The few civilians who trickle into the Seabee museum's two rundown Quonset huts often come on the same plaintive quest: Grandpa has died and his kids want to see the kinds of tools he used, the guns he shot, the uniform he wore when he was fighting in World War II.
In a few years, relatives could well drop in to see the Humvee that Mom drove and the chemical suit she wore when she fought in Iraq.
And, if all goes according to plan, the artifacts will be displayed in a new $12-million state-of-the-art home for a collection, with such items as the compass used by Adm. Robert E. Peary at the North Pole and the script used by John Wayne in the 1944 film, "The Fighting Seabees."
Dramatic changes are in store for the Port Hueneme facility, one of the largest military museums in the state and housed on the grounds of Naval Base Ventura County. The project is planned for land just off the base, to increase public access, which has all but dried up due to tighter security measures on military bases. And as the war in Iraq winds down, artifacts that illuminate the Seabees' role are expected to pour in, thanks to both Seabees in the field and Navy historians traveling with the troops.
Started during World War II, the Navy's Seabees, short for construction battalion, build everything from barracks to bridges. They frequently are called upon to set up aid camps at disaster sites. In the war in the Pacific, they sometimes fought their way ashore in advance of the troops, clearing beaches and building roads to ease the path of the combat forces that would follow.
The expected flood of museum pieces will contrast with a comparative trickle after the 1991 Persian Gulf War, when the military was less aggressive in telling its story, some military historians say.
"That was a good learning experience for the Navy," said Lara Tobias, the Seabee museum's curator. "It had been so long since we'd been in active combat that we weren't thinking about collecting artifacts. This time around, we're doing something about it."
Curators connected with the other services agree.
"The object of the Gulf War was to move as fast as possible," said Neil Morrison, museum director at the Army's Ft. Irwin training center in the Mojave Desert. "Afterward, we said, 'Hey! You forgot the museums!' "
