Existing comment:
Marine Corps Recruit Depot:
On December 1, 1921, the new Marine post was ready for service. It was commissioned as the marine Advanced Expeditionary Base, San Diego. Prior to base completion, the Marines utilized Balboa Park as a temporary camp during construction. The Marines moved to their new base with construction still underway on some of the buildings. Several years passed before the base was completed.
Shortly after commissioning, the Marine Recruit Depot for the West Coast was relocated to San Diego from Mare Island in Vallejo,California. On 1 March 1924, the base was renamed Marine Corps Base, San Diego and was known by that designation for the next 24 years.
Expansion of the Marine Corps Base began in September 1939 as the base became a recruit training depot. Thousands of men received basic training here during World War II, under its new name, Marine Corps Recruit Depot.
The expansion included construction of warehouses, new barracks, mess facilities, a post exchange, dental and medical dispensary, parade ground, officer mess facility, and various athletic fields.
In recent years some politicians have pushed to close MCRD because it occupies what is now extremely valuable land adjacent to San Diego's harbor and airport. The idea of closing MCRD meets heavy resistance from the Marine Corps because of the status of the parade deck as a memorial to veterans of World War II, Korea, Vietnam and Iraq, as well as the cost of relocating the Depot. |