The need for maintenance units in southeast Asia was responsible for the creation of CBMU301. December 1966 was the birth of CBMU301 at the 35th naval construction regiment port Hueneme, California. The formation of the battalion CBMU301 was officially established on March 31, 1967. CBMU301 advanced party left United States May 17, 1967 for naval support activity DaNang. CBMU301 established a base to Dung Ha in the Quang Tri province on June 24, 1967
After camp was established the men of 301 turned to maintenance operations in accordance with their mission at DongHa, approximately 200 Seabees were doing airfield maintenance and caring for internal rides. Navy and marine camps, the electrical distribution system and utility landing craft offloading ramp at DongHa River
Although the battalion was deployed at DongHa, details from the main body were sent to Khe Sanh, An Hoa, Cue Viet and Quang Tri. The performance of duty of CBMU 301 Seabees during the heroic defensive of Khe Sanh all the while, the base was under seized claimed the life of SW2 Edward Adams. Six weeks earlier BU1 Charles Spillman died when a marine helicopter in which he was riding to deliver mail to Khe Sanh crashed after being struck by enemy fire on February 28, 1968.
What most don’t know is that there was a U.S. Navy Seabee detachment at Khe Sanh before, during and after the siege. They were from the Construction Battalion Maintenance Unit (CBMU) 301. They had been at Khe Sanh since long before the siege. CBMU 301 built the airstrip there and maintained it along with several other infrastructure elements of the base.
When the siege began, the men of 301 were kept busy repairing the airstrip from the damages caused by NVA artillery and mortar fire throughout the siege. They also had to repair it from the damages that were incurred when supplies had to be delivered by parachute and sleds off the back of the transport planes as they touched down, let go of their cargo and took off without stopping, because the enemy fire had become too accurate and too intense for them to land, taxi, unload and reload, then taxi and take off again.
CBMU 301’s area was located right next to the 3rd Recon Bn area near the airstrip on the base. They took more rounds of artillery than most other areas on the base during the course of the siege. The Seabees were at several other locations in Vietnam during the Tet Offensive, during the Tet Offensive, 14 Seabees were killed in action (KIA) and 57 were wounded in action (WIA).
Typhoon Doris struck on September 2, 1969 and called for greater efforts of the Seabees of 301. Calls for aid and support came in from the combination of military units supported by 301 and men worked around the clock to repair take on damage. They announcement at the third Marine division would leave Vietnam and a mobile construction battalion 74s reassignment to Da Nang left CBMU301 with a new set of problems and addition to those faced by the unit. Seabee type assignments were abandoned as the unit went to mess cooking, manning the perimeter at the combat base.
In October the word came that CBMU 301 would close down his detail and Dong Ha and be redeployed to Chu Lai south of Da Nang, they are the battalion with the public works missions. CBMU301 will also take over work for other organizations the months of October through late January and found the ever increasing number of 301 Seabees at Chu Lai and the average decreasing number at Quang Tri, a minimum number of men left to carry out continued obligations completing the tasks that were already underway and to pack up and move battalion vehicles, machines, tools and other things necessary for day-to-day Seabee tasks. CBMU301 was De-established October 30, 1970.