Dana Rene Bowler / Star staff To preserve a part of Navy history, Lara Godbille, director of the Navy Seabee Museum in Port Hueneme, will interview and videotape veteran Seabees for "Operation Sea Story," an oral history project.

Like words fading from aging parchment, a piece of Navy memory vanishes every time a veteran Seabee dies.

To preserve the veterans' stories before they go, curators at the U.S. Navy Seabee Museum in Port Hueneme are interviewing them later this week as part of an oral history project.

Called "Operation Sea Story," historians will begin videotaping interviews with veterans attending the All Seabee Reunion starting Thursday and running through Sunday, which corresponds with the annual Seabee Days festival this weekend at Naval Base Ventura County. The interviews will be recorded and transcribed and eventually incorporated into exhibits when a new Seabee museum opens in 2010.

"We have extensive artifacts and archives in our collection, but in cataloging those things over the past five years, we're finding that where we have holes is the personal stories," said Lara Godbille, director of the Seabee Museum at Port Hueneme.

The museum is the main repository for archives, artifacts and the history of the Seabees. But its goal of collecting the oral history of the Naval Construction Battalions, which were first formed during World War II and used in every U.S. conflict since, could be thwarted simply by time.

A few years ago, veterans groups estimated that more than 1,000 World War II vets were dying every day. The pool of former Seabees is much smaller, making every one of their voices that much more important in recording the oral history. Currently, about 18,000 Naval Construction Battalion personnel are on reserve or active duty.

In all, about 700,000 people have served as Seabees, including about 325,000 during World War II alone. Drawn from the ranks of construction workers and trained craftsmen, many of those who served in World War II were — at an average age of 37 — older than most recruits, said Godbille.

"Unfortunately, a lot of have already passed away," she said. "Very few of them are still left, but a lot do come to these reunions."

Godbille plans to interview at least 10 veterans but is ready to interview many, many more. "What we've found is that only those who were very, very young or even underage at the time of their service are still alive," she said.

The service was formed after the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor. The U.S. military realized it had many civilian contractors in the Pacific theater under fire after the war began.

Although Godbille especially would like to record the stories of the oldest of these, the historians are interested in tales of veterans from all wars. "Obviously there's a focus on the older Seabees, but we're interested in any and all of those who served," she said.

Interested veterans can sign up at the reunion or contact Godbille directly at 982-5167 or lara.godbille@navy.mil.