This cover image from June 1944 shows a Navy Seabee driving a bulldozer from the hold of a landing craft onto the beach of an unnamed Pacific island.
The photo was taken by ENR Pacific Coast Editor Nathan A. Bowers during a 28,200-mile, months-long trip to report on the Seabees’ advanced base construction projects across the theater of World War II Pacific. Bowers first flew to Pearl Harbor, Hawaii, then went to bases in the Marshall Islands, the Gilbert Islands, the New Hebrides, the Solomon Islands, and finally New Guinea.
After returning to Pearl Harbor, he sent a note to ENR’s New York City office asking to be reimbursed for the cost of a new briefcase, since the one that had started his journey had been “completely demolished from jungle humidity, ants, termites, mud encrustations, hoof prints, soaking in salt water, rain soaking and jeep scars, and being used as a cushion on metal bench seats of DC 3”.
Bowers made 46 stops and inspected 29 advanced bases during his trip.
