Two and a half years after Hurricane Florence made landfall in North Carolina, military construction projects worth more than a billion dollars are now underway to restore the state’s Marine Corps installations.
Officials held a ceremonial groundbreaking at the 10th Marine Regiment headquarters on Marine Corps Base Camp Lejeune last week to officially commence a five-year effort to rebuild facilities on the East Coast’s largest Marine Corps base and its two nearby air stations.
“Over the next five years, you will see construction on an epic scale,” said U.S. Navy Capt. Miguel Dieguez, assistant chief of staff for Facilities and Environment, Marine Corps Installations East (MCIEAST) - MCB Camp Lejeune, in a news release.
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Updated 7:56 AM ET, Wed March 31, 2021 (CNN)Deep in the North Carolina woods, the men trained at night for what they called seek out and destroy missions.
They fought each other in hand-to-hand combat, running drills at a bucolic encampment near Fort Bragg. Glenn Miller, an ex-Green Beret, ran the place. Wiry and mustached, the Vietnam veteran paced its grounds in fatigues.
A smooth talker, Miller used his contacts in the Army to draw dozens of active-duty military personnel from Bragg, one of the largest US military installations in the world, and Marine Corps Base Camp Lejeune.
Retired U.S. Marine Corps Master Sgt. Jerry Ensminger has been to Washington, D.C., more times than he can count. He s given nine congressional testimonies, and for nearly 24 years he’s been the tip of the spear for survivors of the water contamination crisis that occurred at Marine Corps Base Camp Lejeune from 1953 to 1987.
THE BEGINNING
Ensminger’s motivation is his late daughter Janey, his only child born, conceived or carried at Camp Lejeune.
In 1983, Janey was diagnosed with leukemia at 6 years old. By then, base officials had been notified of contaminated water by multiple lab tests dating back to 1980.
4 On Thursday April 22, 2021 Naval Facilities Engineering Systems Command (NAVFAC) Atlantic and Office in Charge of Construction (OICC) Florence participated in a ground breaking ceremony to mark the beginning of a five-year effort to revitalize Marine Corps Base (MCB) Camp Lejeune, Marine Corps Air Station (MCAS) New River and MCAS Cherry Point. The ground breaking was held at the soon to be replaced 10th Marine Regiment headquarters which will be the first of many Hurricane Florence related projects.
Capt. Jim Brown, commanding officer, OICC Florence, began the ceremony by delivering a commitment to the installation.
“We need to return it back to what it was, and in the process, make it better, and more lethal than what it was before,” Brown said. “We will endeavor to do that.”
USNI News Fleet and Marine Tracker: April 26, 2021
April 26, 2021 11:09 AM
USNI News Graphic
These are the approximate positions of the U.S. Navy’s deployed carrier strike groups and amphibious ready groups throughout the world as of April 26, 2021, based on Navy and public data. In cases where a CSG or ARG is conducting disaggregated operations, the chart reflects the location of the capital ship.
Total U.S. Navy Battle Force:
296
In Japan
Seaman Zhihao Luo, from San Francisco, assigned to the forward-deployed amphibious assault ship USS America (LHA-6), secures a line during small boat operations training on April 22, 2021. US Navy Photo