Marine Corps Base Camp Lejeune

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Marine Corps Base Camp Lejeune
Jacksonville, North Carolina
MCB Camp Lejeune Insignia
Type	Military base
Built	1941
In use	1941 - present
Garrison	II Marine Expeditionary Force Marine Special Operations Command

A Mk 47 Stryker being tested in 2002 at Camp Lejeune

Marine Corps Base Camp Lejeune is near Jacksonville, North Carolina, on the Atlantic seaboard of the United States.

Camp Lejeune is home to the U.S. Marine Corps' II Marine Expeditionary Force, 2nd Marine Division, three other major Marine commands and a Naval hospital. As of the early 2000s, Onslow County's population was 143,491 of which 43,100 were active service members.

The base occupies 246 square miles (637 km²) and contains 6,946 buildings. The base's 14 miles (23 km) of beaches make it a major area for amphibious assault training, and its location between two deep-water ports allows for fast deployments.

The main base is supplemented by four satellite facilities: Camp Geiger, Stone Bay, Courthouse Bay, Camp Johnson, and the latest addition to the facility, the Greater Sandy Run Training Area. When added to the main base and MCAS Cherry Point, they make up the largest concentration of Marines and U.S. Navy sailors in the world.

[edit] History

Bermuda Regiment soldiers board a USMC CH-46 Sea Knight helicopter at Camp Lejeune.

In April 1941, construction was approved on an 11,000-acre (45 km²) tract in Onslow County, North Carolina. On May 1 of that year, Lt. Col. William P. T. Hill began construction on Marine Barracks New River, N.C. The first base headquarters was in a summer cottage on Montford Point, then shifted to Hadnot Point in 1942. Later that year it was renamed in honor of the 13th Commandant of the Marine Corps, John A. Lejeune.

One of the satellite facilities of Camp Lejeune served for a while as a third boot camp for the Marines, in addition to Parris Island and San Diego. That facility, Montford Point, was established after Franklin D. Roosevelt signed Executive Order 8802. Between 1942 and 1949, a brief era of segregated training for black Marines, the camp at Montford Point trained 20,000 African-Americans. After the military was ordered to fully integrate, Montford Point was renamed Camp Gilbert H. Johnson and became the home of the Marine Corps Combat Service Support Schools.

In 1982 it was discovered that Volatile organic compounds (VOCs) had found their way into the drinking water supply at Camp Lejeune. VOC contamination of groundwater can cause birth defects and other ill health effects in pregnant and nursing mothers. This information was not made public for nearly two decades when the government attempted to identify those who may have been exposed.