Since September 1941, Camp Lejeune (luh-jern) has been the home of "Expeditionary Forces in Readiness", and throughout the years, it has become the home base for the II Marine Expeditionary Force, 2nd Marine Division, 2nd Marine Logistics Group and other combat units and support commands.
There are several major Marine Corps commands and one Navy command aboard Camp Lejeune. Some tenant commands include Marine Corps Base Camp Lejeune, II Marine Expeditionary Force, 2nd Marine Division, 2nd Marine Logistics Group, and the naval hospital to name a few. Marine Corps Base owns all the real estate, hosts entry-level and career-level formal schools and provides support and training for tenant commands; II Marine Expeditionary Force conducts operational planning for Fleet Marine Force commands; 2nd Marine Division is the ground combat element of II MEF; 2nd Marine Logistics Group is the combat service support element of II MEF; and 2nd Marine Air Wing, headquartered at Cherry Point, N.C., is the air combat element of II MEF. Additionally, the naval hospital provides primary medical care to service members and their families stationed at Camp Lejeune and Marine Corps Air Station New River.
Today, as in the past, Camp Lejeune's mission remains the same - to maintain combat-ready units for expeditionary deployment.
To help prepare warfighters for combat and humanitarian missions abroad, Camp Lejeune takes advantage of 156,000 acres, 11 miles of beach capable of supporting amphibious operations, 34 gun positions, 50 tactical landing zones, three state-of-the-art training facilities for Military Operations in Urban Terrain and 80 live fire ranges to include the Greater Sandy Run Training Area.
The base and surrounding community is home to an active duty, dependent, retiree and civilian employee population of approximately 170,000 people. The base generates almost $3 billion in commerce each year, coming from payrolls and contracts to support the structure required to train and equip our modern Marines.
Some services available aboard Camp Lejeune include: childcare, shopping, education, family support, hunting and fishing, dining, boating and swimming.
Some facilities on base include banks and credit unions, the commissary, the library, hobby shops, fitness centers, the beach, theaters and more.
From the supporting infrastructure, a tradition of excellence in doing day-to-day business has evolved. From environmental programs that include a state-of-the-art landfill and water treatment system to quality of life programs that ensure Marine families are taken care of, Camp Lejeune stands out as a superior military base.
Camp Lejeune is a seven-time recipient of the Commander-in-Chief's Award for Installation Excellence. This award recognizes the base on a Department of Defense level for effectively managing assets and developing quality programs to accomplish the mission of providing expeditionary forces in readiness.
The Marines, sailors, Coast Guardsmen and civilian Marines who provide for the efficient management of Camp Lejeune's assets strive to ensure even grander goals are realized in the future.
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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. The first base headquarters was in a summer cottage on Montford Point, and then moved 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.
American Indian Women Reservists at Camp Lejeune during 1943
Betty Grable at the New River, 1942 MCB Camp Lejeune, can help to prepare warfighters for combat and humanitarian missions abroad, Camp Lejeune takes advantage of 156,000 acres, 11 miles of beach capable of supporting amphibious operations, 32 gun positions, 48 tactical landing zones, three state-of-the-art training facilities for Military Operations in Urban Terrain and 80 live fire ranges to include the Greater Sandy Run Training Area. Military forces from around the world come to Camp Lejeune on a regular basis for bilateral and NATO-sponsored exercises.
Royal Bermuda Regiment soldiers board a USMC CH-46 Sea Knight helicopter at Camp Lejeune, 1994
Barack Obama at Camp Lejeune, 2009 Camp Lejeune was featured in the hit CW network drama One Tree Hill in late 2006.
Pollution
For more details on this topic, see Camp Lejeune water contamination.
From at least 1957 through 1987, Marines and their families at Lejeune drank and bathed in water contaminated with toxins at concentrations 240 to 3400 times permitted by safety standards, and at least 850 former residents filed claims for nearly $4 billion from the military. The main chemicals involved were trichloroethylene (TCE), a degreaser, perchloroethylene (PCE), a dry cleaning solvent, and benzene; however, more than 70 chemicals have been identified as contaminants at Lejeune.
A 1974 base order required safe disposal of solvents and warned that improper handling could cause drinking water contamination. Yet solvents were dumped or buried near base wells for years.
The base's wells were shut off in the mid-1980s, but were placed back online in violation of the law. In 1982, Volatile organic compounds (VOCs) were found to be in Camp Lejeune's drinking water supply. 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.
An advocacy group called The Few, The Proud, The Forgotten was created to inform possible victims of the contamination at Lejeune. The group's website includes an introduction with some basic information about the contamination at Lejeune, including that many health problems various types of cancer, leukemia, miscarriages and birth defects, have been noted in people who drank the contaminated water. According to the site, numerous base housing areas were affected by the contamination, including Tarawa Terrace, Midway Park, Berkeley Manor, Paradise Point, Hadnot Point, Hospital Point, and Watkins Village.
On March 8, 2010, Paul Buckley of Hanover, Massachusetts, received a 100%, service connected disability from the Department of Veterans Affairs for cancer (Multiple Myeloma), which was linked to toxic water exposure on Camp Lejeune. This is believed to be the first time the government has admitted the link between the contamination and illnesses.
In 2007, Jerry Ensminger, a retired 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 laced with strontium-90, an isotope known to cause cancer and leukemia. According to Camp Lejeune's installation restoration program manager, base officials learned in 2004 about the 1981 document.[4] Ensminger served in the Marine Corps for 24 and a half years, and lived for part of that time at Camp Lejeune. In 1985 his 9-year-old daughter, Janey, died of cancer.
On July 6, 2009, Laura Jones filed suit against the US government over the contaminated water at the base. Jones previously lived at the base where her husband, a Marine, was stationed. Jones has lymphoma and now lives in Iowa.
Twenty former residents of Camp Lejeuneâ??all men who lived there during the 1960s and the 1980sâ??have been diagnosed with breast cancer.
In April 2009, the United States Agency for Toxic Substances and Disease Registry withdrew a 1997 public health assessment at Camp Lejeune that denied any connection between the toxins and illness.
As many as 500,000 people may have been exposed to contaminated water at Camp Lejeune over a period of 30 years.
