View Full Version : bootcamp at MCAS El Toro?
jeonpaolo
05-19-11, 01:12 AM
Evening Marines and All,
There was an article in our local newspaper in 2005 about the Marine Corps seriously considering transferring bootcamp from MCRD San Diego to the closed down MCAS El Toro base. The reason was that its was not considered economical moving recruits back and forth from MCRD to Pendleton. Anyone know what every happened to this proposal and why DOD never went through with this?
Old Marine
05-19-11, 10:31 AM
Do not believe anything the media puts out. The government is not going to give up MCRD,SD. The city of San Diego would just love to get their filthy hands on that property so they could build condos or whatever, but I doubt that the city has enough power to wrangle it from the U.S. Government.
YourPhoneIsMine
05-19-11, 10:39 AM
el toro has been closed down for years and is no longer even government property
chulaivet1966
05-19-11, 10:42 AM
Dbut I doubt that the city has enough power to wrangle it from the U.S. Government.
I hope you're correct as I'd like to visit MCRD San Diego to re-kindle old memories from 1965 times.
My understanding is that visits are allowed if one has a DD214 and some other minor criteria
Ha...those quonset huts are long gone judging from the Googlearth views.
I think I can see where the huts were and the old PT area.
Found the yellow footprint reception center but can't nail down the chow hall building quite yet...which may be gone also.
chulaivet1966
05-19-11, 10:45 AM
el toro has been closed down for years and is no longer even government property
Well I'll be dipped in sh!t...didn't know that.
Guess I've been out of the loop until recently.
YourPhoneIsMine
05-19-11, 10:48 AM
you won't need your dd214, just about any civilian can visit the base but I imagine with it you'll be able to buy stuff from the uniform shop if you want
this is the current recruit chow hall, not sure how long it's been there.
http://i.imgur.com/Xqny9.jpg
highly doubt this base will be going away any time soon. some folks in san diego may hate having boots walking around all over the place but the majority of them come from pendleton anyways and the family day/graduation tourists bring in lots of money
chulaivet1966
05-19-11, 10:56 AM
YPIM....thanks for the photo.
I've got to ornament myself with your photo and googlearth when I get back from my doc appt. (check up only).
IIRC(?) our quonset hut area was pretty close to the chow hall.
'I'll be bock'....in my best Austrian accent.
iamspartacus
05-19-11, 11:22 AM
If I were the Mayor of San Diego, I would want to keep the depot right where it is. Think about it. The depot brings in thousands of people from all over the country every weekend for at least 3 days to see their Marine graduate boot camp. Can you imagine how much hotel revenue alone comes from MCRD graduations? And most new Marines stay in San Diego with their families for at least a few days after that to sight see. You also have DI school right there as well. Sure, the city could chop it up into multi-million dollar properties, but I would imagine the local economy loves having the the Depot in their city.
you won't need your dd214, just about any civilian can visit the base but I imagine with it you'll be able to buy stuff from the uniform shop if you want
this is the current recruit chow hall, not sure how long it's been there.
http://i.imgur.com/Xqny9.jpg
highly doubt this base will be going away any time soon. some folks in san diego may hate having boots walking around all over the place but the majority of them come from pendleton anyways and the family day/graduation tourists bring in lots of money
might be a good Idea to take your DD214, I was recently at P.I. on a Sunday morning and they checked me at the gate.
The sgt. said we don't just let anyone come on base,you need a military I.D. ? I said I do have my DD214 and he looked at it and said this is a first ! He had never seen one while being posted? He did let me through.
But that was P.I., perhaps it is different at Diego ? Moz
YourPhoneIsMine
05-19-11, 12:37 PM
was it since osama was killed? because most bases I know of have tightened up a bit since then. perhaps they only let civilians on during family day and graduation? I was able to get on with my contractor ID as was my coworker at the time since I didn't show my military ID but since I was coming from spawar they might have had an understanding to allow us on
I sit corrected
Tennessee Top
05-19-11, 12:41 PM
Just guessing, but I would say the old quonset huts were in those empty square spaces. I did stay in a two-story barracks back in 1972 but we saw the quonset huts. No way to tell if that's the chowhall we used.
Would love to go back there some day but don't see me getting all the way back to the West Coast. Am going to PI in a couple weeks for a recruit graduation and family day. Got my retired ID card and a current DOD decal on my vehicle so shouldn't have any issues at the front gate.
Zulu 36
05-19-11, 01:43 PM
you won't need your dd214, just about any civilian can visit the base but I imagine with it you'll be able to buy stuff from the uniform shop if you want
this is the current recruit chow hall, not sure how long it's been there.
http://i.imgur.com/Xqny9.jpg
highly doubt this base will be going away any time soon. some folks in san diego may hate having boots walking around all over the place but the majority of them come from pendleton anyways and the family day/graduation tourists bring in lots of money
That was the main recruit chowhall when I went to boot camp in 1971. It was pretty new at the time. My barracks for 1st and 3rd phases is immediately at the upper-left of the chowhall. A lot of my sweat was left in those sand pits you see there. In fact my squadbay was 3d deck (1st Phase) and 2d deck (3rd Phase) of the extension closest to the chow hall.
Later in the summer, when the depot filled up, 2d RTB opened it's own chow hall in an old WWII era mess hall, further west on Guadalcanal St. We ate there in 3rd Phase. That old mess hall isn't there anymore last
time I checked Google Earth.
1st and 2d RTB were housed in the (then) new H-shaped barracks. 3rd RTB still lived in Quonset huts, the remnants you can see to the right of the mess hall. There were more then, spread all over that area. Also, most series and company offices were still in Quonset huts dotted in between the H-shaped barracks.
1st and 2d RTB recruits were not allowed to knock on the duty hut hatch in the H-barracks as the walls of the duty hut were plasterboard and knocking would result in pounding big holes through the walls. Supposedly they were going to install some kind of board next to the hatch, but it didn't happen while I was there.
Ah, memories.
chulaivet1966
05-19-11, 02:00 PM
Just guessing, but I would say the old quonset huts were in those empty square spaces. I did stay in a two-story barracks back in 1972 but we saw the quonset huts. No way to tell if that's the chowhall we used.
Would love to go back there some day but don't see me getting all the way back to the West Coast. Am going to PI in a couple weeks for a recruit graduation and family day. Got my retired ID card and a current DOD decal on my vehicle so shouldn't have any issues at the front gate.
Yes...that's where I thought the quonset huts were also and I think the chow was somewhat close to them.
Ha...you shouldn't have any problems getting on base....you can just pull rank when you get to the gate.
I just hope they haven't come up with some silly criteria like...'you're too damned old to enter MCRD again'.
Sure wish I could recall a bit better.
After all, I did spend the most challenging 8 weeks of my life at that resort area.
Old Marine
05-19-11, 03:39 PM
Chauaivet: The old 2nd Bn Chow hall was directly behind the Parade Reviewing Stand. In 1966 I graduated from D.I. School and was assigned to 2n Bn. The old mess hall was torn down in 1970/1971 if memory serves me correctly. At The time I was RTR S-4 Chief and one of my responsibilities was to prepare the chow schedule for all recruits and the movement to the Range schedule. I will say scheduling was no picnic.
chulaivet1966
05-19-11, 03:53 PM
Old Marine....
I thank you for chiming in with some good specifics.
This is helping me connect the dots from those days.
I also remember my hut being close to a small sand pit (our area for punishment) next to the battalion head.
I'm rambling now....
Got to peruse that map again.
chulaivet1966
05-19-11, 04:08 PM
Oh...I was thinking there must be some air photos from the sixties of MCRD that may not be considered classified by this time.
That is only a guess on my part and, of course, they would be a bi!th to find on the web.
Oh...I was thinking there must be some air photos from the sixties of MCRD that may not be considered classified by this time.
That is only a guess on my part and, of course, they would be a bi!th to find on the web.
Here is one photo from the sixties.
yellowfootprints dot com/yearbook/showphoto.php?photo=1417
Don't like the 2 minute edit length,but going to the special photo section on the above link will bring you many old photos of MCRD San Diego and P.I. plus many more.
chulaivet1966
05-19-11, 05:21 PM
DanM (almost typed DamN...I'm daft)...
Thank you for taking the time to post that gem of a link.
I'm going to check them out as we speak.
I owe you a beer.....
chulaivet1966
05-21-11, 06:36 PM
Me again...
The ICE PLANTS! (I think that's what we called them)
I seem to recall we had to use our buckets to water the ice plants in front of some of the quonset huts?
Or...I am just a poser making up sh!t?
I see some of those plants on the googlearth image next to a few rows of Qhuts.