"The entire Pacific, including Alaska and the Aleutians were Japanese targets. Japanese operations of 1942, took the islands of Attu and Kiska. Seabees sent to the North were there to work on stalling what appeared at the time to be a major Japanese offensive. By late June 1942 bases were being built on Adak and Amchitka which served as deterrents for the remainder of the war." While the CBs in the north went there with standard CB assignments they had some non-standard tasks. Twice CB 45 had ships literally beached on their doorstep on Tanaga Island in the Aleutians. They assisted the safe evacuations of both the USS Ailanthus (AN-38) and the LST 451. They put damage control crews aboard the LST. Working round the clock for five days they salvaged the ship. CB 4 had divers in the water on another salvage operation in the Aleutians. And, CBMU 1058 was sent into Naval Petroleum Reserve 4 to drill for oil as well as survey a potential pipeline route.