The 15th Naval Construction Battalion (15th NCB) was commissioned on 20 July 1942 at Camp Allen, Virginia.
During World War II, the battalion served with distinction and honors, building advance base camps and airfields throughout the Pacific Theater of Operations. Legend has it that a Marine commander in the Pacific praised the battalion's hard work by observing that the Seabees were "going like a bat out of hell." The comment soon became 15's motto.
The bat logo was developed after the war. Another story says that the child of a unit member drew the first prototype.
The 15th NCB deactivated on 29 October 1945.
In 1962, Reserve Naval Mobile Construction Battalion FIFTEEN (RNMCB-15) was commissioned as a member of the Seabee Ready Reserve. In 1990 RNMCB-15 was re-named NMCB-15 as part of the "one Navy" concept. NMCB-15 is one of twenty Naval Mobile Construction Battalions located throughout the NINTH Naval Construction Regiment in Ft. Worth, TX, to the FIRST Naval Construction Division, Little Creek.
Personnel from ten detachments in five states, (Missouri, Kansas, Iowa, Nebraska, and South Dakota) make up NMCB-15. The battalion's Readiness Support Site and Headquarters is located in Belton, MO, where the property was developed and the facilities constructed by the battalion's Seabees.
Awarded the Battle "E" for "Best of Type" and the RADM J.D. Perry Award for "Best of the Best" in the NCF during the years 1988, 1994, 2001 and 2004.
NMCB-15 takes pride in maintaining and organized, highly trained, and motivated battalion ready to perform any assigned tasking upon mobilization.