Reine Corbeil: World War II Navy Seabee
Reine J. Corbeil is a World War II veteran that faced extreme circumstances and experienced the atrocious conditions of war.
Having faced a plethora of obstacles, Reine’s first disappointment was when he was denied membership of the Aircorp for color discrimination despite passing the examination. Reine was then stationed to be a gunman but he denied the proposal and had decided to become a part of the Navy’s SeaBees. The Seabees were the Construction Batallion and Reine was a member of the 7th Special Batallion. They were attached to the marines and were ordered to follow them as they built power plants for the marine base. During their journey to Hawaii, Reine described it as the “point of no return”.
Reine and his squad traveled southeast to Ulithi and then to New Zealand after going south. The last location they had been in was Okinawa and they had actually remained there. It was Japan’s last stronghold and while they were there, Reine and his squad were targeted and bullets fell from the sky and they were the target. The Seabees’ Construction Battalion was not well suited for combat. They had no armor, no experience, no skills to be in combat and so Reine himself was forced to jump in a bomb crater.
The squad stayed there overnight but had to face the extreme weathers and the abundance of water. Although they purified their own water, it was still limited. Following the dreadful circumstance that they were faced with, Reine and his squad experienced a scene that will stick in their minds for as long as they live, taking the life of a man. To add to the stressful state that Reine and his squad were in, they found a picture of the man’s family.
One can only imagine how dreadful it must have been both emotionally and mentally to have to live down the fact that they had just taken away a father and a husband from a family. Reine and his squad could not stay forever and so they traveled once more. Their next stop would be at the Japanese mainlands but they they got a report that an atomic bomb was about to be dropped. Reine believes that the dropping of the bomb was moral and he also believes that those that say otherwise do not truly understand the conditions of the war. He was willing to list out his argument for why he believes that it was necessary. However, Reine and his squad did question why the
Reine J. Corbeil is currently 93 years old and has three brothers along with three sisters. Reine was born in Montana but moved to California for its fresh air and clean environment. Reine was a active in various activities such as playing football and flying. For Reine, flying was a passion. He loved it so much that he flew single-handedly flew a plane at the age of 15. When Reine joined the war in the middle of 1942, he wanted to follow his heart and join the Aircorp. He passed the examination; however, that first obstacle he faced ruined his chances to become a flyer.
second atomic bomb was dropped. It bothered them greatly because it killed so many people. Reine obviously didn’t want any of the Japanese to die because he himself had friends that were Japanese.
Reine was such a compassionate guy. While worrying about the state and environment that he was in, Reine also worried about his mother at home. Communication was scarce in histime and he was worried that his mother didn’t know where he was for 16 months. He had much respect for the people back hom as well because they “did their job like how [we] did [our] job”.
Reine only worried about his family. He did notworry about any lover for he did not want one. Reine stated that he has two resolves. The first was that he did not want to get into a serious relationship while he was fighting because he needed to focus. The second was that he wanted to try out college after war so he wouldn’t have had the time to give his attention to a relationship. Reine took everything seriously. He allowed no pranks during the war and he aided in the maturity of a avery childish group. After everything, Rine was finally discharged January 26, 1946.