Camp Lejeune North Carolina Patch

Camp Lejeune started on May 1, 1941, when Lt. Col. William P. T. Hill began building a Marine base on the New River in Onslow County, North Carolina, under the name Marine Barracks New River. It was renamed for Lt. Gen. John A. Lejeune, the 13th Commandant of the Marine Corps, after his death. The base grew to about 156,000 acres around Jacksonville, with some 14 miles of Atlantic beach for amphibious training. For generations of East Coast Marines it has been home. Ask a Marine where he was stationed and Lejeune is one of the most common answers in the Corps.

Camp Lejeune is home to II Marine Expeditionary Force, the 2nd Marine Division, the 2nd Marine Logistics Group and Marine Corps Forces Special Operations Command (MARSOC). Marine Corps Air Station New River and Camp Geiger sit nearby as satellite facilities, and the School of Infantry trains new Marines there. Montford Point, a satellite camp established after Executive Order 8802, trained about 20,000 African American Marines between 1942 and 1949 and was later renamed Camp Gilbert H. Johnson. From World War II on, units leaving Lejeune have shipped out for the Pacific, Korea, Vietnam, Beirut, Desert Storm, Iraq and Afghanistan.

The patch is a 4 by 4 inch circle with a gold merrowed edge around a scarlet field, the Marine Corps colors. U.S. MARINE CORPS arches across the top and CAMP LEJEUNE, N.C. across the bottom in black letters. A thin gold ring sets off the center, where the eagle, globe and anchor is stitched in gold with black detail. Marines have worn the eagle, globe and anchor since 1868: the eagle for the nation, the globe for service around the world, the fouled anchor for the Corps' ties to the sea. It has an iron-on backing and can also be sewn on.

Lejeune is where a lot of Marines learned what the fleet Marine force actually is: field days, long humps through the pines, landings at Onslow Beach and the barracks on Main Side. Units formed and trained there went to every major fight the Corps has taken on since 1941. For many Marines it was the last stop before a deployment and the first place they came home to after it. The name on the bottom of this patch means something to every one of them.

It fits a shadow box with your 2nd Marine Division patch and a photo from your unit, or the vest you wear to a reunion. It is also a good gift for a Marine who was stationed at Lejeune or a family member who wants a piece of where he served. Scarlet and gold, and the name of the base.