Marine Corps Base Camp Pendleton

Marine Corps Base Camp Pendleton is the major West Coast base of the United States Marine Corps. It is located on the Southern California coast, in San Diego County, and bordered by Oceanside to the south, San Clemente, Cleveland National Forest, Orange and Riverside counties to the north, and Fallbrook to the east.

The base is split into North and South and was established in 1942 to train U.S. Marines for service in World War II. By October 1944, Camp Pendleton was declared a "permanent installation" and by 1946, it became the home of the 1st Marine Division. It was named after Major General Joseph Henry Pendleton (1860–1942), who had long advocated setting up a training base for the Marine Corps on the west coast. Today it is the home to myriad Operating Force units including the I Marine Expeditionary Force and various training commands.

Prior to World War II
In 1769, a Spaniard by the name of Captain Gaspar de Portolà led an expeditionary force northward from lower California, seeking to establish Franciscan missions throughout California. On July 20 of that same year, the expedition arrived at the location now known as Camp Pendleton, and as it was the holy day St. Margaret, they christened the land in the name of Santa Margarita.

During the next 30 years, 21 missions were established, the most productive one being Mission San Luis Rey, just south of the present-day Camp Pendleton. At that time, San Luis Rey Mission had control over the Santa Margarita area.

In 1821, following the Mexican War of Independence from Spain, Californios became the new ruling class of California, and many were the first generation descendants of the Portolà expedition. The Mexican governor awarded land grants and ranchos to prominent businessmen, officials and military leaders. In 1841, two brothers, Pio Pico and Andrés Pico, became the first private owners of Rancho Santa Margarita. More land was later added to the grant, giving it the name of Rancho Santa Margarita y Las Flores, which stayed with the ranch until the Marine Corps acquired it in 1942. The design of the ranch's cattle brand is seen in the base's logo today.

In 1863, an Englishman named John (Don Juan) Forster (Pio Pico's brother-in-law) paid off Pico's gambling debts in return for the deed to the ranch. During his tenure as owner of the ranch, he expanded the ranch house, which was first built in 1827, and developed the rancho into a thriving cattle industry.

Forster's heirs, however, were forced to sell the ranch in 1882 because of a string of bad luck, which included a series of droughts and a fence law that forced Forster to construct fencing around the extensive rancho lands. It was purchased by wealthy cattleman James Clair Flood and managed by Irishman Richard O'Neill, who was eventually rewarded for his faithful service with half ownership. Under the guidance of O'Neill's son, Jerome, the ranch began to net a profit of nearly half a million dollars annually, and the house was modernized and furnished to its present form.

World War II
In the early 1940s, both the Army and the Marine Corps were looking for land for a large training base. The Army lost interest in the project, but in February 1942 it was announced that the 122798 acre of Rancho Santa Margarita y Los Flores was about to be transformed into the largest Marine Corps base in the country. It was named for Major General Joseph Henry Pendleton who had long advocated the establishment of a West Coast training base. Construction began in April but the base was considered a temporary facility so it was built to minimum standards of wood frame construction. After five months of furious building activity, the 9th Marine Regiment, under then Colonel Lemuel C. Shepherd, Jr., marched from Camp Elliott in San Diego to Camp Pendleton to be the first troops to occupy the new base. On September 25, 1942, President Franklin D. Roosevelt officially dedicated the base. Wartime training facilities at the base included landing craft school, amphibious tractor school, beach battalion school, amphibious communications school, and a medical field service school at the naval hospital at Santa Margarita Ranch.

Korean War through the 1990s
During the Korean War, $20 million helped expand and upgrade existing facilities, including the construction of Camp Horno. When Camp Pendleton trained the country's fighting force for the Korean and Vietnam Wars, approximately 200,000 Marines passed through the base on their way to the Far East.

Beginning in 1954, Camp Pendleton has hosted a variation of Basic Training familiarization for teenagers age 14 to 17. This training, called "Devil Pups", promotes physical fitness, instills discipline and promotes love of country and the Marine Corps.

The camp's stables display a plaque commemorating a horse, Sergeant Reckless, which served with the Marine Corps in Korea.

In 1975 Camp Pendleton was the first military base in the U.S. to provide accommodations for Vietnamese evacuees in Operation New Arrivals; over 50,000 refugees came to the base in the largest humanitarian airlift in history.

Camp Pendleton has continued to grow through renovations, replacing its original tent camps with more than 2,626 buildings and over 500 miles of roads.

Efforts today continue to preserve the heritage of Camp Pendleton's founders and the Marine Corps' history. The original ranch house has been declared a National Historic Site.

21st century
The base's diverse geography, spanning over 125000 acre, plays host to year-round training for Marines in addition to all other branches of the U.S. military. Amphibious and sea-to-shore training takes place at several key points along the base's 17 mi of coastline. The main base is in the Mainside Complex, at the southeastern end of the base, and the remote northern interior is an impact area. Daytime population is around 100,000. Recruits from nearby Marine Corps Recruit Depot, San Diego spend a month on Pendleton's Edson Range receiving field training, and after graduating from boot camp return to the base's School of Infantry for further training. Camp Pendleton remains the last major undeveloped portion of the California coastline south of Santa Barbara, save for a few relatively small state parks.

Since August 2004, Camp Pendleton has been one of five locations in the Department of Defense to operate the Standard Terminal Automation Replacement System (STARS) air radar. The STARS radar allows the facility to simulate air traffic for training purposes.

On Tuesday, September 20, 2011, an AH-1W Super Cobra military helicopter crashed during a training exercise, killing two Marines.

On Wednesday, November 13, 2013, at about 11:00 A.M. (2 P.M. E.S.T.) at Camp Pendleton, four U.S. Marines were killed when unexploded ordinance blew up after a training accident at the base, military officials said. The accident occurred just after the completion of exercises done as part of a range maintenance operation, the Marine Corps said in a statement. The Corps statement offered official condolences to the families, but, as is often standard procedure after military and other accidents, gave no further details and said the identities of the victims would be withheld pending notification of their families. The fatal accident was at least the second involving Marines based at Camp Pendleton so far in 2013, following the February skydiving death of a Marine from the Camp during an active-duty training exercise, in Riverside County, California, near the Perris Valley Airport.

Camp Pendleton's five-man color guard has participated in many sporting events in San Diego and at the 1996 Republican National Convention, accompanying National Anthem performers. Among the more famous performers who were accompanied by the Camp Pendleton color guard have been Frankie Laine, Herb Alpert, Wilson Phillips, Jewel, Trisha Yearwood and the Dixie Chicks, all of whom had performed the National Anthem at either a World Series game, Super Bowl, or, in Wilson Phillips' case, a Major League Baseball All-Star Game that was played at what is now Qualcomm Stadium.

Unit locations (by area)

 * 11 Area — 1st Marine Division headquarters
 * 13 Area (Mainside) — Headquarters Area - 1st Marine Logistics Group; 9th Communications Battalion; 1st Radio Battalion; 1st Intelligence Battalion; 1st Dental Battalion; Marine Corps Installations West Headquarters
 * 14 Area — Combat Logistics Regiment 1; Combat Logistics Regiment 17; 7th Engineer Support Battalion; Combat Logistics Battalion 1
 * 15 Area — Security Battalion
 * 21 Area (Camp Del Mar) — I Marine Expeditionary Force Headquarters; 3rd Assault Amphibian Battalion; Combat Logistics Battalion 5; Field Medical Training Battalion, 11th Marine Expeditionary Unit, 13th Marine Expeditionary Unit and 15th Marine Expeditionary Unit.
 * 22 Area (Camp Chappo) — 1st Medical Battalion
 * 23 Area (MCAS Camp Pendleton) — Marine Aircraft Group 39
 * 24 Area (Camp Vado Del Rio) — MAG-39 Barracks; Base Brig
 * 25 Area (Vado Del Rio) Marine Wing Support Squadron 372
 * 31 Area (Edson Range) — Weapons & Field Training Battalion
 * 32 Area — MASS-3, 3d LAAD Bn, MACS-1 Det A
 * 33 Area (Camp Margarita) — 1st Reconnaissance Battalion
 * 41 Area (Camp Las Flores) — 1st Light Armored Reconnaissance Battalion; 4th Light Armored Reconnaissance Battalion, 1st Air Naval Gunfire Liaison Company
 * 43 Area (Camp Las Pulgas) — 11th Marine Regiment; 1st Maintenance Battalion
 * 52 Area (Camp San Onofre) — United States Marine Corps School of Infantry
 * 53 Area (Camp Horno) — 1st Marine Regiment; 1st battalion, 4th Marine Regiment
 * 62 Area (Camp San Mateo) — 5th Marine Regiment; 1st Combat Engineer Battalion
 * 63 Area (Camp Talega) — Reserve Support Unit (West); VMU-4

Ecology
Camp Pendleton was built on a wide swath of coastal land that once supported an estuary at the mouth of the Santa Margarita River and extensive salt marsh habitat. Outlying land within the base is made up of floodplain, oak woodlands, coastal dunes and bluffs, coastal sage scrub, chaparral, and several types of wetlands, including ephemeral wetlands such as vernal pools. Wildfire is not uncommon. Research in ecology takes place in undeveloped areas of base, which contain examples of rare and endangered California habitat types. The Department of Defense has issued management plans for various ecosystems on this territory.

Land within the base still includes breeding habitat for birds such as the Western Snowy Plover and California Gnatcatcher. The coastal bluffs have many of the few existing specimens of the Pendleton button-celery, which was named for the base. Rare mammals on the base include the Pacific pocket mouse and Stephens' kangaroo rat.