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On September 28, 1957, CDR D.R. Rooke relieved CDR A.F. Meeks as Commanding Officer.
22 November 1957 found MCB NINE as one unit, with all Detachments disestablished, at Port Hueneme, California. The military training program at Port Hueneme was climaxed with a three day bivouac at Rose Valley, Ojai, California.
The main body and Detachment ALFA departed Port Hueneme 18 March 1958 on the USNS Funston, bound for Kodiak, Alaska and Adak in the Aleutian Islands. The Main Body disembarked at Kodiak on 24 March with a view of snow capped mountains glistening in the sunlight.
With the arrival of our equipment on April 1st, the quarry was opened at the Russian River and rock was stockpiled at the crusher site for future use. Repairs to the marginal pier, wiring of warehouses and installation of space heaters occupied the crews until fair weather permitted them to begin work on the roofing projects, the ceilometer and transmissometer project, and the steamline at the AvGas storage farm. Along with the arrival of milder weather and as repairs on the rehabilitation of the runways began. This very important project was completed on schedule only through the untiring efforts of the asphalt crews who worked two twelve hour shifts, 7 days per week, giving up their weekends and holidays in order for the Battalion to maintain it's good record of production despite excessively rainy weather in July and August.
About mid-deployment, MCB NINE was assigned the project of building a multi- cubicle magazine for the storage of special weapons and an alarm control center. Thirty-five men from MCB THREE were assigned TAD to MCB NINE for four months to assist with this important project.
Mid-October 1958, sees MCB NINE returning to CB Center, Port Hueneme, California, after another successful cruise.
In March 2016, Jack Brisbane loaned his Cruise Book for 1958 to the museum. I have scanned selected Kodiak images from the book. There is a photocopy of the book located in a 3-ring binder at the museum.
http://www.kadiak.org/mcb9/index.html This page created 2016 April 4
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