Navy Seabee battalion that provided namesake for Okinawa base returns to island

A man in a A group of service members stand in formation outside a building with “Headquarters NMCB” written in blue allcaps letters on the side.

Capt. James Angerman, commander of Naval Mobile Construction Battalion 11, addresses members of the 4th and 11th battalions after a ceremony at Camp Shields, Okinawa, Feb. 2, 2026. (Justin Rayburn/U.S. Navy)

A Navy Seabee unit with historic ties to Okinawa has returned to the island to support exercises and building projects across the Indo-Pacific region.

Naval Mobile Construction Battalion 11, based at Gulfport, Miss., took over for Battalion 4 during a Feb. 2 relief-in-place/transfer-of-authority ceremony at Camp Shields, according to a battalion news release Friday.

The 11th Seabees will be attached to Task Force 75, headquartered at Naval Base Guam.

A formation of U.S. sailors stand in the back left as a commander at the front stands apart and raises a salute.

Capt. James Angerman, commander of Naval Mobile Construction Battalion 11, salutes as the battalion flag is raised on Camp Shields, Okinawa, Feb. 2, 2026. (Alexa Trafton/U.S. Navy)

Camp Shields, northeast of Kadena Air Base, is named for Marvin Shields, a member of the 11th Seabees who earned the Medal of Honor during the Vietnam War.

The battalion’s 590 personnel will “provide advance base construction, contingency engineering, and humanitarian assistance and disaster recovery support,” 7th Fleet spokesman Lt. Cody Milam said by email Wednesday. They will also support construction projects for other U.S. services and allies, according to the release.

During their deployment, the 4th Seabees, based at Port Hueneme, Calif., renovated a primary school in Samoa in September and October, worked on the ongoing landfill cap and closure project at Marine Corps Air Station Iwakuni, Japan, and carried out construction projects on Okinawa and at Sasebo Naval Base, also in Japan, and on Diego Garcia in the Indian Ocean, according to posts on the battalion’s Facebook page.

Milam declined to say how long the 11th Seabees would be deployed to Okinawa or what exercises they would support with the fleet, citing operational security.

“Naval Mobile Construction Battalion 11’s return to the U.S. Indo-Pacific area of responsibility, and especially to Camp Shields, represents both a strategic posture and a symbolic homecoming,” battalion commander Capt. James Angerman said in the release.

The battalion was first commissioned in 1942 during World War II and was decommissioned at war’s end in 1945. It was recommissioned in 1953 and deployed to Okinawa for the first time in 1959 to build permanent staging facilities for the Marine Corps, according to the battalion’s website.

Deployed to Okinawa again in 1969, the battalion assisted recovery efforts after Typhoon Cora.

Camp Shields’ namesake, a petty officer third class, is the only Seabee to receive the Medal of Honor during the Vietnam War.

He volunteered to take out a Viet Cong machine gun emplacement in a school building in Dong Xoai, South Vietnam, on June 10, 1965.

Wounded during an attack the day before, Shields was struck in the right leg by machine gun fire while taking out the nest and later died from his wounds. He earned the medal for destroying the machine gun, according to the battalion’s website.

The camp’s name “nods to an important piece of history for NMCB-11 and serving from this location reinforces the legacy of Seabee excellence that defines Lucky Eleven,” Angerman said.