18 January 2024
TOPEKA (KSNT) – As part of the Seabees, Topeka native Gilbert Ramirez made a difference through his two tours in Vietnam.
Overseas, the Navy Veteran supported the creation and maintenance of pivotal infrastructure. Originally looking to join two of his brothers in the Marines, a Navy recruiter was able to convince Ramirez to join the construction battalion and combat unit instead.
In Vietnam, that unit had a life-saving task.
“Our main mission was to build a hospital,” Ramirez said. “We started building it, I was a steelworker. We were just busy busy, that’s why they called us the Seabees, busy bees, construction battalion. From there we just built and built.”
That building would go smoothly for Ramirez and his unit, until a surprise attack in the fall changed everything.
“It wasn’t until October the 28th, 1965 that we finally got attacked by mortars,” Ramirez said. “They attacked us at the main camp, and attacked the hospital side. They blew up a lot of the Quonset huts that we built already. Right there was the beginning of welcome to Vietnam.”
Even with combat on their doorstep, that didn’t take away the drive from Gilbert’s unit.
“We showed Charlie that we could get her done,” Ramirez said. “We’d done not only the hospital, we built big supplies, a bunch of metal building. We were totally working.”
As a Steelworker, Ramirez took on many roles and unique jobs.
“A bulldozer went over this bridge and widened the bridge, screwed it up in other words,” he said. “We had to go back, because it was a main bridge between the main part of Da Nang and east Da Nang, where we were at. We had to go back, the Seabees, our job was to replace the damage part of the bridge. We worked on that 24 hours a day, day and night, and in the rain. We got her done.”
As if the rigorous construction work wasn’t enough, his unit had to be ready for combat at any moment.
“Our weapons, they were part of our body,” Ramirez said. “All that stuff was nearby. We got attacked by a small arm fire, which we got several times, we would just get down and get ready.”
Even with all the challenges in their path, knowing they were making a difference made it all worthwhile.
“What made it feel good, by the time it was for us to come home, they were using the hospital already,” Ramirez said.
A Seabee till the day he dies, the Navy Veteran says he would do it all again. He keeps that Seabee pride every day, and co-organizes a local Seabees birthday every March.