Marine Corps Recruit Depot San Diego

Marine Corps Recruit Depot San Diego is a United States Marine Corps military installation in San Diego, California. It lies between San Diego Bay and Interstate 5, adjacent to San Diego International Airport and the former Naval Training Center San Diego. MCRD San Diego's main mission is the initial training of enlisted male 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.

Marines made an amphibious landing in San Diego in 1846 from USS Savannah and USS Congress during the Mexican–American War. Marines made a presence in San Diego again in July 1914, but ground was not broken for a permanent base until March 2, 1919. The initial proposal for the base came from Congressman William Kettner, who also proposed construction of Naval Training Center San Diego. The Marine base only became a reality due to the perseverance of its first commanding officer, Colonel Joseph Henry Pendleton . Before the commissioning of the base on Dutch Flats, the Marines were based in Balboa Park. The structures were designed by architect Bertram Goodhue in the Spanish Colonial Revival style, and they echoed the style used for the buildings of the 1915 Panama–California Exposition . The base and its original buildings are now on the National Register of Historic Places listings in San Diego County, California. By 1921, the base was formally commissioned, and in 1923 it became the Marine Corps' recruit training center for the western United States. During World War II, the flow of recruits into the base surged, with 18,000 recruits arriving in one month. In 1948, the base was formally named Marine Corps Recruit Depot San Diego.

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