San Diego is a United States military installation in San Diego, California. It is along the Pacific Ocean and Interstate 5, and adjacent to Lindbergh Field and a former Naval Training Center. MCRD San Diego's main mission is the initial training of enlisted male Marine Corps recruits living west of the Mississippi River. & Over 21,000 recruits are trained each year. The Depot also is the home to the Marine Corps' Recruiter School and Western Recruiting Region's Drill Instructors School.
In addition to recruit training, MCRD San Diego is also home to the Drill Instructors School for the Western Recruiting Region and the Recruiters School for the entire Marine Corps. Other facilities aboard MCRD contribute housing, medical, and morale welfare and recreation facilities for the large San Diego military community. The Depot is also home of the Marine Band San Diego. [1]
Marines have been associated with San Diego since July 1846, when a landing party of Marines and Sailors from USS Cyane seized the town and raised the flag over what is now known as Old Town.
A groundbreaking ceremony on March 2, 1919, at a tidal marshlands known as "Dutch Flats", began the legacy of MCRD San Diego. It was on this day that the House
of Representatives Naval Affairs Committee visited the Marine Camp in Balboa Park and the station at Dutch Flats.
By December 1921, MCRD, then called the Marine Advanced Expeditionary Base, stood ready for service as Marines moved from their old Balboa Park barracks to their new home. Recruit training moved to the San Diego base from Mare Island Naval Shipyard, Vallejo, Calif. in 1923.
World War II brought the need for combat-ready troops and the base changed its primary mission to training recruits, turning out 223,000 Marines during the war. In 1948, the site was officially designated Marine Corps Recruit Depot, San Diego. Today, MCRD annually graduates about 17,000 Marines. [2]
[1] From Wikipedia http://en.wikipedia.org
[2] from http://www.militarynewcomers.com/Sandiegoweb/resources/01.html
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