MARINE CORPS BASE 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 (Wilmington and Morehead City) 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.

Contents

Resident commands

History

Pollution

References

See also

External links

Resident commands

★ II Marine Expeditionary Force ★ Marine Corps Forces Special Operations Command ★ 2nd Marine Division ★ 2nd Marine Logistics Group ★ 2nd Marine Expeditionary Brigade ★ 22nd Marine Expeditionary Unit ★ 24th Marine Expeditionary Unit ★ 26th Marine Expeditionary Unit

★ Marine Corps Installations East ★ Marine Corps Engineer School ★ United States Marine Corps School of Infantry ★ Marine Corps Combat Service Support Schools ★ Reserve Support Unit ★ Naval Hospital Camp Lejeune ★ Field Medical Service School ★ Special Missions Training Center (USCG)

History

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.
Today MCB Camp Lejeune boasts 11 miles of beach capable of supporting amphibious operations. There are 78 live-fire ranges, 98 maneuver areas, 34 gun positions, 540 tactical landing zones and a state-of-the-art Military Operations in Urban Terrain training facility. Military forces from around the world come to MCB Camp Lejeune on a regular basis for bilateral and NATO-sponsored exercises.

Pollution

Over three decades, tens of thousands of Marines at Camp Lejeune and their families drank and bathed in water contaminated with toxins at concentrations up to 40-times the allowable amount. At least 850 former residents of the base have filed claims against the military, seeking nearly $4 billion, for exposure to the tainted water. The base's wells were shut off in the mid-1980s, and Lejeune's water now meets federal standards.
In 2007, Jerry Ensminger, a former Marine master sergeant, found a document dated 1981 that described a radioactive dump site near a rifle range at the camp. According to the report, the waste was contaminated with strontium-90, an isotope that causes cancer and leukemia. According to Camp Lejeune's installation restoration program manager, base officials have known about the 1981 document since 2004. Ensminger served in the Marine Corps for 24 and 1/2 years, and lived for part of that time at Camp Lejeune. His 9-year-old daughter, Janey, died of cancer in 1985.EPA Investigating Whether Radioactive Waste Was Buried at Pollution-Plagued Camp Lejeune

References

See also

★ List of United States Marine Corps installations

★ Marine Corps Air Station New River

★ Lejeune High School, located on base, serving military dependents

External links

★ Official website, including a history of Camp Lejeune

★ Lejeune Globe,' ''the military-authorized newspaper''

★ Montford Point Marines Honored at DoD Observance, a February 2006 AFIS press release

★ Onslow Beach - an introduction - detailed article with extensive image gallery of military training exercises, at ''Citizendium''