Units of the advance naval base, Lion 6, commanded by Captain Adolph E. Becker, Jr., USN, began the extensive early work necessary to convert Apra Harbor into the hub of a major naval operating base. The destroyed Naval Base and Port on Orote Peninsula was rebuilt and substantially expanded into the largest of Pacific Harbors, and the 76^th NCB played a major role with the Harbor and Port facilities reconstruction.

By the end of the war the entire face of Guam had been changed. A busy naval operating base occupied Apra Harbor, and Navy planes crowded the fields at Agana and on Orote Peninsula. On the northern plateau, B-29's of the Twentieth Air Force rested on fields bulldozed from the jungle that had impeded the advance of the III Amphibious Corps.

At the time of their capture, none of the southern Marianas possessed adequate sites for fleet anchorages, and, in fact, the only truly protected anchorage in the entire area was Apra Harbor at Guam. With its relatively large land mass and protected harbor, Guam, was the HQ for more ambitious base development throughout the Pacific, with Tinian, and Siapan operations being, in part, staged out of Guam.

On 9 August, the day before the official announcement that the island was "secured," Admiral Nimitz made known his plans to use Guam as a base for the Pacific Fleet and as forward headquarters for his Pacific Ocean Areas command. As a result, Apra Harbor was dredged and given the additional protection of a lengthy breakwater. An extensive tank farm was erected, several major supply depots were established, and hospitals and administration buildings were constructed. Early in 1945 Nimitz' forward headquarters was set up on the island, and by the end of the war the naval base at Guam was capable of supporting a third of the U.S. Pacific Fleet.

Building the Apra Harbor Breakwater was dangerous work.  The 76th NCB first constructed a causeway (road) from the Main Island to Cabras Island so that heavy earth moving equipment could start the breakwater from Cabras Island and extend it parallel to the natural reef that fronted Apra Harbor.  A constant stream of heavy to light dump trucks, large earth movers, bulldozers and graders traversed  Guam from several gravel pits, crossing the causeway to Cabras Island, where the Breakwater began. Loads of blasted rock and ceoral from Cabras Island wer also hauled away to help form the breakwater. The heavy equipment of the 76th NCB was present atop the breakwater for two years, as it gradually grew longer and wider.  Day after day the Gravel Convoy dumped its loads into the ocean to form a protective barrier against the waves.  The ocean currents at Apra Harbor are fierce and turbulant at times, and more that one Seabee dump truck was lost as it dumped its load.  Waves topping ten feet or more would frequently wash out  tons of rocks, gravel and sand that had been dumped hours before. As the back end of trucks would begin to slide into the waves 76th Bee drivers would scramble out of  the cabs of their sinking trucks and jump to solid breakwater just a few feet infront of them.  Miraculously, no 76th Seabee lost his life on the Breakwater Project.  Gradually as thousands upon thousands of loads of Rip Rap, was trucked and dumped into the ocean, the breakwater took its form.    

Electrical power was badly needed to run machinery and provide lighting for night work. One of the first things accomplished by the  76th NCB was the reconstruction of the Piti Power Plant, and building three other power plants located at various locations on the island from 1944 to 1945.  The 76th NCB also constructed a 2 1/2 mile stretch of asphault covered road to the B-29 Base (North Field) enabling logistic support from the harbor. In all the 76th NCB, with its 1,063 enlisted Seabees,  played a major role in transforming the Island of Guam into forward area base of operations.  Had it not been for the work accomplished at the Apra Harbor by the 76th NCB, Admiral Nimitz could not have staged naval operations, involving one third of the Pacific Fleet , from the Island of Guam.

Sources consulted:

Day, R. P. "Building the Port Apra Breakwater." Engineering News-Record, 135 (October 1945), 496-501.

Hiltabidle, W. O.  “Guam Superhighway Built in Sixty Days: High-Type Roads Provided for Island Naval Base." Civil Engineering, 15 (May 1945).

"Seabees Complete Power Plant on Guam." Electrical West,  (September 1945).

76^th US Naval Construction Battalion Cruise Book

HYPERWAR Website

Report to the Department of the Navy,  by Commanding Officer 76^th NCB 

RIP RAP: natural rocks of various uniform sizes used as a stablizer against water erosion, from streams, rivers or ocean waves.