The All Clear Dispatch is the ship's newsletter of All Clear Performance: a little naval history, a little evidence-based fitness, and something worth eating. Founded by a U.S. Navy Rescue Swimmer. Welcome aboard, again.
We Build, We Fight: The Seabees
On 5 March 1942, three months into America's war in the Pacific, Rear Admiral Ben Moreell got authorization to form something the Navy had never had: construction battalions of skilled tradesmen who could build under fire and fight to defend what they built. The initials C.B. became a name, the Seabees, and their motto said the rest: Construimus, Batuimus. We Build, We Fight.
The first Seabees were not kids. They were carpenters, electricians, equipment operators, and welders recruited straight off civilian job sites, average age well north of the typical recruit. They carved airstrips out of coral, threw up bases across the Pacific, and did it on timelines nobody believed until they saw it. Their unofficial motto might be the best two words in the Navy: "Can Do."
We think about the Seabees a lot at All Clear right now, because this month we started working with home builders. Different mission, same conviction: the crews who BUILD things are the ones who change what people get to live in. To the builders and Bees, this Dispatch is for you.
Your House Should Make You Stronger
The federal Physical Activity Guidelines are blunt: adults need 150 to 300 minutes of moderate aerobic activity a week PLUS muscle-strengthening work on two or more days. Most Americans hit neither number, and the most common reason given is time.
Here's the honest math: nobody can give you more hours, but you can shorten the distance between you and the work. A bench in the garage removes the drive, the parking lot, the waiting for the rack. Two focused strength days a week at home meets the guideline, and the guideline is associated with a long list of good things: stronger bones, better blood sugar control, and healthier aging. That's why we exist, and it's why builders are starting to put wellness rooms INTO houses. The gym you'll actually use is the one on the other side of the kitchen wall.
Back In Stock: Body-Solid Vertical Leg Press
Gone for weeks, back on the dock. The Body-Solid Vertical Leg Press (GVLP) packs squat-scale leg work into a footprint that fits a garage corner: plate-loaded, no stack ceiling, heavy-gauge steel, lifetime in-home warranty. $1,100, ships free. Leg day stopped negotiating.
The All Clear Galley: Can-Do Cookout Skewers
Labor Day week calls for the grill, even in an Oklahoma heat dome, because the grill lives outside and so does the smoke. Marinate two pounds of cubed chicken breast 30 minutes in low-sodium soy, honey, lime, olive oil, garlic, and black pepper. Thread with pineapple, bell pepper, and red onion in tight ranks. Grill 12 to 14 minutes over medium-high, quarter turns, until the chicken reads 165F. Four servings, about 46 grams of protein each, start to chow in 45 minutes. Feed the crew that built something this week.
Sources
- Seabee history: Seabee, Wikipedia; Defense Media Network, Seabees: The History of U.S. Naval Construction Battalions; Stars and Stripes, Navy Seabees mark their 83rd anniversary
- Physical activity guidance: CDC, Physical Activity Guidelines for Adults; WHO, Physical Activity fact sheet
- Chicken safe temperature: USDA FSIS Safe Temperature Chart