Divisions Two, Four and Eightreinforced with replacement sailors fresh from training at NSGLwere taken to Mare Island Navy Yard where there was an ammunition depot and loading piers. On August 8, 1944, the docked to be loaded with naval mines and other munitions. The next day, three-hundred and twenty-eight men were assembled and marched off. When they heard the orders "Column left" and "Forward March" to march toward the ammunition loading dock, the entire group stopped and would not continue. All said they were afraid and that they would not load munitions under the same officers and conditions as before. It was a mass work stoppage, which would have been called a strike if the workers had been civilians.