LOL, wow, we used to have that bee on everything, including the back window of the truck, the white navy hat, and the gun (sorry, do not know what kind)...can just see the bee in my mind. Okay, had to look it up. Here is the scoop on the Bee.
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Frank J. Iafrate, originator of the Seabee name and emblem, passed away on March 30, 2000, in North Providence, Rhode Island, after a two month battle with pancreatic cancer. Iafrate credits luck, coincidence and a love of drawing, for devising the Seabee logo and identification.
It all started when Iafrate was 22 years old and withdrew from the Rhode Island School of Design. He wanted to pursue a career in animation with the Walt Disney Company. When that dream job fell through, he took to drawing caricatures of people at nightclubs. Soon, he tired of the nightclub scene and in 1942, took a job as an engineering clerk at Camp Endicott, Davisville, Rhode Island, next to the Quonset Point Naval Air Station, that was under construction.
Iafrate's caricatures of sailors and officers were soon noticed by the base public works officer. This commander enlisted Iafrate's talents in designing an insignia for the newly formed Construction Battalion of the Navy, the first term for the Seabees. Iafrate was tasked with designing a logo and creating a snappier name for this organization of thousands of men and women who would build hospitals, airstrips, barracks and more for the war effort.
Obeying his commander to provide a Disney-like design, he first animated a beaver, thinking that the beaver would signify working all day. He ditched that idea because the beaver also turns tail and runs away when frightened. The next day he conceived of a bee, which, in his words, "works all day, but it doesn't bother you, but if you bother it, it has a way of stinging you." To bring the bee to life, he "put a Navy hat on him, gave him a submachine gun, to show fighting ability, some tools in his other hands to show construction ability, made him third class petty officer with the appropriate insignia on each arm and the C.E.C. insignia on his wrist showed that he was part of the Navy Civil Engineer's Corps.
" In this way, the bee symbolized the Seabees as both construction and fighting men. He then drew a big letter "Q" around the bee to represent Quonset. Since this logo was to be used in a national campaign, the "Q" was adjusted and a hawser of rope was placed around the bee. At this same time, he thought of the homonym CB - Seabee. He submitted his work in the nick of time. Another design considered was "a drawing of a sailor with a sledgehammer, bare-chested; had a helmet on." These ideas quickly gained appeal among recruits, and the rest, as they say, is history.
For all his efforts, Mr. Iafrate was awarded the Distinguished Public Service Award in 1949, the highest honor that the Secretary of the Navy can bestow to a civilian. In the 1950's, Iafrate served as a Seabee for four years until he was honorably discharged as a Chief Petty Officer."
"While Disney artists did not design the Seabee's flying bee insignia, they did design emblems for around 10 Naval Construction units." I didn't know they did so many. Wow.