U.S. Naval Facility Okinawa Japan Camp Shields Seabees Patch

Camp Shields carries the name of Construction Mechanic Third Class Marvin G. Shields, the only Seabee ever awarded the Medal of Honor. He was killed at Dong Xoai, Vietnam, on June 10, 1965, while serving with Seabee Team 1104. The camp named for him sits in the northwestern part of Okinawa City, with Kadena Air Base and the Kadena Ammunition Storage Area behind it. It is where the Naval Mobile Construction Battalions on Okinawa live, keep their equipment and plan their work. A Seabee rotation to the island meant barracks at Shields and jobsites for the Marines, the Air Force and the Navy.

Battalions rotated through on a regular cycle, each one relieving the last. Naval Mobile Construction Battalion 5 (NMCB 5) came in to relieve NMCB 4 in 1995 and returned in 1997. That 1997 deployment put Seabees to work at Marine Corps Air Station Futenma and Kadena Air Base. They built a retaining wall at White Beach and a seawall at Awase, and kept a road improvement project moving at the Northern Training Area. Back at camp, the construction equipment repair facility kept the battalion's machines running.

The patch is a circle 4 inches across with a red merrowed edge. An olive green band reads U.S. NAVAL FACILITY OKINAWA, JAPAN across the top and SEABEES along the bottom, set off by three white stars. Inside, Okinawa lies green on a blue sea under the words RYUKYU IS., with CAMP SHIELDS stitched in red across the middle of the island and a red star marking NAHA near its southern end. The American and Japanese flags fly side by side at the top, a junk with red and white sails rides the water on the left, and a red torii gate stands on the right. Five gold stars ring the inner circle.

A tour at Shields was a working tour. Seabee crews drove out each day to jobsites at Futenma, Kadena, White Beach and the Northern Training Area, and their work went into the island in concrete and stone. Each battalion handed the camp to the next one, so the place outlasted every crew that lived in it. Living in a camp named for Marvin Shields kept the Seabees' own Medal of Honor story in front of every one of them.

It fits a shadow box next to your battalion patch and deployment photos from Okinawa, or the vest you wear to a Seabee reunion. It also makes a good gift for a Seabee who did his rotation at Shields. The patch has an iron-on backing and can be sewn on as well. A small circle of Okinawa for anyone who poured concrete there.