Military achievements: Carson City woman serving with Navy construction battalion

A Carson City native and 2008 Carson High School graduate is building bridges and roads around the world as a member of the U.S. Navy’s Naval Mobile Construction Battalion 133, based in Gulfport, Miss.

Petty Officer 3rd Class Clair Grady is a utilitiesman with NMCB 133, a unit specializing in building structures in areas of conflict. Sailors attached to NMCB 133 and other similar units, nicknamed “Seabees,” are a unique group in the Navy whose motto is “We build, we fight.” Seabees not only build bridges, roads, runways and other structures in war zones; they also defend those structures after they’ve built them.

Grady and the rest of the sailors assigned to NMCB 133 are part of the Navy’s construction force that has been around for more than 70 years. Seabees have built entire bases and bridges and bulldozed and paved thousands of miles of roadway and airstrips for the U.S. military all over the world.