User:NMCB11PAO

NMCB ELEVEN PAO

Special Request

brian matter <mcb133aco@yahoo.com> To NMCB11PAO@gmail.com Jan 3 at 3:22 PM

On Wednesday, January 3, 2018 12:19 PM, brian matter <mcb133aco@yahoo.com> wrote:

Good morning to you sir.

Thank you for the contact Sir. I sent a reply earlier using lower case so in the event your email is case sensitive I am re-sending this. Your email was a compliment that caught me by surprise as I have done my battalions page and not heard a thing.

I am completely unaware of 11's WWII history but I do know they had men in the Ghost Battalion in Vietnam. That rates a "cool" in my book. I also know that Marvin Shields was a member of a MCB 11 detachment which means someone in your battalion is filling some very big boots.

If the battalion would like me to do their page I would be glad to work on it. I can not give you a time frame as to completion based upon my experience in doing 133's. I just kept finding "stuff". When it came to keeping the history of newly formed units during WWII the Navy did a very poor job i.e.: NCDUs, UDTs, CBs, Naval Beach Battalions and Naval Beach parties. I will use the same format as you see in the 133 article. Doing the table of Commanding officers- deployments and detachments is a pile of work and may need your assistance on that. A list of the 11s Unit awards and their information is a must.

I started out doing 133s page because what was posted was fiction. The battalion was never going to Australia and has an insignia based on that story. While I was working on that article I became aware that our "Seabee" page was a bit lacking in both history and facts. That has been very interesting to do as I did not know Seabee history very well myself it turned out.

Background information for you about me is my name is Brian Matter. I was in NMCB 133 and Public Works Antigua Feb 1973 - Dec 1976. I was an EO3 that had made E-5 but, my pin-on date was two days prior to my discharge date. I was told I had to re-up to get that promotion. Instead, I took a two month early discharge to enter college. ( Graduated Summa Cum Laude, BFA, University of Minnesota- returned for a BS Art Education K-12 ) However, I have never given up construction. I worked 3 seasons as Hvy Equip Operator at McMurdo and So. Pole Stations. Was hired because I was an ex-Seabee and my employer gave me credit for making E-5. Worked with the Public Works Seabees in McMurdo and volunteered time helping out the Seabee ice runway crew at Willams Field. The large WWII Seabee posters at the 20th NCR, Seabee Museum and Rosie Roads enlisted club were a find I made. I currently have a submission at the USMC Awards Division, Quantico. Numerous people have submitted to the Naval Board for a correction of the record that 133 should have gotten a PUC on Iwo Jima. If my research is correct the 4th Marine Division did not follow protocol. They put the entire battalion up which was an automatic rejection. They should have put the Companies up - 133 has four PUCs coming. That has been at the Qunatico a year now.

Thank you for the contact,

Brian Matter

mcb133aco@yahoo.com cell: 612-812-5969 fax: 651-735-2266

I SENT THIS TO YOUR GMAIL ADDRESS. MY GUESS THAT BEING THE PAO OFFICER YOU ARE AN ENSIGN OR LT. AND THAT YOU WERE INSTRUCTED TO CONTACT ME BY YOUR CO. YOU CAN TELL HIM THAT I HAVE STARTED. BECAUSE 11 IS AN ACTIVE UNIT THE ARTICLE WILL ONLY BE COMPLETE IF SHE IS EVER DECOMMISSIONED. I WILL SUBMIT IT FOR PUBLICATION WHEN IT APPEARS "REASONABLY' COMPLETE, WHICH I WILL ATTEMPT TO MAKE HAPPEN BY THE END OF FEBRUARY. bEFORE THAT HAPPENS I WILL SHOW YOU WHAT IT LOOKS LIKE. SOMETHING THAT IS IMPORTANT TO ME IS A UNITS WWII INSIGNIA AND I HAVE FOUND A NICE PICTURE OF 11s