MARINE CORPS BASE QUANTICO, Va. -- The early-morning sun hadn’t yet melted the night’s frost when more than 150 Marines from The Basic School’s Instructor Battalion took to the forest between Camp Barrett Pond and MCB-2 on Feb. 14, hacking brush, hauling deadwood and clearing branches to make way for a recreation area that will celebrate the Corps’ first black Marines. Steam rose from the ends of freshly sawn logs, and breath hung in a fog over the crowd of instructors who hefted debris from roadside heaps onto landscaping trucks.
“Really, what this is about is Marines honoring their warrior brothers and the legacy of the Marine Corps,” said Capt. Karl Eisenmann, logistics officer for the battalion and one of the Marines in charge of the project.
When it’s completed, the recreation area will include trails, a picnic area and a pier. The pond, which now receives little visibility behind Ramer Hall, will be the park’s centerpiece and will be stocked for fishing this spring.
Placards placed around the site will tell stories of the Montford Point Marines, the first black Marines in the Corps.
When President Franklin D. Roosevelt issued a directive in 1942 allowing blacks to join the Marines, they were not allowed to train with the other recruits, but were sent to the Montford Point facility at Camp Lejeune, N.C. Over the following seven years, about 20,000 black Marines trained there.
“Hopefully, we’re going to have some of those Montford Point Marines here to help us with the opening,” Eisenmann said.
The recreation area at The Basic School is scheduled to open on July 26 of this year, on the 65th anniversary of Executive Order 9981, with which President Harry Truman abolished racial discrimination in the U.S. military.
“This is TBS’s way of saying thank you and honoring their service,” said Maj. George Camia, commanding officer for Instructor Battalion’s Combat Service Support Company.
A biathlon is also planned for the opening day, with a race to and from a shooting competition at the Weapons Training Battalion ranges. One of the paths being cleared on the morning of Feb. 14 will form part of that route, running from the pond to a gravel road that leads to the ranges.
Although the Engineer Platoon had already put in a couple of days’ work at the site, this was the first time most of the battalion pitched in, with everyone who wasn’t directly involved in officer training that morning convening to clear saplings around the pond, clean up the tree line along MCB-2 and take dead trees and undergrowth out of the future trail area.
Most of the work will be done in-house by the Marines.
“The idea is, we do this probably once or twice a week until it’s done,” Eisenmann said, although he added that the picnic pavilions will probably be built by a contractor, and the pylons for the pier may be built either by a contractor or by Navy Seabees.
“This also gets the Marines out and shows them some of the assets on base they can utilize but they didn’t know about before,” said Gunnery Sgt. Tylon Wilder, grounds maintenance chief and Ramer Hall staff noncommissioned officer in charge.
The finished recreation area will provide a place for Marines of The Basic School and their families to relax and will also provide an attraction for members of the Wounded Warrior Regiment, said Eisenmann. “Wounded Warriors will be able to come here and throw a line in and still feel like part of the Marine Corps.”
He said he’s been in touch with the Washington, D.C., chapter of the Montford Point Marine Association regarding the undertaking and will meet with members of the chapter next month.
“They’re really excited about this project,” he said.
— Writer: mdicicco@quanticosentryonline.com