thedrifter
05-29-07, 07:41 AM
The Lore of the Corps
Leatherneck recruits forged at Parris Island since 1911
By Nick Adde - Special to the Times
Posted : June 04, 2007
The roughly 19,000 recruits who endure the rigors of boot camp at Parris Island, S.C., each year can perhaps extract comfort in knowing that they are not the first to suffer there.
The French tried to set up a base in 1562, long before the first leatherneck stepped foot on the island.
That enterprise failed, as did later efforts by the Spanish and English. Homesickness, disease, starvation and armed conflicts with each other and Native Americans worked against them, according to a Marine Corps historical document written in 1962.
The Corps’ presence began when the Navy’s Atlantic Blockading Squadron seized Parris Island — then known as Port Royal — in 1861 and set up a strategic base to stop Confederate blockade runners during the Civil War. After the war, the Navy used the base as a coaling dock and storehouse.
In 1891, a 13-man detachment of Marines was sent to oversee laborers building a dry dock, marking the establishment of the first Marine post there.
The base expanded and in the 1900s served as an officers’ training school and a disciplinary barracks.
Marines trained on the island for every major conflict of the 20th century. Male recruits who live east of the Mississippi River and, beginning in 1949, all female recruits head to Parris Island for boot camp.
Enlisted recruit training began there in 1911. The pace of training, and the size of the base, increased sharply with the advent of World War I.
At that point, the base was renamed Marine Barracks Paris Island, S.C. In 1919, base commander Brig. Gen. Joseph Pendleton recommended the name be changed to include the additional “r” in Parris, reflecting the historical spelling of the island’s name.
During World War I, recruit training lasted eight weeks, with more than 13,000 men training there at the war’s peak. They learned close-order drills, bayonet fighting, personal combat, wall-scaling, rope-climbing and boxing, then spent the last three weeks learning to use their rifles.
Forty-one thousand recruits made the rite of passage at Parris Island during World War I. The population particularly strained the water supply; potable water was supplied from barges. Recruits bathed, flushed heads and fought fires with saltwater.
While the hectic pace and demands ebbed greatly after the war, so did funding. Training activities nearly came to a standstill by the mid-1930s, during which the flow of recruits dwindled to about 300 men per month.
But the years before the start of World War II saw innovations in training. Marine recruits learned how to fire automatic weapons and were among the first to see the trench mortar demonstrated.
The Dec. 7, 1941, attack on Pearl Harbor changed the face of Parris Island — and the Marine Corps — forever. The influx of recruits, and subsequent strain on facilities and resources — dwarfed those of the Great War. Temporary structures, more drill instructors and accelerated training cycles helped accommodate the new recruits, who now numbered 6,800 per month.
The Corps also diverted five training battalions to New River, N.C., to relieve the strain. From 1941 through 1945, 204,509 recruits trained at Parris Island, according to Globalsecurity.org.
The depot geared up again for the Korean War, producing 138,000 Marines, and 250,000 during the Vietnam War, according to the Web site.
Ellie
Leatherneck recruits forged at Parris Island since 1911
By Nick Adde - Special to the Times
Posted : June 04, 2007
The roughly 19,000 recruits who endure the rigors of boot camp at Parris Island, S.C., each year can perhaps extract comfort in knowing that they are not the first to suffer there.
The French tried to set up a base in 1562, long before the first leatherneck stepped foot on the island.
That enterprise failed, as did later efforts by the Spanish and English. Homesickness, disease, starvation and armed conflicts with each other and Native Americans worked against them, according to a Marine Corps historical document written in 1962.
The Corps’ presence began when the Navy’s Atlantic Blockading Squadron seized Parris Island — then known as Port Royal — in 1861 and set up a strategic base to stop Confederate blockade runners during the Civil War. After the war, the Navy used the base as a coaling dock and storehouse.
In 1891, a 13-man detachment of Marines was sent to oversee laborers building a dry dock, marking the establishment of the first Marine post there.
The base expanded and in the 1900s served as an officers’ training school and a disciplinary barracks.
Marines trained on the island for every major conflict of the 20th century. Male recruits who live east of the Mississippi River and, beginning in 1949, all female recruits head to Parris Island for boot camp.
Enlisted recruit training began there in 1911. The pace of training, and the size of the base, increased sharply with the advent of World War I.
At that point, the base was renamed Marine Barracks Paris Island, S.C. In 1919, base commander Brig. Gen. Joseph Pendleton recommended the name be changed to include the additional “r” in Parris, reflecting the historical spelling of the island’s name.
During World War I, recruit training lasted eight weeks, with more than 13,000 men training there at the war’s peak. They learned close-order drills, bayonet fighting, personal combat, wall-scaling, rope-climbing and boxing, then spent the last three weeks learning to use their rifles.
Forty-one thousand recruits made the rite of passage at Parris Island during World War I. The population particularly strained the water supply; potable water was supplied from barges. Recruits bathed, flushed heads and fought fires with saltwater.
While the hectic pace and demands ebbed greatly after the war, so did funding. Training activities nearly came to a standstill by the mid-1930s, during which the flow of recruits dwindled to about 300 men per month.
But the years before the start of World War II saw innovations in training. Marine recruits learned how to fire automatic weapons and were among the first to see the trench mortar demonstrated.
The Dec. 7, 1941, attack on Pearl Harbor changed the face of Parris Island — and the Marine Corps — forever. The influx of recruits, and subsequent strain on facilities and resources — dwarfed those of the Great War. Temporary structures, more drill instructors and accelerated training cycles helped accommodate the new recruits, who now numbered 6,800 per month.
The Corps also diverted five training battalions to New River, N.C., to relieve the strain. From 1941 through 1945, 204,509 recruits trained at Parris Island, according to Globalsecurity.org.
The depot geared up again for the Korean War, producing 138,000 Marines, and 250,000 during the Vietnam War, according to the Web site.
Ellie