From the Pacific War to Urban Clearance, a Short History of the US Bulldozers

A CONVERSATION WITH FRANCESCA RUSSELLO AMMON

This conversation with Francesca Russello Ammon was originally recorded in May 2018 for The Funambulist podcast. We have decided to revisit it for the purpose of this issue, in collaboration with Francesca herself. The dialogue is built around her book, Bulldozer: Demolition and Clearance of the Postwar Landscape (2016), which retraces the political history of the bulldozer by the United States during World War II (used in the Pacific War) and immediately following it in the massive clearance and engineering of the US settler colony, in particular in its cities.

LÉOPOLD LAMBERT: The first part of your book addresses the use of the bulldozer by the US military during World War II, in particular, during the Pacific War – a name whose irony seems to be lost on many people… In it, you’re describing this section of the US Navy called the “Seabees” (United States Naval Construction Battalions), who have been extensively using the bulldozer. Would you mind telling us more about them?

FRANCESCA RUSSELLO AMMON: Sure. The US army has the Corps of Engineers, which has existed for a while. But during World War II, the Navy created its own comparable branch: the Seabees. During the war, there was this realization that a group would be necessary to both build and fight. So, they specifically tried to bring in engineers, construction workers, and people with skills in operating heavy equipment, building bases, building airfields, highways in the Pacific especially, and they sometimes imported older, more experienced men into the military than they would have otherwise been doing. Those men joined the Seabees. Over time, they essentially tapped the supply of people who could readily staff this. So the new men who joined those battalions were trained when they became Seabees. This kind of army of construction men contributed to the war effort, but then also, when the war was over, came home and found new construction opportunities at home, in both construction and destruction, having trained in those things during the war.