Camp Peary (Va.)
Biography
Camp Peary is a U.S. Navy military installation located in York County, near Williamsburg, Virginia. Established on November 4, 1942, and named in honor of Rear Admiral Robert E. Peary, the Arctic explorer and Civil Engineer Corps officer, the camp served as the Naval Construction Training Center (NCTC) for the U.S. Navy's Construction Battalions, known as Seabees. Covering approximately 11,000 acres, Camp Peary was organized into an administrative area, four regimental training areas, and an officers' training area, and was capable of housing and training up to forty battalions simultaneously.
Camp Peary succeeded Camp Allen and Camp Bradford in Norfolk, Virginia, as the Navy's primary Seabee boot training facility, providing basic military instruction, discipline, weapons training, stevedoring, and construction trade skills to newly recruited personnel before their assignment to construction battalions or advance base depots. The camp also hosted a dynamiting and demolition school in its "Area E," where the first Naval Combat Demolition Unit (NCDU) classes trained between May and July 1943 under Lieutenant Commander Draper Kauffman, prior to the program's relocation to Fort Pierce, Florida.
Due to declining recruitment needs, Camp Peary was discontinued as a Seabee training center on June 10, 1944, with subsequent training consolidated at Camp Endicott in Quonset Point, Rhode Island. The Navy vacated Camp Peary in 1946.
Found in 1 Collection or Record:
Andrew J. Blair Collection
This collection contains newsletters, religious service programs, photographs, artwork, and personal ephemera documenting the Navy service of Andrew J. Blair with Construction Battalion Detachment 1045 in the Mediterranean Area and the 147th Naval Construction Battalion on Okinawa. Materials reflect Blair’s roles as organist, assistant chaplain, cartoonist, and illustrator, and document battalion religious life and campus activities.