Existing comment:
The U.S. Marines at North Island:
Recurring problems with Mexico during the presidency of Porfirio Diaz alarmed U.S. President William Howard Taft, and in March 1911 Taft dispatched 4th Provisional Marine Regiment to San Diego for deployment to Mexico.
Under the command of Colonel Charles A. Doyen, the 4th Marines became the first Leathernecks to occupy San Diego since the Mexican War.
The 4th Provisional Marine Regiment established a camp on North Island and named it Camp Thomas in honor of Rear Admiral Chauncey Thomas, USN, Commander in Chief of the Pacific Fleet. Tensions eased in Mexico before the Marines crossed the border, so they returned to San Diego. The officers and men from the 4th Provisional Marine Regiment were disbanded, returning to their regular bases and units. Camp Thomas would not again serve as a camp for the Marines in San Diego.
In July 1914, the Fourth Regiment of the Marine Corps set up camp under the command of Colonel Joseph H. Pendleton. Some 1,400 officers and men moved in, pitched hundreds of tents, set up field kitchens, dug latrines, cleared land, laid out roads, piped in water, provided electricity and telephone service, established a rifle range, and repaired the dock, creating an orderly, Marine-efficient facility in an area near the Spanish Bight, but away from the flight operations of the Army.
It was called Camp Howard. This occupation lasted until December of that year, when the regiment was reassigned to various other duties, although a few Marine caretakers were left on the island until 1916 for patrolling purposes and to operate the rifle range. This was the second and last use of North Island by the Marines. |