next day . After a 53 day strike , Moreell and other steel manufacturers settled for the same terms the union had offered them four months earlier . Moreell wrote articles for " The Freeman " , a publication of the Foundation for Economic Education , a group that advocates free markets and libertarian philosophy .