MARINE CORPS HISTORICAL REFERENCE SERIES
Number 9
A Brief History Of
THE MARINE CORPS BASE
and RECRUIT DEPOT SAN DIEGO,
CALIFORNIA 1914 - 1962
HISTORICAL BRANCH, G-3 DIVISION
HEADQUARTERS, U. S. MARINE CORPS
WASHINGTON, D. C.
Revised 1962
DEPARTMENT OF THE NAVY
HEADQUARTERS UNITED STATES MARINE CORPS
WASHINGTON 25. D. C.
REVIEWED AND APPROVED 14 AUG 1962
R. E. CUSHMAN, JR.
Major General, U.S. Marine Corps
Assistant Chief of Staff, G-3
BRIEF HISTORY OF THE MARINE CORPS BASE AND RECRUIT
DEPOT SAN DIEGO, CALIFORNIA
TABLE OF CONTENTS
Original Online
Page Page
Brief History of the Marine Corps Base and Recruit 1
6 Depot, San Diego, California Commanders of Marine
Corps Activities at 18 23 San
Diego, Callifornia, 1914-1962 Notes
20 25
BRIEF HISTORY OF THE MARINE CORPS BASE AND RECRUIT
DEPOT
SAN DIEGO, CALIFORNIA
By
Elmore A. Champie
The Marine Corps Base at San Diego is surrounded by
evidences of the Spanish heritage of southern California.
Among the more conspicuous are the euphonious place names found
everywhere, including the name San Diego itself, and the
picturesque architecture that may be seen, not only in the city,
but also in the permanent buildings of the Marine Corps post.
This is a natural consequence of the fact that California was a
Spanish possession for nearly three centuries. The region was
claimed for Spain in 1542 by Juan Rodriquez Cabrillo, a
Portuguese navigator in the services of Charles V and the first
white man to see San Diego Bay. It remained under Spanish
control until 1821, when Mexico won her independence from
Spain. Thereafter, for about a quarter of a century,
California was claimed by Mexico.
Geography and the westward expansion of the United States
now brought the Marines into their first contact with San
Diego. The town was seized by a landing party of seamen and
Marines from the USS CYANE on 29 July 1946, shortly after war
had broken out between the United States and Mexico. It was in
this operation that the Stars and Stripes was first raised in
southern California. Marines were also among the
reinforcements sent early the following December to assist
Brigadier General Stephen W. Kearny, USA, and his dragoons in
completing the final portion of their march from Santa Fe, New
Mexico, to San Diego. Despite the harassments of Andres Pico's
lancers, Kearny succeeded in reaching San Diego on 12 December
1846. Hostilities in the California theater of operations
ceased about a month later; and when the Treaty of
Guadalupe-Hidalgo formally ended the war in 1848, Mexico ceded
to the United States a large block of territory that included
California.
Geography - an important element, as we have noted, in the
foregoing events - has been a constant factor in the working
out of San Diego's destiny with respect to the Marine Corps.
Only 12 miles north of the Mexican border and possessed of an
excellent harbor, the city readily recommended itself to the
strategic eye as an expeditionary base on the west coast when
the need for such a base became evident in the early twentieth
century. San Diego was not only convenient to the Pacific
approaches of Latin America, where it was apparent that trouble
could be expected at intervals, but it could also serve
advantageously as a port of embarkation for Hawaii and the Far
East. Concrete action toward establishing a base there,
however, awaited some precipitating event. Mexican
1
political instability was to provide the catalyst that
returned the Marines to San Diego for the first time since the
Mexican War and subsequently caused a permanent Marine Corps
post to be established there.
This Mexican political instability resulted from the
revolution of 1910, in which year, the dam of discontent with
the regime of Porfirio Diaz at last broke. Though styled as
president, Diaz was really a dictator; he had been succeeding
himself in office continuously since 1884. His policies had
strongly favored the upper classes, and by 1910, all the
elements of political and social revolt were present, awaiting
a leader. When Francisco Madero offered himself as the leader
late in the year, the disaffected flocked to his standard, and
Mexico was plunged into civil war.
Noting the turmoil in its neighbor to the south, the United
States thought it expedient to make a display of armed
strength, under the disguise of training exercises, as a broad
hint to the Mexicans that United States nationals and property
must be respected. The U. S. Army moved units on both coasts
of the United States, and so did the Marine Corps. On the east
coast, the 1st Provisional Brigade of Marines held training
exercises at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, while a provisional
regiment, commanded by Colonel Charles A. Doyen, was hurriedly
assembled at the Navy Yard, Mare Island, California, for
"expeditionary service on the Pacific coast."<1> Since the 1st
Provisional Brigade comprised the 1st, 2d, and 3d Regiments,
Doyen's unit was called the 4th Regiment - the first to be so
designated. This earliest 4th Regiment was transported to
North Island, in San Diego Bay, where it disembarked on 20
March 1911 and established a camp to which the name Camp Thomas
was given.<2>
About two months later, the aged Diaz gave up the attempt
to suppress the revolt against him and resigned on 25 May 1911
to go into exile. Following a period of some months as
provisional president, Madero was elected to succeed the ousted
dictator. Civil disorder having largely ceased after the fall
of Diaz, part of Colonel Doyen's regiment at Camp Thomas was
disbanded in June 1911; the remaining officers and men returned
to their regular stations in July.<3>
Peace in Mexico was short-lived, however, for Madero had
released revolutionary forces that were to keep that country in
a state of ferment for many years. Madero himself, alienating
numerous supporters by failing to make the reforms he had
promised, soon lost out in the struggle for power. On 19
February 1913, he was forced to resign by General Victoriano
Huerta, who had placed himself at the head of a conservative
counterrevolution. Three days later, Madero was shot while in
military custody.
2
Difficulties with the United States followed. Because of
Huerta's usurpation and his responsibility, in President
Woodrow Wilson's opinion, for the death of Madero, the United
States refused to recognize Huerta as the legitimate head of
government. As a result, relations between the two countries
became strained. They worsened because of an incident at
Tampico early in 1914, involving mistreatment of American naval
personnel by Mexican officials and the refusal of the latter to
fire a salute to the American flag in token of apology. Shortly
afterward, information reached the United States that a vessel
with a cargo of arms and munitions from Europe was bound for
Veracruz. President Wilson ordered the Atlantic Fleet to
prevent delivery of this cargo to the Mexicans, and a force of
seamen and Marines was landed at Veracruz on 21 April 1914.
In these circumstances, it was considered desirable to have
a United States force ready to land, if necessary, on the west
coast of Mexico. The result was the organization of the second
unit in the Marine Corps to be designated the 4th Regiment.
This second 4th Regiment, destined soon to be claimed as "San
Diego's Own," was assembled at Puget Sound and Mare Island Navy
Yards in April 1914. Under the command of Colonel Joseph H.
Pendleton, the regiment embarked in the USS SOUTH DAKOTA, WEST
VIRGINIA, and JUPITER and proceeded at once to the Gulf
California, where it stood by until the following July.<4> By
this time, the prospect that it would need to land seemed
remote, and the normal procedure would have been to disband it.
It was not disbanded, however, for at least two reasons. In
the first place, about the time the regiment was being
organized, Assistant Secretary of the Navy Franklin D.
Roosevelt had made a trip to San Diego to inspect that area as
a possible site for a Marine Corps "advance base station" for
the west coast similar to the one being maintained for the east
coast at Philadelphia. He had been favorably impressed with
what he had seen.<5> When there seemed to be no further need
to keep the 4th Regiment on board ships in the Gulf of
California, the unit became available to make a beginning of a
Marine Corps post at San Diego. In the second place, there was
the possibility that the regiment might soon be needed again
for expeditionary duty in the Far East.
For the return trip to United States waters, the Marines on
board the JUPITER were transferred to the SOUTH DAKOTA and WEST
VIRGINIA. From the latter two vessels, the 4th Regiment
disembarked at North Island early in July 1914 - two companies
on the 7th and the remainder on the 10th. The Marines called
the living quarters they constructed on the island Camp
Howard.<6>
3
From this time forward, there were to be Marines stationed
at San Diego. Though they were soon to shift their
headquarters to the mainland, Camp Howard was thus the germ
from which the present Marine Corps Recruit Depot grew.
The 4th Regiment remained at Camp Howard only until the
following December, at which time, it was ordered to exposition
duty. The first ship had passed through the Panama Canal in
August 1914, and both San Francisco and San Diego planned to
mark the opening of the new era in maritime intercourse between
the Atlantic and Pacific Oceans with major celebrations in 1915
- San Francisco with the Panama-Pacific International
Exposition, San Diego with the Panama-California Exposition.
The 1st Battalion of the 4th Regiment was ordered to San
Francisco and the 2d Battalion to San Diego, each to establish
and maintain a model camp and to provide in various other ways a
Marine Corps exhibit as part of the display.
The 2d Battalion left Camp Howard first. Its field and
staff and the 25th Company moved to San Diego, presumably to
the area in Balboa Park, now called the Palisades, on 11
December 1914. These units were joined by the battalion's
three remaining companies - the 26th, 27th, and 28th - on 15,
16, and 17 December, respectively. The regimental field and
staff moved on the 21st; it was soon, if not from the first, to
be housed in one of the exposition buildings (the one then
called the Science and Education Building). The next day, 22
December, when the 1st Battalion's staff and its three
companies - the 31st, 32d, and 34th - boarded the USS West
Virginia for transportation to the Marine Barracks, Mare Island
Navy Yard, Camp Howard ceased to exist. From Mare Island, the
1st Battalion would proceed to the San Francisco exposition
later in the winter.<7>
On 19 December 1914, Colonel Pendleton reported by telegram
to Marine Corps Headquarters that the Marine Barracks, San
Diego, had been established that date.<8> Regimental
headquarters was kept separate from the post at this time, and
the first commanding officer of the latter was Major William N.
McKelvy, who was also the commanding officer of the 2d
Battalion, 4th Regiment.<9>
As yet, the Marine Corps installation at San Diego was in a
tentative or temporary status, however. No land had been
acquired for a permanent station, and, apparently, no steps in
that direction were being taken by the Navy Department at this
time. But with Colonel Pendleton the senior officer at San
Diego, this matter was not allowed to be overlooked or
forgotten. Impressed from the first with the unusual
suitability of that area as a location for an expeditionary
base, Colonel Pendleton
4
had given a public address on this subject to a group or local
citizens as early as September 1914, and it appears that he
also submitted one or more recommendations on the subject to
Brigadier General Commandant George Barnett in the course of
the months that followed.<10>
In any case, progress towards a permanent base began to be
made in 1915. In that year, Assistant Secretary of the Navy
Roosevelt paid another visit to San Diego - to see the
exposition, but also to inspect various specific sites that
might serve for a Marine base.<11> After Roosevelt's return to
Washington, General Barnett received orders from the Navy
Department to inspect the San Diego locations and to report his
opinion as to the one most suitable. This he did in August,
his official report being dated the 26th of that month. Of the
possibilities shown him, he wrote, the only one worthy of
consideration was a certain 232.24-acre tract on San Diego Bay
owned by the San Diego Securities Company. Though North
Coronado Beach Island would be ideal for the purpose
contemplated, the general said, the price asked for that
property put it out of the question. On the other hand, the
232.24-acre tract could be bought for approximately $250,000.
This land was above high tide, he observed, and was large
enough in area in its existing condition for both immediate
needs and those of some time to come.
The question now before the Navy Department had two parts:
(1) whether, a permanent base should be established on the
coast of southern California, and (2) where, if authorized, the
base should be located. In addition to General Barnett's
report, considerations bearing on both parts of the question
supervened during the year 1915.
The need for such a base was underscored by the fact that
no less than twice during that year internal conditions in
Mexico made it necessary to withdraw part of the 4th Regiment
from exposition duty and send it on an expeditionary mission
along the west coast of that country. First, the 2d Battalion,
less the 29th Company, was absent from San Diego from 17 June to
10 August.<13> Then, in November, the entire 1st Battalion was
pulled out of San Francisco and joined by two companies from
the 2d Battalion at San Diego; Colonel Pendleton himself, with
his regimental staff, went along with this force, which was
still watchfully waiting in the Gulf of California at the end
of the year.<14>
As for the location of the base, should the latter be
approved, the officials of San Diego contributed a new factor
for consideration in the fall of 1915; they formally offered
the Navy Department 500 acres of municipally owned tidelands
5
adjoining the 232 acres of privately owned land if the
Department should purchase the latter. Josephus Daniels, the
Secretary of the Navy, acknowledged receipt of this offer in
November.<15>
The question of whether a permanent force of Marines should
be maintained in southern California was submitted to the Navy
General Board; and by the first week of January 1916, the Board
had so recommended, and Secretary Daniels had approved. On 8
January, Daniels wrote to General Barnett, informing him of the
Board's action and of his own approval and stating that San
Diego was considered to be well fitted in every way to be the
station for the permanent force of Marines thus authorized.
The Secretary then went on to direct General Barnett to "take
the necessary steps to establish on a suitable site in San
Diego a permanent Marine Corps post which will be designated as
the Marine Barracks, San Diego, California," and to assign to it
for permanent duty "such forces of the Marine Corps as are now,
or may hereafter become, available on the west coast of the
United States."<16> On the same date, General Barnett addressed
a letter to Major McKelvy, appointing him the first commanding
officer of the permanent Marine barracks at San Diego.<17>
Thus, the 4th Regiment, though well over half of it was
actually on expeditionary duty in the Gulf of California at
this time, was permanently assigned to San Diego. At the same
time, the Marine Barracks was established as a permanent
administrative entity. Still located in Balboa Park, it was
now placed on the list of posts required to submit reports and
staff returns through the assistant adjutant and inspector,
Headquarters, Department of the Pacific, in San Francisco.<18>
A separate barracks detachment was not provided, however, until
several months later.
This last development took place when the 4th Regiment was
ordered to expeditionary duty in Santo Domingo. The absent
units had returned to San Diego on 3 February (at which time,
Colonel Pendleton had relieved Major McKelvy as commanding
officer of the Marine Barracks),<19> but the complete regiment
was to serve at its newly designated permanent home for only a
few months. A revolution in Santo Domingo soon created such
disturbed conditions in that country that Rear Admiral William
B. Caperton, commanding the naval forces in the Haitian-Santo
Domingo area, requested reinforcements. The 4th Regiment was so
assigned. A barracks detachment of 3 officers and 50 enlisted
men, under Second Lieutenant Selden B. Kennedy, was now detailed
from its personnel to remain behind at San Diego to operate the
post.<20>
6
On 6 June 1916, the Regiment departed by rail for New
Orleans, whence it would proceed to Santo Domingo in the USS
HANCOCK.<21> "San Diego's own" regiment was not to return to
its home city until 1924.
By the time the 4th Regiment left for Santo Domingo,
legislation to authorize the purchase of the 232-acre tract on
San Diego Bay for a permanent Marine Corps expeditionary base
was well on the way to final passage by Congress.
Representative William Kettner, of the Congressional district
that included San Diego, had introduced a bill for this purpose
in January 1916<22> - the same month in which Secretary of the
Navy Daniels had directed General Barnett to establish the
permanent Marine Barracks, San Diego. The provisions of
Kettner's bill were incorporated into the naval appropriation
act, approved 29 August 1916. Under this act, the Secretary of
the Navy was authorized to purchase the tract "for advance
base, expeditionary and aviation purposes, to cost not
exceeding $250,000," on condition that the city of San Diego
donated 500 acres of adjoining tideland "known as Dutch
Flat...."<23>
The completion of the many details connected with the proof
and conveyance of title to the two parcels of land required a
period of months. All this work was at length finished,
however, and the acquisition of the land by the Navy Department
was consummated on 15 June 1917.<24>
The plans for the base, one of the largest projects ever
authorized for the Marine Corps, called for "barracks to
accommodate about 1,700 marines,...an administrative building,
gymnasium, quartermaster storehouse, expeditionary storehouse,
power plant, with laundry and bakery attached, dispensary,
guardhouse, officers' quarters, water supply and sewerage
systems, electric lighting, heating, and refrigerating systems,
a sea wall, a shipping pier, and all the other accessories
necessary to make the base complete in every respect."<25> The
estimated cost was about four or five million dollars.<26>
A great amount of preliminary dredging and filling was
necessary, and this went forward during World War I, which the
United States had entered by the time the title to the land was
cleared. This work continued after the war, and it was not
until 15 March 1919 that ground-breaking ceremonies were held
to inaugurate the first permanent construction on the site - six
barracks buildings.<27>
Later the same year, the Navy Department took the first
step toward the formal organization of an expeditionary force
to occupy the base when it should be ready. In September 1919,
Brigadier General Pendleton was ordered to proceed to San Diego
to activate Headquarters, 2d Advanced Base Force. General
Pendleton had served as commander of U. S. forces in Santo
Domingo until October 1918. He had then assumed command of the
7
Marine Barracks, Parris Island, South Carolina, on 11 November
1918. It was from this post that he was detached on 25
September 1919 to duty at San Diego. He arrived at the Marine
barracks in that city on 1 October and activated his new
headquarters the same date.<28>
While construction of the base was going forward, the post
at San Diego continued to be located in Balboa Park. Here,
during the war, the barracks detachment had grown from the
platoon-sized organization left by the 4th Regiment to about 10
officers and 300 men. In addition, one or two companies had
been attached from time to time. After the war, there was some
reduction in the size or the barracks detachment, but a senior
officer remained in charge; when General Pendleton arrived, the
post was under the command of Colonel John F. McGill, and two
skeletonized companies, the 152d and 209th, were attached. At
the end of October 1919, General Pendleton's first month at San
Diego, the barracks detachment had 7 officers and 183 enlisted
men, the 152d Company had 1 officer and 20 enlisted men, and
the 209th Company had 1 officer and 17 enlisted men.
Headquarters, 2d Advanced Base Force, was still very embryonic,
with only two officers and four enlisted men. In addition to
the foregoing, there was a Marine detachment of 1 officer and 41
enlisted men at the Naval Air Station, North Island, which the
Navy Department had activated during the war.<29>
For nearly five years from this time, General Pendleton
remained in charge of Marine Corps activities in the San Diego
area. During this half decade, there were several events of
importance from an organizational point of view. The 7th
Regiment, which had been organized for duty in Cuba during
World War I, had been disbanded in 1919. On 1 April 1921, the
1st Battalion of the 7th Regiment was reactivated at San Diego
as a component of the 2d Advanced Base Force. The following
November, the latter was redesignated the 5th Brigade, and on 1
December, the 1st Battalion, 7th Regiment, became the 1st
Separate Battalion, 5th Brigade.<30>
These organizational changes led up to an administrative
event of the first importance. On 1 December 1921, the new
post was placed in commission, with Headquarters 5th Brigade as
the senior command present.<31> Presumably, this marked the
first occupation of the new buildings.<32>
Another event of major importance occurred somewhat less
than two years later. In the summer of 1923, the Marine Corps
recruit depot for the western half of the United States moved
from the Marine Barracks, Mare Island Navy Yard, California, to
the new post at San Diego, debarking from the USS SIRIUS at the
latter place on 12 August.<33>
This recruit depot had been one of the original
installations of its kind when it was established at Mare
Island in mid-1911 along with another at the Puget Sound Navy
Yard and
8
still others on the east coast. In 1912, Headquarters Marine
Corps, concluding that one large recruit depot on the west
coast would be more efficient than the two smaller ones, had
closed the installation at Puget Sound;<34> from that date
until it moved in 1923, the depot at Mare Island had served as
the training place for all recruits from the western part of the
United States. It came to San Diego as a component of the
larger command there, but it was destined to grow so much in
the years ahead that it would eventually crowd all other Marine
Corps functions from the limits of the post on the bay and,
finally, give its own name to the post.
The recruit depot had been at San Diego approximately six
months before the post received the designation it was to bear
for the next 24 years. On 1 March 1924, the installation,
which had materialized as a result of the vision and efforts of
General Pendleton and others, was officially named the Marine
Corps Base, Naval Operating Base, San Diego.<35>
And now the time came for General Pendleton to withdraw
from an active role in the affairs of the base. More than any
other one individual he had been connected with the
transformation of the idea into reality, and when he reached
the retirement age of 64 on 2 June 1924, he could step back with
the satisfying knowledge that the groundwork was solidly laid.
He was to live until 4 February 1942, an active and
public-spirited citizen of Coronado, across the bay from San
Diego, and was thus to see the developments of nearly 18 years
following his retirement.<36> But like Count Cavour, the great
nineteenth-century unifier of Italy, who is reported to have
said with satisfaction on his deathbed, "Italy is made,"
General Pendleton could say on the day that he retired, "The
San Diego Marine Corps Base is made." Though growth would
occur, the fundamentals had been established.
As a matter of fact, no major construction was to take
place after General Pendleton's retirement until 1939, though
minor improvements were made. Among the latter was the
beautification of the grounds. Since there was a high content
of alkali and other salts in the sand dredged up from the
channel in San Diego Bay and used to build up the tidelands, it
was necessary to haul in dirt to cover this sand in areas where
grass was to be sown or plants or trees set out.<37> Minor
construction work was also done, such as the completion of the
paving of the parade ground in 1930.<38>
Major development of the base, however, was described as
being at a halt in January 1926.<39> As of that date, the
following were listed as completed: a building converted for
administration, a large power plant, an ice plant, a laundry, a
bakery, carpentry and machine shops, a quartermaster storehouse,
seven barracks buildings, and five sets of officer's quarters.
One writer gave the total area of the reservation
9
as "600 odd acres."<4O> A more specific figure, 676 acres,
was given by others in 1932 and 1933. On this land in 1933,
there were 23 buildings. Though more than four million dollars
had been spent on the base by this time, it was estimated, in
terms of the original plans, to be still only about 60 percent
complete.<4l> But, as the 1926 writer pointed out, the
important installations were there, and expansion in case of
emergency could readily take place. A sudden large increase in
personnel would require no more than the construction of a
cantonment.<42>
Recreational facilities had not been neglected in the
development thus far. Free motion pictures were shown three
times weekly, and the Marines could play baseball, football,
basketball, tennis, and handball and could box, wrestle, or
workout in a small gymnasium. Other entertainment was provided
at intervals by smokers, band concerts, and dances; music for
the latter was furnished by an orchestra consisting of several
members of the Post Band.<43>
The 4th Regiment was welcomed back from Santo Domingo to
its home city and station, with appropriate celebrations, on 25
August 1924.<44> It soon absorbed the other infantry troops
being maintained at the base for expeditionary purposes, but
its strength was allowed to decrease to skeleton size in the
course of the following year.<45> Even so, some of its men were
detailed by the base commander to special duty to assist the
base operating force, which, at this time, consisted of two
companies with strengths inadequate to cope with the
responsibilities assigned.<46>
Toward the end of 1926, the men of the 4th Regiment had an
opportunity for something more exciting than garrison routine.
A recrudescence of robberies of the United States mails,
featured by a particularly brazen and bloody attack on a mail
truck at Elizabeth, New Jersey, on 14 October 1926, led to a
request by the Post Office Department for the services of the
Marine Corps to bring the situation under control. The Marines
had been called upon once before to guard the mails, when a
similar situation had developed in the fall of 1921, and they
had quickly put a stop to the robberies. There had been
virtually no incidents after the Marines had entered the picture
on that occasion, and after they had been withdrawn in the
spring of 1922, the Post Office Department, having provided
itself with civilian armed guards, had been able to carry on
satisfactorily for some four years.
In 1926, when the Marines were called on the second time,
the country was divided into an eastern and a western
mail-guard zone, with Brigadier General Logan Feland commanding
in the east and Brigadier General Smedley D. Butler in the
west. Most of the personnel for the eastern zone came from the
east-coast expeditionary force at Quantico, Virginia. The
western
10
mail-guard zone was manned by the west-coast expeditionary force
from San Diego - that is to say, by the 4th Regiment.
Although it was a change from life at the base, mail-guard
duty on this occasion proved to be scarcely more exciting. No
incidents occurred after the Marines began guarding trucks,
railway cars, and various strategic points in the handling of
the mail.<47> These quiet conditions, however, made the
withdrawal of the Marines feasible sooner than would normally
have been the case, when a need for their services on
expeditionary duty outside the United States arose at the
beginning of the new year.
The early withdrawal was considered necessary because of
conditions in Nicaragua and China, where American interests
were endangered by civil strife. The east-coast expeditionary
force, reinforced, was sent to Nicaragua, where, under the
command of General Feland, it was designated the 2d Brigade.
Similarly, the west-coast expeditionary force (4th Regiment),
reinforced by various other units, was to become the 3d Brigade
in China, commanded by General Butler.
The China-bound units were assembled and embarked at San
Diego in the largest operation of this kind at that base before
World War II. The first contingent sent out consisted of the
4th Regiment (less the 2d Battalion), which left for Shangahai
on 3 February 1927 aboard the USS CHAUMONT. It was thought at
the time that these troops would be sufficient, but
reinforcements were soon requested. Thereupon, the 6th
Regiment (less the 3d Battalion), the 3d Brigade Headquarters
and Headquarters Company, and Service Company, one battery of
the 10th Regiment (Artillery), and a Marine aviation squadron
were embarked on board the USS HENDERSON, which sailed from San
Diego on 7 April. General Butler had already arrived in
Shanghai on 25 March, having sailed from San Francisco, where
he had maintained his headquarters while commanding the Western
Mail-Guard Zone.
Additional units were sent on board the 55 President Grant
a commercial vessel chartered for the purpose, to Olongapo,
Philippine Islands, to be held in reserve; but they soon
afterwards joined the 3d Brigade at Shangahai. These units
included the 3d Battalion, 6th Regiment, the 2d Battalion, 4th
Regiment, the 1st Battalion, (less one battery), 10th Regiment,
one light tank platoon, the 5th Company of Engineers, and part
of another Marine aviation squadron, the remainder of which was
to be picked up at Guam en route.<48>
In all, more than 4,000 Marines were staged and embarked at
the Marine Corps Base, San Diego, for this operation.<40> As a
result, the base was to be short of personnel for some years
thereafter, with nothing approaching an expeditionary force in
being. Though San Diego was still the permanent home
11
of the 4th Regiment, that organization was never to return.
It was the only component of the 3d Brigade that had not been
disbanded by mid-1929.<50> Left in Shanghai when the rest of
the 3d Brigade moved to Tientsin in 1927, it contributed
greatly to the peace of mind of the residents of the
International Settlement.
Ten years later, history almost repeated itself, when the
Headquarters 2d Brigade (Brigadier General J. C. Beaumont) and
the 6th Marines, with a battery of antiaircraft artillery, were
rushed out to Shanghai in August 1937 from the Marine Corps
Base at San Diego. Their mission was to help 4th Marines and
certain European troops (principally British and Italian) keep
the warring Chinese and Japanese out of the rich International
Settlement. By the following February, the fighting had passed
west of Shanghai, and the Brigade Headquarters and 6th Marines
returned to San Diego. The 4th Marines stayed in Shanghai
until November 1941. By then, only a week or so before the
Japanese attack on the United States in World War II, the war
clouds had become so threatening that the 4th Marines was
evacuated to Olongapo, on Subic Bay in the Philippines, lest it
be trapped in China.
The outbreak of the war found the regiment at Subic Bay,
and by Christmas of 1941, it had been transferred to the
command or General MacArthur and assigned by him to defend the
beaches of Corregidor.<51> When the last bastion of the
Philippines fell, the 4th Marines ceased to exist as an
official unit of the Marine Corps. Its traditions were to be
carried on, however, by a new 4th Marines organized early in
1944 from Marine raider battalions in the South Pacific. The
new 4th Marines was to capture Emirau, in the St. Matthias
Group of the Admiralties, in March 1944, to land on Guam the
following summer, and later to form a component of the 6th
Marine Division when it helped take Okinawa.<52>
Though the 4th Marines was never to come back to San Diego,
the base at that city was to have a prominent role in the
events of the 1930's, as the Marine Corps took the necessary
steps to realize one of the most important developments of its
entire evolution as an amphibious force.
The initial step became possible as a result of the
withdrawal by 1933 of the last of the force sent to Nicaragua.
Sufficient officers and men were then available for a major
reorganization of the Corps with respect to its mission and its
relationship with the Navy in carrying out this mission. Major
General John Russell drafted for the Commandant of the Marine
Corps, Major General Ben H. Fuller, a set of recommendations
setting forth the form this reorganization should take.
Approved by the Commandant and the Secretary of the Navy, these
recommendations were promulgated on 7 December 1933 as Navy
Department General Order No. 241, creating the Fleet Marine
12
Force. The key provision of the order was that the Fleet Marine
Force should be an integral part of the fleet. Its
establishment meant that the Marine Corps had "finally and
unequivocally committed itself to the doctrine that its
paramount mission in wartime was to serve the fleet by seizing
bases for naval operations and in peacetime to prepare for the
successful execution of that function."<53>
The Fleet Marine Force was to have two principal
components: one on the east coast, at Quantico, Virginia, and
the other on the west coast, at San Diego. The headquarters
was established at Quantico in 1933. It was doubtlessly
advantageous during the formative years of the new command that
its headquarters should be near Washington and Marine Corps
Headquarters; but by 1935, General Russell, who was now
Commandant, was convinced that it had become far more important
for the headquarters of the Fleet Marine Force to be in close
contact with the fleet. Since the bulk of the fleet was based
on the west coast, the next step was obvious. Headquarters
Fleet Marine Force was transferred to the Marine Corps Base,
San Diego, in September 1935.<54>
Also in 1935, the east- and west-coast components of the
Fleet Marine Force were given the status of brigades - the 1st
and 2d Brigades, respectively. As of 30 June 1935, the
component at San Diego consisted of the 6th Marines (less the
3d Battalion), the 2d Battalion (less Battery F) of the 10th
Marines, and Aircraft Two.<55> With the approach of war, the 1st
and 2d Marine Brigades were to become the 1st and 2d Marine
Divisions in February 1941.<56>
Meanwhile, the case had been functioning in the other half
of its dual capacity; that is, while it operated as an
expeditionary base and (later) as one of the Fleet Marine Force
Bases, it was also operating as a recruit depot.
The length of the recruit training period and the amount of
time apportioned to various subjects varied from time to time;
but since the essentials did not change, a good idea regarding
the nature of the training given recruits at San Diego in the
twenties and thirties can be obtained from the program in
effect in 1932.
In that year, the course for recruits was of eight weeks
duration. The first three weeks were devoted to basic
indoctrination in such subjects as Marine Corps history and
customs and to drill, first without arms then with arms.
Following this, three weeks were spent on the rifle range, after
which the final two weeks were used for instruction in the
bayonet and practice in guard duty, company drills, ceremonies,
etc.<57>
After basic training, selected recruits were given four
additional weeks of instruction in the Sea School, which was
13
organized in 1923 shortly after the recruit depot moved to San
Diego. Here, the purpose was to prepare them for duty with one
of the Marine detachments on board vessels of the fleet. They
were taught elementary gun drill, military and naval etiquette,
duties of orderlies and messengers aboard ship, functions they
might have in emergency drills at sea like fire, abandon ship,
or collision, what the routine would be like aboard ship, the
fact that ships have decks rather than floors, overheads
instead of ceilings, and bulkheads in lieu of walls, that right
is starboard and left is port, that kitchens are galleys, that
fountains are scuttlebutts, that permission to smoke is conveyed
by the statement that the smoking lamp is lit, and various
other things strange and perhaps wonderful to most landlubbers'
ears.<58>
Like the curriculum of basic training, that of the Sea
School varied from time to time in duration and emphasis. In
1932, it was a four weeks' course, but the demand for Marine
replacements in the fleet was so urgent at that time that most
men completed no more than one week there before being
transferred to a ship. It even happened, occasionally, that
men with no Sea School instruction at all were sent to the
fleet, but only when it was unavoidable.<59>
By 1940, it was possible to enforce higher standards of
preparation for sea duty, and prior to such assignment, all
enlisted Marines who had not had previous sea duty were
required to pass the course at the Sea School. The majority of
the students still came from the recruit depot, but now, there
was a sprinkling of noncoms among them. The requirements for
entrance, which varied with the exigencies of the service,
were, in general, the following: (1) the man, if a recruit,
must stand in the upper third of his platoon at the recruit
depot, (2) be recommended by his instructor, (3) be at least 69
inches tall, (4) be qualified with the rifle, and (5) must
express a desire to go to sea.<60>
In 1940, the course lasted only three weeks, with an
attendance at any one time of about 90 men. Although the
course was scaled to the average intelligence and every effort
was made to help students who applied themselves, as of June
1940, about 13 percent of those accepted for entrance were
failing to make the grade.<61>
The approach of war resulted in a great enlargement of the
facilities of the base. Emergency expansion of these
facilities began in September 1939, the month in which World
War II broke out in Europe, and resulted in the construction of
a base depot of 27 storehouses, a defense-battalion barracks,
mess facilities, hundreds of 16-men huts for the recruit depot,
a post exchange, a recruit parade ground, a neuropsychiatric
building, dental and dispensary buildings, new roads, and even
a railroad. Later construction included
14
an addition to the officers' mess, some bachelor officers'
quarters, several handball and tennis courts, a long-needed &
swimming pool, an amphibian tractor shed, a communications
school, a new administration building, and a new auditorium.
The last two structures were ready for use in January and
February of 1943.<62>
Despite the new construction begun in 1939, the facilities
of the Marine Corps Base were inadequate to enable it to
continue in its dual capacity as a Fleet Marine Force base and
a recruit depot. Bordered as it was on the north by a
developed part of the city of San Diego, on the east by the
municipal airport (Lindbergh Field), and on the west by the
Naval Training Station, it could obtain continuous acreage for
expansion only by reclaiming tidelands in San Diego Bay, a
process that had gone as far as it could. It had been
necessary from the beginning to maintain a rifle range off the
base, and a small tract of land a few miles northeast of La
Jolla had been rented from the city of San Diego for this
purpose through the years. In 1934, additional land was rented
from San Diego in the Kearny Mesa area, 10 or 12 miles north
and a little east of the city, to be used mostly for artillery
and machine-gun practice. After World War II began in Europe,
the Marine Corps began to construct buildings in the Kearny
Mesa area, referring to them collectively as Camp Holcomb. By
the middle of 1941, the President had declared an unlimited
national emergency. Volunteers were pouring into the recruit
depot, the 2d Division of the Fleet Marine Force had moved from
the Marine Corps Base to the camp in the Kearny Mesa area, and
the name of the camp had been changed from Camp Holcomb to Camp
Elliott.<63>
During the months after the attack on Pearl Harbor had
brought the United States into the conflict, the training of
individual replacements and units for duty against the Japanese
in the Pacific was greatly expanded. In March 1942, the Navy
Department announced the acquisition of approximately 132,000
acres of the Rancho Santa Margarita y Las Flores, which had once
belonged to the Pico brothers, Andres and Pio, prominent in
California history before, during, and after the War with
Mexico, 1846-48. The construction of Camp Joseph H. Pendleton
was immediately begun on a part of this huge reservation, some
eight miles from Oceanside, some 45 miles north of San Diego.
Camp Pendleton, which was ready to be occupied by troops the
following September, was to provide large scale tactical
training for organizations before they were shipped out to the
Pacific; its immense area and varied terrain were near ideal
for this purpose.<64> Camp Elliott, which by September 1942 had
become the home of the Fleet Marine Force Training Center, West
Coast, had the principal mission of training individual
replacements for combat units overseas.<65>
15
This expansion, of course, was outside the limits of the
Marine Corps Base proper, and it was not confined to the two
installations mentioned. There were, for example, Camp C.J.
Miller, which was built at the former Del Mar Race Track and
which was used for a concentrated athletic and conditioning
program; Camp Gillespie, which opened in May 1942 to give
paratrooper training to Marines, who thus became "Paramarines;"
Camp Dunlap, near Niland, California, for special artillery
training and the Marine Corps Air Station, El Toro, for
instruction in aviation.
During the war, practically all instruction after basic
training thus came to be furnished in installations
supplementary to, or at least separate from, the Marine Corps
Base proper, training itself, shortened to seven weeks,
continued to be provided by the latter, and the Sea School
continued to function there. In addition, the Marine Corps
Base operated the Signal School, which taught radio and
field-telephone work, the First Sergeants' School, and the
Motor-Transport School, which conducted a mechanics' course and
a course for drivers (principally driving without lights at
night and driving in convoy).
Training in the San Diego area was never to shrink back to
its prewar dimensions. Preparation for service with the Fleet
Marine Force was to remain separate from the Marine Corps Base
proper. Most of the installations that sprang up during the
war were to be closed in the postwar period, but Camp Pendleton
and the Marine Corps Air Station, El Toro, in particular, were
to be made permanent and to constitute important posts of the
Marine Corps establishment after World War II. In addition to
its other activities, Camp Pendleton was to operate various
schools in the postwar period; for example, by mid-1947, the
Communications School and the Cooks' and Bakers' School had
been transferred to it.<67>
With the surrender of Japan in 1945, it became necessary to
set up a procedure in the San Diego area to help demobilize
wartime strength of the Marine Corps. At the Marine Corps
Base, the 1st Separation Company and the West Coast
Reclassification and Redistribution Center were set up to handle
casuals, while Camp Pendleton processed units returning from
the Pacific for demobilization. In September 1946, upon
transfer of the 1st Separation Company to the West Coast
Reclassification and Redistribution Center, all separation work
at the Marine Corps Base was consolidated.<68>
After World War II, as during the war, the principal
activity on the Marine Corps Base proper was that of the
recruit depot. At length, official cognizance was taken of
this fact in the form of redesignation of the base, effective 1
January 1948, as the Marine Corps Recruit Depot, San Diego.<69>
16
This step had been taken 13 months earlier with respect to
the east-coast recruit depot, when the Marine Barracks, Parris
Island, had been redesignated the Marine Corps Recruit Depot,
Parris Island. With this change at San Diego, the two coasts
showed a symmetry in Marine Corps organization they had never
possessed previously. Just as the two recruit depots were now
balanced against each other, Camp Pendleton had an opposite
number on the east coast in Camp Lejeune, North Carolina, and
the Marine Corps Air Station at El Toro, California, matched
the similar station at Cherry Point, North Carolina.
When the Communists made their attack in Korea on 25 June
195O, the San Diego area was ready to do its share to meet the
emergency. The Recruit Depot, which by this time had
lengthened the basic-training course to about 10 weeks,
streamlined the course to eight weeks and began turning out as
many as 14 platoons at a time as compared with the two or so
previously.<70> The 1st Marine Division, based at Camp
Pendleton, and the 1st Marine Air Wing at El Toro, were readied
for action, and both these posts became training places for
reservists called to active duty.
Few physical changes have occurred at the Recruit Depot at
San Diego in recent years, but as at Parris Island, training
procedures and techniques have been modified to produce the
best possible type of recruit graduate. Drill instructors have
been picked with extreme care and thoroughly indoctrinated in
the procedures required to assure the proper mental and physical
training of each recruit. Three instructors are provided each
recruit platoon, with each DI receiving additional pay of $30
per month to help compensate for the long hours the job
requires. The drill instructor utilizes example and other
leadership techniques to gradually bring his platoon from the
recruit status to that of a Marine ready for whatever may be
required of him. Like Parris Island, the San Diego Recruit
Depot produces Marines possessed of the best of past experience
together with the mental and physical dexterity provided by the
latest Marine instructional techniques and equipment.<71>
Since Korea, the Marine Corps Recruit Depot at San Diego
and its allied installations have not been called on to meet
any special emergency. But they stand ready, with the rest of
the Marine Corps, to do their part any time in honoring the
tradition of their service as "the first to fight."
17
COMMANDERS OF MARINE CORPS ACTIVITIES AT
SAN DIEGO, CALIFORNIA, 1914-1962
Marine Barracks, U. S. Naval Station,
San Diego, California
Maj William N. McKelvey 19 Dec 1914 -
16 Jun 1915 None designated 17
Jun 1915 - 13 Jul 1915 Capt Ellis B. Miller
14 Jul 1915 - 7 Jan 1916 Maj William N. McKelvey
8 Jan 1916 - 2 Feb 1916 Col Joseph H.
Pendleton 3 Feb 19l6 - 5 Jun 1916 2dLt
Seldon B. Kennedy 6 Jun 1916 - 15 Jun 1916
1stLt Seldon B. Kennedy 16 Jun 1916 - 28
Sep 1916 2dLt Earl C. Long 29 Sep
1916 - 22 Oct 1916 1stLt Earl C. Long
23 Oct 1916 - 18 Dec 1916 Capt Thomas C. Turner
19 Dec 1916 - 21 Jan 1917 1stLt Earl C. Long
22 Jan 1917 - 28 Jan 1917 Capt
Thomas C. Turner 29 Jan 1917 - 15 Mar 1917 Maj
Thomas C. Turner 16 Mar 1917 - 18 Oct
1917 LtCol Carl Gamborg-Andresen 19 Oct 1917
- 14 Oct 1918 Maj David M. Randall 15
Oct 1918 - 4 Apr 1919 Col John F. McGill
5 Apr 1919 - 25 Jul 1921 None designated
26 Jul 1921 - 24 Oct 1921 LtCol James McE.
Huey 25 Oct 1921 - 3 Jan 1922 Maj
Eugene P. Fortson 4 Jan 1922 - 7 Mar 1922
LtCol Giles Bishop, Jr. 8 Mar 1922 - 29
Feb 1924
Marine Corps Base,
San Diego, California
MajGen Joseph H. Pendleton 1 Mar 1924 - 31
Mar 1924 Col James McE. Huey 1 Apr
1924 - 11 May 1924 MajGen Joseph H. Pendleton
12 May 1924 - 1 Jun 1924 Col John T. Myers
2 Jun 1924 - 9 Apr 1925 LtCol William H.
Pritchett 10 Apr 1925 - 12 May 1925 Col
John T. Myers 13 May 1925 - 31 Oct 1925 Col
Alexander S. Williams 1 Nov 1925 - 24 Feb
1926 BriGen Smedley D. Butler 25 Feb 1926
- 12 Mar 1926 LtCol William H. Pritchett 13
Mar 1926 - 9 May 1926 BriGen Smedley D. Butler
10 May 1926 - 3 Mar 1927 Maj Benjamin A. Moeller
4 Mar 1927 - 31 Mar 1927 LtCol William H.
Pritchett 1 Apr 1927 - 8 Aug 1927 Col
Charles H. Lyman 9 Aug 1927 - 24 Jun 1928 Maj
Benjamin A. Moeller 25 Jun 1928 - 9 Jul
1928 BriGen Dion Williams 10 Jul 1928
- 4 Apr 1929 Col Larry R. Lay 5
Apr 1929 - 30 Jan 1930 BriGen Robert H. Dunlap
31 Jan 1930 - 25 Dec 1930 BriGen John H. Russell
26 Dec 1930 - 22 Nov 1931 Col Charles H.
Lyman 23 Nov 1931 - 6 Dec 1931 BriGen
Frederick L. Bradman 7 Dec 1931 - 29 Jan 1932
18
Col Harry R. Lay 30 Jan 1932 - 26
Feb 1932 BriGen Frederick L. Bradman 27 Feb
1932 - 17 Dec 1933 Col Rush R. Wallace
18 Dec 1933 - 6 Jan 1934 BriGen Frederick L. Bradman
7 Jan 1934 - 24 Mar 1934 Col Rush R.
Wallace 25 Mar 1934 - 6 Jun 1934 BriGen
Frederick L. Bradman 7 Jun 1934 - 30 Apr 1935
Col Rush R. Wallace 1 May 1935 - 5
May 1935 BriGen Douglas C. McDougal 6 May
1935 - 29 Jan 1937 Col Alley D. Rorex
30 Jan 1937 - 25 Feb 1937 BriGen Douglas C. McDougal
26 Feb 1937 - 18 May 1937 MajGen Louis Mac.
Little 19 May 1937 - 14 Mar 1938 LtCol
Harry L. Smith 15 Mar 1938 - 12 Apr 1938
MajGen Louis Mac. Little 13 Apr 1938 - 15
Aug 1939 BriGen Clayton B. Vogel 16 Aug
1939 - 31 Aug 1939 BriGen Richard P. Williams
1 Sep 1939 - 19 Sep 1939 BriGen William P. Upshur
20 Sep 1939 - 7 Dec 1941 Col William H.
Rupertus 8 Dec 1941 - 18 Mar 1942 Col
Matthew H. Kingman 19 Mar 1942 - 2 Apr 1942 Col
James L. Underhill 3 Apr 1942 - 18 Aug
1942 BriGen James L. Underhill 19 Aug 1942
- 31 Mar 1943 Col William C. James 1
Apr 1943 - 31 Jan 1944 Col Roswell Winans
1 Feb 1944 - 15 Feb 1944 Col William C. James
16 Feb 1944 - 28 Mar 1944 Col Roswell
Winans 29 Mar 1944 - 11 Apr 1944 Col
William C. James 12 Apr 1944 - 16 Apr 1944
Col Roswell Winans 17 Apr 1944 - 26
Apr 1944 BriGen Matthew H. Kingman 27 Apr
1944 - 8 Aug 1944 BriGen Archie F. Howard
9 Aug 1944 - 12 Jun 1945 Col John Groff
13 Jun 1945 - 12 Jul 1945 MajGen Earl C. Long
13 Jul 1945 - 23 Jan 1946 Col Miles
R. Thacker 24 Jan 1946 - 25 Apr 1946 Col
Harry B. Liversedge 26 Apr 1946 - 2 Jun 1946
Col Gilder D. Jackson, Jr. 3 Jan 1946 - 28
Jul 1946 BriGen Leo D. Hermle 29 Jul
1946 - 5 Dec 1946 MajGen Leo D. Hermle
6 Dec 1946 - 31 Dec 1947
Marine Corps Recruit Depot,
San Diego, California
MajGen Leo D. Hermle 1 Jan 1948 - 31
Aug 1949 MajGen William T. Clement 1 Sep
1949 - 21 Apr 1952 BriGen William J. Whaling
22 Apr 1952 - 12 Sep 1952 MajGen John T. Walker
13 Apr 1952 - 30 Jan 1954 MajGen John C.
McQueen 31 Jan 1954 - 25 Jul 1956 MajGen
Thomas A. Wornham 26 Jul 1956 - 26 Oct 1959
BriGen Bruno A. Hochmuth 27 Oct 1959 - 30
Nov 1959 MajGen Victor H. Krulak 1 Dec
1959 - 14 Feb 1962 MajGen Sidney S. Wade
15 Feb 1962 -
19
NOTES
(1) CMC, "Report"...in "Annual Reports of the Navy Department
for the Fiscal Year 1911" (Washington: Navy Department, 1911)
p. 530, hereinafter "CMC Report" with year.
(2) "Ibid.," p. 531; "Muster Rolls," 4th Regiment, Mar11.
(3) "CMC Report," 1911, p. 531; "Muster Rolls," 4th Regiment,
Jun11; "Muster Rolls," Provisional Battalion, Camp Thomas, San
Diego, Jul11.
(4) "CMC Report," 1914, p. 470.
(5) "Army and Navy Journal," v. LI, no. 35 (2 May 1914), p.
1099.
(6) "Muster Rolls," 4th Regiment, Jul14.
(7) "Muster Rolls," 4th Regiment, Dec14; "Official Guide Book
of the Panama-California Exposition" (San Diego, 1915), p. 8;
Edward J. P. Davis, "The United States and U. S. Marine Corps
at San Diego" (San Diego, privately published, 1955), p. 52;
"The Marines in San Diego County," "Union Title-Trust Topics",
v. VII, no. 3 (May-June 1953), p. 4.
(8) See Orders Section in case file of Pendleton, Joseph H.,
0753-2.
(9) "Muster Rolls," 2d Battalion, 4th Regiment, Dec14.
(10) Davis, "op. cit.," p. 53; "Marines in San Diego County,"
"Union Title-Trust Topics", "loc. cit."
(11) Davis, "op. cit.", p. 53.
(12) Correspondence of the Office of the Secretary, 1897-1926,
File 16721-95, General Records of the Navy Department, National
Archives.
(13) "CMC Report," 1915, pp. 762-763.
(14) "CMC Report," 1916, p. 766.
(15) Davis,"op. cit.," p. 54.
(16) Correspondence of the Office of the Secretary, 1897-1926,
File 16721-95, General Records of the Navy Department, National
Archives.
(17) See Commandant Barnett letter in case file of McKelvy,
William H., 0634.
20
(18) Marine Corps Orders, No. 9 (Series 1916), 1 March
published in "Marines Magazine," v. I, no. 4 (Apr 1916), p. 31.
(19) See Record or Military Service Section in case file of
Pendleton, Joseph H., 0753-1.
(20) "Muster Rolls", Barracks Detachment, Marine Barracks, San
Diego, Jun16.
(21) "CMC Report," 1916, p 764.
(22) Davis, "op. cit.," p. 54.
(23) For the text or the appropriation act see Elwin A. Silsby,
comp., "Navy Yearbook," 1920-1921: ..."Resume of Annual Naval
Appropriation Laws from 1883 to 1921, Inclusive"...
(Washington: Government Printing Office, 1922), p. 436.
(24) "CMC Report," 1917, pp. 110 and 847, respectively.
(25) Navy Department, Bureau of Yards and Docks, "Activities of
the Bureau of Yards and Docks, Navy Department, World War,
1917-1918 (Washington: Government Printing Office, 1921), p. 93.
(26) "Ibid.," for an estimate of "approximately $5,000,000;"
"Report of the Chief of the Bureau of Yards and Docks," in
"AnnRepts of NavDept, 1918", p. 431, states "about $4,000,000."
(27) "CMC Report," 1919, p. 2649; San Diego Federal Writers
Project, Works Progress Administration, State of California,
"San Diego, A California City" (San Diego: San Diego Historical
Society, 1937), p. 68.
(28) See Record of Military Service Section in case file of
Pendleton, Joseph H., 0753-1; for the spelling of Parris
Island, see Marine Corps Orders, No. 27 (Series 1917), 22 June,
par. 303 and No. 32 (Series 1919), 3 May, par. 554.
(29) "Muster Rolls," Marine Barracks, San Diego.
(30) "Muster Rolls" of organizations noted.
(31) See Record of Military Service Section in case file of
Pendleton, Joseph II., 0753-1.
(32) "The Story of San Diego," "Leatherneck", v. XV no. 6 (June
1932), p. 10, states that the newly completed barracks were
first occupied in December 1921 by Marines who moved in from
Balboa Park; "To Open New Barracks at San Diego, California,"
"Leatherneck"," v. IV, no. 18 (March 1921), p. 1, states that
the six barracks were to be opened on 15 March 1921.
21
(33) "Muster Rolls," Recruit Depot Detachment, San Diego,
Jul23.
(34) "CMC Report," 1911, pp. 523-524; "CMC Report," 1912, pp.
578-579.
(35) "Muster Rolls," Headquarters Company, 5th Brigade, Marine
Corps Base, Naval Operating Base, San Diego, Mar24.
(36) See Record of Military Service Section in case file of
Pendleton, Joseph H., 0753-1.
(37) "Marine Base Weekly" (San Diego), 8 June 1926, p. 1; "CMC
Report," 1927, p. 1204.
(38) "Marine Base Bulletin," v. I, no. 3 (11 July 1930), p. 5.
(39) Col Alexander S. Williams, USMC, "The San Diego Marine
Base," "Marine Corps Gazette," v. XI, no. 2 (June 1926), p. 83.
(40) "Ibid."
(41) "The Story of San Diego," "Leatherneck," v. XV, no. 6
(June 1932), p. 10; untitled pamphlet published by Eleventh
Naval District Headquarters, San Diego, California, of 15
September 1933, copy in Subject File "San Diego" Historical
Branch, G-3 Division, Headquarters Marine Corps, p. 7.
(42) "Williams, "op. cit., p. 83.
(43) "Ibid.," pp. 84-85; "The Marine Corps Base at San Diego,"
"Leatherneck", v. XII, no. 4 (April 1929), p. 53.
(44) "San Diego Welcomes the Fourth Regiment Home,"
"Leatherneck", v. VII, no. 38 (September 1924), p. 2; "CMC
Report," 1925, p. 1229.
(45) "Ibid."
(46) Williams, "op. cit.," p. 84.
(47) Frank Hunt Rentfrow, "'You Will Find Us Always on the
Job,'" "Leatherneck", v. XIV, no. 4 (April 1931), pp. 12-13, 49.
(48) "CMC Report," 1927, p. 1193.
(49) "The Story of San Diego," "Leatherneck", v. XV, no. 6
(June 1932), p. 10.
(50) "CMC Report," 1929, p. 17.
22
(51) "Muster Rolls," 4th Marines, Dec41; BrigGen Samuel L.
Howard, USMC, ltr to CMC, dtd 26Sep45, subj: "Report on the
Operation, Employment, and Supply of the old 4th Marines from
September 1941, to the surrender of Corregidor, 6 May 1942,
made from memory and some notes," copy in Area File Folder
"Philippines, A2-1," Historical Branch, G-3 Division,
Headquarters Marine Corps.
(52) Jeter A. Isely and Philip A. Crowl, "The U. S. Marines and
Amphibious War: Its Theory, and Its Practice in the Pacific"
(Princeton: Princeton University Press, 1951), p. 19O.
(53) "Ibid.," pp. 33-34. Isely and Crowl erroneously give 8
December 1933 as the date Navy Department General Order No. 241
was issued.
(54) MajGen John H. Russell, USMC, memo dtd 30Jul35, subj:
"Transfer of the Staff of the Fleet Marine Force to the West
Coast," in Subject File folder "USMC: Fleet Marine Force
(Gen.); "Historical Outline of the Development of Fleet Marine
Force, Pacific, 1941-1950 (Preliminary)," in Historical Branch,
G-3 Division, Headquarters Marine Corps, p. 8.
(55) "Ibid".; "CMC Report", 1935, p. 1.
(56) Richard W. Johnston, "Follow Me! The Story of the Second
Marine Division in World War II" (New York: Random House, ca.
1948), p. 7.
(57) LtCol E. P. Moses, USMC, "Recruit Depot, Marine Corps
Base, San Diego, California," "Leatherneck", v. XV, no. 6 (June
1932), p. 11.
(58) "Ibid.," p. 12.
(59) "Ibid.," p. 11.
(60) 1stSgt Robert W. Thompson, USMC, "San Diego's Sea School,"
"Leatherneck", v. XXIII, no. 6 (June 1940), p. 9.
(61) "Ibid."
(62) "San Diego Base Expanded," "Marine Corps Gazette," v.
XXVII, no. 4 (August 1943), p 23.
(63) 2dLt Frederick Redway Jones, USMCR, "A Training Center
Chronicle," MS in Subject File folder "San Diego - Camp
Elliott," Historical Branch, G-3 Division, Headquarters Marine
Corps, "passim"; "Camp Joseph H. Pendleton," in Subject File
folder "San Diego," Historical Branch, G-3 Division,
Headquarters Marine Corps, p. 2.
(64) "Ibid.," pp. 2-3.
23
(65) Jones, "op. cit.," pp. 1 and 7; Jack Pepper, "San Diego,
Rendezvous with Destiny," "Leatherneck", v. XXVI, no. 1
(January 1943), p. 15.
(66) "Ibid.," pp. 15, 17, and 68-70.
(67) Sgt Lindley S. Allen, USMC, "Post of the Corps: San
Diego," "Leatherneck", v. XXX, no. 5 (May 1949). p.6.
(68) CG, Marine Corps Base, San Diego, ltr to CMC, dtd 21Mar47,
subj: "Command Narrative period 1 September 1945 to 1 October
1946, Marine Corps Base, San Diego, California." copy in
Historical Branch, G-3 Division, Headquarters Marine Corps p. 7.
(70) TSgt George Burlage, USMC, "MCRD, San Diego,"
"Leatherneck" v. XXXIV, no. 1 (January 1951), pp. 37-38.
(71) MSgt Clay Barrow, USMC, "San Diego Recruit Depot,"
"Leatherneck", v. XLIV, no. 3 (March 1961), pp 17-25, 79.
24
These items and much more can be found at The Marine Corps Research Center (MCRC)
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