Robley Evans Hansen US Navy on the steps of 418 W Main Street Grass Valley, Ca June 1943
I didn't have much information on Bob Hansen's WWII service and I couldn't find many pictures of Uncle Bob in Auntie Claire's archives. I did find this one, probably taken right before he left for his training and tour of duty. His enlistment date was June 28, 1943. Skip Hansen (Bob's son) recounted to me how his dad was walking near the Hotel El Cortez in Reno when he heard of the attack on Pearl Harbor December 7th, 1941. The Navy recruiting office was within sight, and he trotted in there and signed up. His construction knowledge immediately put him into the Seabees. If he did sign up in 1941, he didn't officially enlist until 1943.
Skip, Margaret and Gay Hansen (cousins) on the steps of 418 W Main Street Grass Valley, Ca. Most likely taken in March 1944 right before Harold Hansen enlisted in the Navy. This picture survived the fire of 1950.
Bob Hansen enlisted as a Seabee in the Navy; the Seabee nickname refers to the first letters "C B" from the words Construction Battalion. Naval construction battalions were conceived as a replacement for civilian construction companies on contract to the Navy, after the U.S. was attacked at Pearl Harbor (Wikipedia.org). The first volunteers were construction tradesmen who were given advanced rank for their trade skills. They would end up being the highest paid group in uniform. Age and physical standards were waived up to age 50 to increase recruitment of this group of men. The average age of recruits was 37. Bob was 34 years of age, and was already engaged in the construction business in Reno, Nv. According to the Reno Gazette Journal (August 22, 1943 ) " Warrant Officer Robley E. Hansen is taking advanced training at Camp Perry near Williamsburg, Va. He was in the contracting business in Reno before enlisting in the Seabees."
Skip Hansen sent this picture of the specific battalion that his father Bob served in. I was able to find a wonderful resource through the Bangor Public Library that gave the whole history of the Battalion. The link to the book is:
"The Blackjack, 1944-1945: a story about and published by the 21st U.S." by United States Navy-Bangor Community: Digital Commons@bpl-Bangor Public Library
It is well worth downloading and reading. The pictures and descriptions really give a feel for the service of these men.
According to the book, the 21st debarked at Pearl Harbor on July 28, 1944 and began assembling invasion pontoon causeways and barges on Intrepid Point. These steel floats were a new development of ship to shore warfare--hollow steel blocks that could be piled and tied into all sorts of shapes and put to all kinds of uses in the water and on land. Pontoon units of varying sizes were produced, ready for invasions in the Philippines, the Marianas, and other Western Pacific objectives.
The 21st left their mark on the harbor shoreline by being designated a "waterfront battalion". They became experts at making installations such as piers, wharves, docks and landing places of all kinds. They constructed small boat moorings, a garbage collection facility, barge slips and berthings for fuel barges.
Their last project before leaving for the forward areas was the expansion of the Waipio Amphibious Base at Waipio Point. They cleared fields of sugar cane and constructed a complete camp: Mess hall, barracks, heads, medical buildings, rigging, and storage huts, along with a 3,000 man open air amphitheater. "Maybe the 21st was a waterfront battalion, but Blackjacks were skilled at any kind of construction, and our carpenters really plied their trade at Waipio Point."
One of the paragraphs I especially enjoyed reading was about the Seabee Ingenuity...
"The Seabees have become famous for their talents at adapting materials and equipment on hand to novel and necessary uses, and the "Can Do" idea was as strong among the Blackjacks as anywhere. We saw inventivness and cleverness in all types of work; we had to be that way when we were far distant from supplies............Of course, the explanation was partly due to the skilled men who enlisted in the Seabees and who knew their trades from A to Z and back again."
The 21st would then sail to the forward areas of the Pacific Theater...the Marianas. Iwo Jima had been captured just before they reached the island of Saipan, so they felt they were no longer in danger of air raids. But, bloody fighting had taken place in the fields where they would eventually build their camp, and several hundred Japanese troops still lurked in caves. The sport of souvenir hunting was popular. Skip Hansen told me a story of how a Japanese trooper snuck into the tent of his dad and another Seabee named "Boom Boom". Boom Boom threw a knife he had under his pillow and killed the Japanese fellow. This event could have taken place on Saipan, or Okinawa.
From Saipan the 21st assisted in the campain for Okinawa where the Japanese were utilizing kamikaze attacks. The Navy took heavy losses in ships and personnel. The guards were doubled up at night to watch out for Japanese swimmers attempting to blow up the ships. They were told that "Tokyo Rose" broadcast a welcome to the 21st battalion when they landed, "but, we didn't care.". Never the less, the 21st was there to unload equipment and troops. The third night ashore the Japanese attempted to land troops in order to disrupt behind the front operations. The Army and Navy were ready for them, and destroyed them all. Five days after they landed the 21st was at work building a wharf and a pontoon pier.
I was lucky to find this slip of newspaper from The Union in a file folder, and it made me happy that my Grandfather and Uncle Bob were able to have a short reunion in the midst of the chaos in the Pacific. There is no date written down or saved, but the meeting must have occurred around the time both men were around Okinawa.
In addition to the Okinawan Kuba Saki pier, the 21st accomplished building a complete Naval Operating Base as well as major highways and roads using coral quarried for fill. They built water tanks, planted "Blackjack Vegetable Gardens" in native rice paddies and sometimes helped the natives who were left on the island. They kept working after the August 15th unconditional surrender of Japan. They endured September and October typhoons and mudslides. And then the end of the war came and the 21st Battalion was soon to be inactivated. The acting officer in charge, Lt. W. M. Harting, gave some last words for his battalion..."Those men of the Seabees who served with the 21st NCB can be justly proud of the part they played in the winning of World War II. In a war involving vast territories, millions of men, countless items of construction equipment, and a complex array of fighting machines and materials, a Seabee battalion is just another small unit in the overall pattern of victory. That final victory was brought about by the combined efforts of small units such as ours."
Bob Hansen was released from the Navy on December 21, 1945. He did not talk much about his service much like his younger brothers. Skip told me that about the only thing he ever said was "Son, our boys' bodies were stacked like firewood". It was a horrific, necessary war. But, like his brothers, he used his talents and abilities while putting himself in harm's way to help our country fight and win against the enemy. Thank you, Uncle Bob, for your service.
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A little more about Robley "Bob" Hansen........
This is from the Reno Gazette April 30, 1955.
New Building Was Erected By Reno Man...Three generations of Robley E. Hansen's family have been in the construction business in the West over an 80-year span.
Mr. Hansen, whose family has built many of Reno's finest landmarks, is the contractor who erected the new Reno Vulcanizing Works building at Sixth and Virginia Streets.
Mr. Hansen moved to Reno from Grass Valley, Calif. in 1926, and learned the construction business from the ground up. He worked as an apprentice carpenter and entered business with his uncle, Roy A. Burrows, in 1930.
In 1937, Mr. Hansen began the R.E. Hansen Construction Co. Since then he has been awarded contracts for many notable Reno building projects, including the remodeling of Lincoln Hall and the department of metallurgy at the University of Nevada. His firm built many of the finer homes in the Newlands Manor Addition.
During World War II Mr. Hansen served three years, from 1943 to 1946, in the Civil Engineering Corps of the Navy.
Mr. Hansen is married and has two children, a son who is a junior at Reno High School and a daughter who is a senior at the University of Washington.
Robley Hansen b. Jan. 23, 1909 Grass Valley, Ca. d. August 22, 1986 Reno, NV.
Picture shared by Skip Hansen
