Marine Corps Recruit Depot San Diego

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Marine Corps Recruit Depot San Diego
San Diego, California

Type	Military base
Built	1919
In use	since 1919
Controlled by	United States
Garrison	Recruit training Drill instructor training Recruiter training
Commanders	Brigadier General Angela Salinas ^[1]

Coordinates: 32°44′29″N, 117°11′53″W Marine Corps Recruit Depot (MCRD) 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.

1 History
2 Recruit training
3 Tenant organizations and facilities
4 Possibility of closure
5 Notes
6 References
7 External links
8 Further reading

The emblem above the MCRD main gate

Marine Corps presence in San Diego dates back to July 1914, but ground was not broken for a permanent base until 2 March 1919, after Joseph Henry Pendleton (for whom Camp Pendleton was later named) successfully fought for a base in the area. By 1921, the base was formally commissioned and in 1923, it became the primary recruiting center for the west coast. During World War II, the base almost exclusively dealt with recruiting. In 1948, the base was formally named Marine Corps Recruit Depot San Diego.

Main article: United States Marine Corps Boot Camp

The base's main mission is to train new United States Marine Corps recruits, specifically males recruited from west of the Mississippi River, but also from some areas east of the river, such as Wisconsin, Michigan, the Chicago area and New Orleans. All other recruits are trained at MCRD Parris Island in South Carolina. Marines who trained at MCRD San Diego are sarcastically called "Hollywood Marines" by their East Coast counterparts. Likewise, San Diego-trained Marines refer to those trained at Parris Island as "hump-waivers", owing to Parris Island's flatness as compared with the hilly terrain of Camp Pendleton that San Diego recruits must hike.

During basic training, commonly referred to as boot camp, recruits complete drill, physical training, swim qualification and other training possible in a garrison environment aboard MCRD. Recruits are separated into three battalions (First Battalion, Second Battalion, and Third Battalion), which each consist of four companies. Belonging to First Battalion are companies Alpha, Bravo, Charlie, Delta. Belonging to Second Battalion are companies Echo, Fox, Golf, Hotel. Belonging to Third Battalion are companies are India, Kilo, Lima, Mike. Each company is like a class, and all the recruits within any given company begin and finish recruit training together with exception to the recruits who finish later due to medical, physical, or personal issues, as well as the ones who don't finish at all.

The hierarchy of MCRD goes even deeper. Each company is broken down into 2 Series, Lead Series and Follow Series. Each Series is led by a Series Commander (also known as a Series Officer) and a Series Chief Drill Instructor (also known as a Series Gunnery Sergeant). Each Series consists of 1-4 platoons and each platoon is designated by a four digit number, such as, Platoon 1061 of Lead Series, Delta Company, 1st Recruit Training Battalion. Each platoon is assigned a team of Drill Instructors. The teams will normally consist of one Senior Drill Instructor, Drill Instructor known affectionately as the "J", and one or two junior Drill Instructors known as the "3rd Hat" and "4th Hat". Within the platoons, recruits may also obtain billets of responsibility. The recruit who performs the best is often selected by the Drill Instructors (and changed seemingly whenever they want) to be the platoon "Guide". A platoon is further broken into three or four squads, each headed by a recruit squad leader. Some platoons break down squads into three or four recruit units called fire teams (mimicking the composition of a Marine Corps Rifle Platoon). In addition, there are several other billets that recruits may hold, often mimicking positions in Marine Corps Units such as Scribe (S-1), Whiskey Locker (Supply), Witch Doctor (Corpsman), etc.

A rivalry exists between each platoon, as well as each company, to excel in every aspect of training. Recruit training is three months long, the first month of which is spent at MCRD, while the second month is spent at Edson Range aboard Marine Corps Base Camp Pendleton where they spend four weeks training on the rifle range, qualifying with the rifle and engaging in field training, including a 54-hour evolution known as 'The Crucible'. At the conclusion of a full month at Camp Pendleton the recruits move back to MCRD San Diego to complete their last month of training.

While Boot Camp does include a lot of physical activity and improves the general physical fitness of the average person who completes it, getting in shape and becoming strong are not the main purposes of Boot Camp, as many would believe. The main purpose of recruit training is to instill the recruits with discipline and the "Corps Values" of honor, courage, and commitment.

One of the ways that discipline is instilled in recruits is called incentive training (IT). The Drill Instructors can take up to ten recruits at a time to the Quarterdeck and give them exercises to perform for extended periods of time. The Senior Drill instructor is the only one that can use IT on the entire platoon at once. There are rules that the Drill Instructors must follow for the safety of the recruits including the total length of time and the types of exercises that are done so that each muscle group is not over worked.

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 Corps Band San Diego. The Coast Guard also has a presence onboard MCRD, with the Pacific Area Tactical Law Enforcement Team and the Maritime Safety and Security Team, a new anti-terrorism team homeported to protect local maritime assets.

Many politicians have pushed for the closure of MCRD San Diego, primarily because it occupies what is now extremely valuable land adjacent to the city's harbor and airport. Although the installation was not on the 2005 Base Realignment and Closure list proposed by the Pentagon, the Defense Base Closure and Realignment Commission asked the Pentagon for a written explanation as to why MCRD San Diego was not proposed to be closed and consolidated into MCRD Parris Island.

The Commission noted that the Navy and Air Force had successfully consolidated training facilities without risk to the mission or risk of loss of "surge capability" (the ability to quickly increase the rate of recruit training if circumstances make that necessary). They also noted that the military value of MCRD San Diego is lower than MCRD Parris Island due in part to encroachment and land constraints.

Closure meets heavy resistance from the Marine Corps, because of the status of the parade deck as a memorial to veterans of WWII, Korea, and Vietnam, and Iraq, as well as the cost of relocation of the Depot. In a July 14, 2005 public response to the Commission, Gordon R. England, the acting Deputy Secretary of Defense, the Pentagon noted that it had looked at that possibility, but did not recommend it because it would create a single point of failure, vulnerable to hurricanes among other threats. The Pentagon also noted that the payback on such a closure would take over 100 years due to the need for new construction at Parris Island and the need to relocate rather than eliminate personnel from San Diego.