PORT HUENEME, CA - The U.S. Navy Seabee Museum will open two new galleries covering Seabee training and operations in the Atlantic Theater of World War II in honor of the 70th anniversary of the D-Day invasion of Normandy, June 6, 1944.

The two galleries are called “From Civilian to Seabee: Seabee Training During World War II” and “Seabees in the Atlantic Theater in World War II.”

“From Civilian to Seabee: Seabee Training During World War II “ allows visitors to learn about the U.S. Navy’s hastily established training camps on the East and West coasts trained tens of thousands of men, creating the construction battalions destined for advance bases overseas. In the transformation from civilian to Seabee, visitors discover the origins of the world famous Seabee logo and learn about the weapons, technical training, and organization of the various Seabee units that served in the war.

Then, just like those newly trained Seabees, visitors will get the chance to enter “Seabees in the Atlantic Theater in World War II.” Inside the massive bow doors of a Landing Ship, Tank (LST), visitors can look out onto a mural of Omaha Beach as detachments of Civil Engineer Corps (CEC) officers and Seabees handled the vitally important offloading of men and materiel and ponder the invasion on June 6, 1944. Visitors will join with the Seabees as they cross over into North Africa, Sicily, and the Italian mainland, watching combat footage of Seabees under fire.

To introduce the new galleries, Lara Godbille, Ph.D., U.S. Navy Seabees Museum Director will present a lecture entitled “Seabees and Civil Engineer Corps Officers: Overlooked Heroes at the Invasion of Normandy” on June 5, 2014 from 7 – 8 p.m. at the museum. The lecture is open to the public and admission is free.

“Under development since early 2013, the staff and I are extremely proud to share this story with the Seabee community and the general public,” said Godbille. “It’s important to remember the invasions of North Africa, the Mediterranean, and France would have been impossible had Seabees and CEC officers not perfected the use of pontoon causeways and construction of artificial harbors vital to keeping the fighting men ashore supplied,” she said.