Ben Moreell
Encyclopedia
Admiral
Ben Moreell (September 14, 1892 – July 30, 1978) was the chief of the U.S. Navy's
Bureau of Yards and Docks
and of the Civil Engineer Corps
. Best known to the American public as the Father of the Navy's Seabee
s, Admiral Ben Moreell's life spanned eight decades, two world wars, a great depression and the evolution of the United States as a superpower. He was a distinguished Naval Officer, a brilliant engineer, an industrial giant and articulate national spokesman. As a young civil engineer with a Bachelor of Science degree from Washington University, St. Louis (1913), he chose to defend his country by joining the ranks of the Navy during World War I
. He was commissioned in June 1917 as a Lieutenant (junior grade) in the Navy's Civil Engineer Corps and spent the next 30 years in the service of his country. During the war, he was stationed in the Azores
, there getting to know an Assistant Secretary of the Navy named Franklin D. Roosevelt
, and afterwards served at Navy yards and installations in Massachusetts
, Haiti
, Virginia
, and Washington. Recognized early for his exceptional capabilities he was sent as a Lieutenant Commander, to the École Nationale des Ponts et Chaussées
in Paris to study European military engineering design and construction practices. In 1933, he returned to the States to supervise the planning of what would eventually be called the David W. Taylor
Model Basin in Carderock, Maryland.
On December 1, 1937, President Franklin D. Roosevelt
personally selected Commander Moreell to be the Chief of the Bureau of Yards and Docks and the Chief of Civil Engineers of the Navy, and advanced him to the rank of Rear Admiral (without having ever been a Captain). With foresight and prudence, Moreell urged the construction of two giant drydocks at Pearl Harbor and initiated Navy construction projects on Midway and Wake Island long before Japanese bombs began to fall on December 7, 1941. The docks were completed in time to repair battleships damaged at Pearl Harbor, and the facilities at Midway were completed in time to play a strategic role in the Navy's first significant victory over Japanese forces.
World War II requirements for advanced bases strung throughout the Pacific called for construction crews to be able to drop their tools and take up weapons at a moment's notice. Admiral Moreell had the answer - sailors who could build and fight. The need for a militarized Naval Construction Force to build advance bases in the war zone was self-evident. Therefore, Rear Admiral Ben Moreell determined to activate, organize, and man Navy construction units. On December 28, 1941, he requested specific authority to carry out this decision, and on January 5, 1942, he gained authority from the Bureau of Navigation to recruit men from the construction trades for assignment to a Naval Construction Regiment composed of three Naval Construction Battalions. On March 5, 1942 permission was granted for the construction battalions to use the name "Seabees". This was the beginning of the renowned Seabees, who obtained their designation from the initial letters of Construction Battalion. Admiral Moreell personally furnished them with their official motto: Construimus, Batuimus – "We Build, We Fight." Seabee History: Formation of the Seabees and World War II.
Ben Moreell's Civil Engineer Corps was given command authority over what was to become an organization of 250,000 people that built $10 billion worth of facilities to support he war effort. In 1943, Admiral Moreell became the Chief of the Navy's Material Division
; and at the request of Vice President Truman, negotiated a settlement to the national strike of oil refinery workers. When the government seized the nation's strikebound bituminous coal industry a year later, Admiral Moreell was designated the Coal Mines Administrator. On June 11, 1946, he became the first staff corps officer to achieve the rank of Admiral and transferred to the retired list three months later. For the next 12 years, Admiral Moreell turned his attention to industry, serving first, briefly (October 1946 – March 1947) as President of Turner Construction Company then as President, Chief Executive Officer, and Chairman of the Board of Jones and Laughlin Steel Company
.
Admiral Moreell served as Chairman of the Task Force on Water Resources and Power of the Second Hoover Commission, directing a twenty-six man committee from November 1953 through June 1955. President Herbert Hoover called the work of this Task Force "the most far-reaching and penetrating inquiry into our water problems ever made in our history".
Always an active and exemplary citizen he was instrumental in organizing American for Constitutional Action (ACA), a national nonpartisan political action organization. This citizenship and service to country was further exemplified through his significant contributions to the Naval Academy itself. He was a member of the Board of Visitors (1953–1955) and Chairman of the Board in 1955. His accomplishments as Chairman of the Special Advisory Commission on Future Developments of Academic Facilities is seen today in the Naval Academy's superb educational complex.
In 1957 Admiral Moreell was awarded The John Fritz Medal
, referred to as the highest award in the engineering profession, the award is presented each year for scientific or industrial achievement in any field of pure or applied science. It was established in 1902 as a memorial to the great engineer whose name it bears.
When asked which of his honors meant most to him, Admiral Moreell replied: "They are all very meaningful and deeply appreciated by me. I accepted all with pride and humility. The following excerpt from the citation for the Distinguished Service Medal presented in 1945 for World War II
service gives me the greatest sense of a job 'well done'":
Displaying great originality and exceptional capacity for bold innovation, he inspired in his subordinates a degree of loyalty and devotion to duty outstanding in the Naval Service, to the end that the Fleet received support in degree and kind unprecedented in the history of naval warfare.'
Admiral Moreell was one of the founders along with Dr. Samuel Moor Shoemaker, rector of Calvary Episcopal Church in Shadyside (Pittsburgh), of The Pittsburgh Experiment, a Christian interdenominational ministry that provides spiritual resources to business, professional and working people. The birthing vision challenge for The Experiment in the 1950s was "to make Pittsburgh as famous for God as it is for steel"...
In Admiral Moreell's honor the Seabees named their Kuwait facility Camp Moreell, a military compound in Kuwait, Southwest Asia. The facility was home to U.S. Navy Seabees operating in the Persian Gulf
region under Task Force Charlie as of early 2003. As of April 2003, Task Force Charlie comprised Seabees from several Naval Construction Force commands.
, then one of the nation's largest steel manufacturers. In 1951, Moreell denounced attempts by the United Steelworkers of America to win an 18.5-cent-an-hour wage increase. In government hearings on the issue, Moreell doubled the cost of the union's wage increase and demanded a $12 a ton increase in the price of steel to make up the labor costs. Jones and Laughlin Steel was one of the steel companies seized by President Harry S. Truman
on April 8, 1952. The seizure was overturned by the Supreme Court of the United States
on June 22. The union
struck
the next day. After a 53 day strike, Moreell and other steel manufacturers settled for the same terms the union had offered them four months earlier.
Moreell wrote articles for The Freeman, a publication of the Foundation for Economic Education, a group that advocates free markets and libertarian philosophy.
Admiral
Admiral is the rank, or part of the name of the ranks, of the highest naval officers. It is usually considered a full admiral and above vice admiral and below admiral of the fleet . It is usually abbreviated to "Adm" or "ADM"...
Ben Moreell (September 14, 1892 – July 30, 1978) was the chief of the U.S. Navy's
United States Navy
The United States Navy is the naval warfare service branch of the United States Armed Forces and one of the seven uniformed services of the United States. The U.S. Navy is the largest in the world; its battle fleet tonnage is greater than that of the next 13 largest navies combined. The U.S...
Bureau of Yards and Docks
Bureau of Yards and Docks
The Bureau of Yards and Docks was the branch of the United States Navy responsible from 1842 to 1966 for building and maintaining navy yards, drydocks, and other facilities relating to ship construction, maintenance, and repair....
and of the Civil Engineer Corps
Civil Engineer Corps
The Civil Engineer Corps is a staff corps of the United States Navy. CEC officers are professional engineers and architects, acquisitions specialists and Seabee Combat Warfare Officers. They are responsible for executing and managing the planning, design, acquisition, construction, operation, and...
. Best known to the American public as the Father of the Navy's Seabee
Seabee
Seabees are members of the United States Navy construction battalions. The word Seabee is a proper noun that comes from the initials of Construction Battalion, of the United States Navy...
s, Admiral Ben Moreell's life spanned eight decades, two world wars, a great depression and the evolution of the United States as a superpower. He was a distinguished Naval Officer, a brilliant engineer, an industrial giant and articulate national spokesman. As a young civil engineer with a Bachelor of Science degree from Washington University, St. Louis (1913), he chose to defend his country by joining the ranks of the Navy during World War I
World War I
World War I , which was predominantly called the World War or the Great War from its occurrence until 1939, and the First World War or World War I thereafter, was a major war centred in Europe that began on 28 July 1914 and lasted until 11 November 1918...
. He was commissioned in June 1917 as a Lieutenant (junior grade) in the Navy's Civil Engineer Corps and spent the next 30 years in the service of his country. During the war, he was stationed in the Azores
Azores
The Archipelago of the Azores is composed of nine volcanic islands situated in the middle of the North Atlantic Ocean, and is located about west from Lisbon and about east from the east coast of North America. The islands, and their economic exclusion zone, form the Autonomous Region of the...
, there getting to know an Assistant Secretary of the Navy named Franklin D. Roosevelt
Franklin D. Roosevelt
Franklin Delano Roosevelt , also known by his initials, FDR, was the 32nd President of the United States and a central figure in world events during the mid-20th century, leading the United States during a time of worldwide economic crisis and world war...
, and afterwards served at Navy yards and installations in Massachusetts
Massachusetts
The Commonwealth of Massachusetts is a state in the New England region of the northeastern United States of America. It is bordered by Rhode Island and Connecticut to the south, New York to the west, and Vermont and New Hampshire to the north; at its east lies the Atlantic Ocean. As of the 2010...
, Haiti
Haiti
Haiti , officially the Republic of Haiti , is a Caribbean country. It occupies the western, smaller portion of the island of Hispaniola, in the Greater Antillean archipelago, which it shares with the Dominican Republic. Ayiti was the indigenous Taíno or Amerindian name for the island...
, Virginia
Virginia
The Commonwealth of Virginia , is a U.S. state on the Atlantic Coast of the Southern United States. Virginia is nicknamed the "Old Dominion" and sometimes the "Mother of Presidents" after the eight U.S. presidents born there...
, and Washington. Recognized early for his exceptional capabilities he was sent as a Lieutenant Commander, to the École Nationale des Ponts et Chaussées
École Nationale des Ponts et Chaussées
Founded in 1747, the École nationale des ponts et chaussées , often referred to as les Ponts, is the world's oldest civil engineering school...
in Paris to study European military engineering design and construction practices. In 1933, he returned to the States to supervise the planning of what would eventually be called the David W. Taylor
David W. Taylor
Rear Admiral David Watson Taylor, USN was a naval architect and engineer of the United States Navy. He served during World War I as Chief Constructor of the Navy, and Chief of the Bureau of Construction and Repair...
Model Basin in Carderock, Maryland.
On December 1, 1937, President Franklin D. Roosevelt
Franklin D. Roosevelt
Franklin Delano Roosevelt , also known by his initials, FDR, was the 32nd President of the United States and a central figure in world events during the mid-20th century, leading the United States during a time of worldwide economic crisis and world war...
personally selected Commander Moreell to be the Chief of the Bureau of Yards and Docks and the Chief of Civil Engineers of the Navy, and advanced him to the rank of Rear Admiral (without having ever been a Captain). With foresight and prudence, Moreell urged the construction of two giant drydocks at Pearl Harbor and initiated Navy construction projects on Midway and Wake Island long before Japanese bombs began to fall on December 7, 1941. The docks were completed in time to repair battleships damaged at Pearl Harbor, and the facilities at Midway were completed in time to play a strategic role in the Navy's first significant victory over Japanese forces.
World War II requirements for advanced bases strung throughout the Pacific called for construction crews to be able to drop their tools and take up weapons at a moment's notice. Admiral Moreell had the answer - sailors who could build and fight. The need for a militarized Naval Construction Force to build advance bases in the war zone was self-evident. Therefore, Rear Admiral Ben Moreell determined to activate, organize, and man Navy construction units. On December 28, 1941, he requested specific authority to carry out this decision, and on January 5, 1942, he gained authority from the Bureau of Navigation to recruit men from the construction trades for assignment to a Naval Construction Regiment composed of three Naval Construction Battalions. On March 5, 1942 permission was granted for the construction battalions to use the name "Seabees". This was the beginning of the renowned Seabees, who obtained their designation from the initial letters of Construction Battalion. Admiral Moreell personally furnished them with their official motto: Construimus, Batuimus – "We Build, We Fight." Seabee History: Formation of the Seabees and World War II.
Ben Moreell's Civil Engineer Corps was given command authority over what was to become an organization of 250,000 people that built $10 billion worth of facilities to support he war effort. In 1943, Admiral Moreell became the Chief of the Navy's Material Division
Office of Naval Material
In January 1942 the Director of Material and Procurement was appointed to coordinate all material procurement activities of the US Navy. In 1948 the office title was changed to Chief of Division of Material, and in 1984 to Chief of the Office of Naval Material. In 1983 title was changed to Naval...
; and at the request of Vice President Truman, negotiated a settlement to the national strike of oil refinery workers. When the government seized the nation's strikebound bituminous coal industry a year later, Admiral Moreell was designated the Coal Mines Administrator. On June 11, 1946, he became the first staff corps officer to achieve the rank of Admiral and transferred to the retired list three months later. For the next 12 years, Admiral Moreell turned his attention to industry, serving first, briefly (October 1946 – March 1947) as President of Turner Construction Company then as President, Chief Executive Officer, and Chairman of the Board of Jones and Laughlin Steel Company
Jones and Laughlin Steel Company
The earliest foundations of Jones and Laughlin Steel Company were the American Iron Company, founded in 1851 by Bernard Lauth, and B. F. Jones founded in 1852a few miles south of Pittsburgh along the Monongahela River. Lauth's interest was bought in 1854 by James H. Laughlin...
.
Admiral Moreell served as Chairman of the Task Force on Water Resources and Power of the Second Hoover Commission, directing a twenty-six man committee from November 1953 through June 1955. President Herbert Hoover called the work of this Task Force "the most far-reaching and penetrating inquiry into our water problems ever made in our history".
Always an active and exemplary citizen he was instrumental in organizing American for Constitutional Action (ACA), a national nonpartisan political action organization. This citizenship and service to country was further exemplified through his significant contributions to the Naval Academy itself. He was a member of the Board of Visitors (1953–1955) and Chairman of the Board in 1955. His accomplishments as Chairman of the Special Advisory Commission on Future Developments of Academic Facilities is seen today in the Naval Academy's superb educational complex.
Awards
Admiral Moreell's life was punctuated by accomplishments, awards, and well-earned recognition. He was honored 12 times with doctoral degrees, was elected to the National Academy of Engineering, and was named one of the 10 men who contributed most to the advancement of construction methods in the United States between 1925 and 1975.In 1957 Admiral Moreell was awarded The John Fritz Medal
John Fritz Medal
The John Fritz Medal is since 1902 yearly awarded by the American Association of Engineering Societies for "outstanding scientific or industrial achievements". The medal was created for Fritz's 80th birthday, who lived between 1822 and 1913.- Recipients :...
, referred to as the highest award in the engineering profession, the award is presented each year for scientific or industrial achievement in any field of pure or applied science. It was established in 1902 as a memorial to the great engineer whose name it bears.
When asked which of his honors meant most to him, Admiral Moreell replied: "They are all very meaningful and deeply appreciated by me. I accepted all with pride and humility. The following excerpt from the citation for the Distinguished Service Medal presented in 1945 for World War II
World War II
World War II, or the Second World War , was a global conflict lasting from 1939 to 1945, involving most of the world's nations—including all of the great powers—eventually forming two opposing military alliances: the Allies and the Axis...
service gives me the greatest sense of a job 'well done'":
Displaying great originality and exceptional capacity for bold innovation, he inspired in his subordinates a degree of loyalty and devotion to duty outstanding in the Naval Service, to the end that the Fleet received support in degree and kind unprecedented in the history of naval warfare.'
Legacy
The Society of American Military Engineers (SAME) Moreell Medal is named in honor of Admiral Moreell. This medal is presented for outstanding contribution to military engineering by a civilian or military member of the U.S. Navy’s Civil Engineer Corps. This medal was first awarded in 1955.Admiral Moreell was one of the founders along with Dr. Samuel Moor Shoemaker, rector of Calvary Episcopal Church in Shadyside (Pittsburgh), of The Pittsburgh Experiment, a Christian interdenominational ministry that provides spiritual resources to business, professional and working people. The birthing vision challenge for The Experiment in the 1950s was "to make Pittsburgh as famous for God as it is for steel"...
In Admiral Moreell's honor the Seabees named their Kuwait facility Camp Moreell, a military compound in Kuwait, Southwest Asia. The facility was home to U.S. Navy Seabees operating in the Persian Gulf
Persian Gulf
The Persian Gulf, in Southwest Asia, is an extension of the Indian Ocean located between Iran and the Arabian Peninsula.The Persian Gulf was the focus of the 1980–1988 Iran-Iraq War, in which each side attacked the other's oil tankers...
region under Task Force Charlie as of early 2003. As of April 2003, Task Force Charlie comprised Seabees from several Naval Construction Force commands.
Post Military Career
After retirement from the Navy, Moreell became president of Jones and Laughlin Steel CompanyJones and Laughlin Steel Company
The earliest foundations of Jones and Laughlin Steel Company were the American Iron Company, founded in 1851 by Bernard Lauth, and B. F. Jones founded in 1852a few miles south of Pittsburgh along the Monongahela River. Lauth's interest was bought in 1854 by James H. Laughlin...
, then one of the nation's largest steel manufacturers. In 1951, Moreell denounced attempts by the United Steelworkers of America to win an 18.5-cent-an-hour wage increase. In government hearings on the issue, Moreell doubled the cost of the union's wage increase and demanded a $12 a ton increase in the price of steel to make up the labor costs. Jones and Laughlin Steel was one of the steel companies seized by President Harry S. Truman
Harry S. Truman
Harry S. Truman was the 33rd President of the United States . As President Franklin D. Roosevelt's third vice president and the 34th Vice President of the United States , he succeeded to the presidency on April 12, 1945, when President Roosevelt died less than three months after beginning his...
on April 8, 1952. The seizure was overturned by the Supreme Court of the United States
Supreme Court of the United States
The Supreme Court of the United States is the highest court in the United States. It has ultimate appellate jurisdiction over all state and federal courts, and original jurisdiction over a small range of cases...
on June 22. The union
Trade union
A trade union, trades union or labor union is an organization of workers that have banded together to achieve common goals such as better working conditions. The trade union, through its leadership, bargains with the employer on behalf of union members and negotiates labour contracts with...
struck
Strike action
Strike action, also called labour strike, on strike, greve , or simply strike, is a work stoppage caused by the mass refusal of employees to work. A strike usually takes place in response to employee grievances. Strikes became important during the industrial revolution, when mass labour became...
the next day. After a 53 day strike, Moreell and other steel manufacturers settled for the same terms the union had offered them four months earlier.
Moreell wrote articles for The Freeman, a publication of the Foundation for Economic Education, a group that advocates free markets and libertarian philosophy.