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Triest, Willard G., Capt., USNR (Ret.)
Captain Willard G. Triest USNR (Ret.)
(U.S. Naval Institute Photo Archive)

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Code Name Bobcat

Americas WWII Military Base on Christmas Island
By Taira Payne
October 2021
Naval History
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Captain Triest joined the Civil Engineer Corps in 1941, and his first assignment was the design and logistics for building a secret base, "Bobcat," as a refueling station in the Christmas Islands. He describes the construction of an airfield, hospital, tank farm, and loading facilities on Ascension Island. In 1942 he headed the work of the Seabees at Espiritu Santo in the New Hebrides, and then was sent to Tulagi as a trouble shooter to rebuild the esprit de corps of the 27th battalion that had fallen to pieces.

Captain Triest completes his description of accomplishments of the Seabees during the war with a recounting of roads and a supply depot constructed in Okinawa—while working behind the lines as the Marines drove the Japanese off the island.

Seabee Moreell
Rear Adm. Ben Moreell personally furnished Seabees with their official motto: Construimus, Batuimus -- "We Build, We Fight." (U.S. Naval Institute Photo Archive)

In this excerpt, Captain Triest describes putting Shorty Duddleston, recruited from Standard Oil of New Jersey to supervise a construction job on Christmas Island, into uniform in one day on the orders of Admirals King and Moreell.

U.S. Naval Institute · 1972 Interview with Captain Willard G. Triest, USN (Ret.) About the Creation of LtCdr. Duddleston

For CAPT Triest's Oral History on the U.S. Naval Institute website, click here.

To read more about the Naval Institute Oral History Program, click here.

Taira Payne

Taira Payne was the Project Manager, Digital Assets & Web for the U.S. Naval Institute until January 2022. She holds a Master of Library and Information Science, specializing in Archives and Digital Curation, from the University of Maryland and a Bachelor’s in History from Washington College.

More Stories From This Author View Biography

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