Parris Island is named for an Englishman named Colonel Alexander Parris, treasurer of the South Carolina colony, who purchased the island and eight small surrounding islands. Until the Civil War, plantation life flourished there.

Union forces captured Port Royal Sound in 1861, and Parris Island became a coaling station for the Navy. This function was taken up again after the war, thanks in large part to the former slave turned Congressman Robert Smalls, who fought for the creation of a new federal military installation on the island. A permanent U.S. military presence has existed on Parris Island ever since.

Marines were first stationed on Parris Island in 1891, in the form of a small security detachment headed by First Sergeant Richard Donovan. His unit was attached to the Naval Station, Port Royal, the forerunner of Parris Island. Donovan’s unit was highly commended for preserving life and property during hurricanes and tidal waves that swept over the island in 1891 and 1893.

Military buildings and homes constructed between 1891 and World War I form the nucleus of the Parris Island Historic District. At the district center are the commanding general’s home, a 19th century wooden dry dock and a turn-of-the-century gazebo—all of which are on the National Register of Historic Places.

On November 1, 1915, Parris Island was officially designated a Marine Corps Recruit Depot and training was continued from then on.

Prior to 1929, a ferry provided all transportation to and from the island from Port Royal docks to the Recruit Depot docks. In that year the causeway and a bridge over Archer’s Creek were completed, thus ending the water transportation era. The causeway was dedicated as the General E. A. Pollock Memorial Causeway in April 1984. During the fateful December 1941, 5,272 recruits arrived there with 9,206 arriving the following month, making it necessary to add the 5th, 6th, 7th and 8th Recruit Training Battalions. As the war influx continued, five battalions were sent to New River, North Carolina, to train, and the Depot expanded to 13 battalions. From 1941 through 1945, the Marines trained 204,509 recruits here and at the time of the Japanese surrender, the Depot contained more than 20,000 recruits.

On February 15, 1949, the Marines activated a separate “command” for the sole purpose of training female recruits. Later, this command was designated the 4th Recruit Training Battalion and it now serves as the only battalion in the Corps for training female recruits.

Parris Island is also home to the Marine Corps 6^th Recruiting District and the Marine Corps’ only Drill Instructor School.

Marine Corps Recruit Depot Parris Island is one of only two facilities that train Marine recruits, along with MCRD San Diego.

Recruit training for those enlisted in the United States Marine Corps, includes a thirteen week process during which the recruit becomes cut off from the civilian world and must adapt to a Marine Corps lifestyle. During training, the drill instructors train recruits in a wide variety of subjects including weapons training, Marine Corps Martial Arts Program, personal hygiene and cleanliness, close order drill, and Marine Corps history. The training emphasizes physical fitness and recruits must attain a minimum standard of fitness to graduate. This standard includes a Physical Fitness Test. Recruits must also meet minimum combat-oriented swimming qualifications, qualify in rifle marksmanship with the M16A2 service rifle, and pass a 54-hour simulated combat exercise known as “The Crucible”.

Marine Corps Air Station Beaufort

Marine Corps Air Station Beaufort occupies land that was once part of several large plantations, including Clarendon and Edgerly. The Laurel Bay military housing area stands on the ground of the former Bull and DeVeaux Plantations.

In the summer of 1941, the Civil Aeronautics Authority proposed to establish an airport, Merritt Field, at the location of the present Air Station. At the outset of World War II those plans were abandoned in favor of building a military air base. Approximately 5,800 acres of land were purchased by the government for construction of a Naval Auxiliary Air Station. Construction began during December 1942 and was completed August 1943.

Naval Air Station Beaufort was commissioned on June 15, 1943 for advanced training operations of anti-submarine patrols during World War II. It was then deactivated in 1946 and reactivated in 1956. On March 1, 1960, it was re-designated Marine Corps Air Station Beaufort. On September 19, 1975, the airfield was named Merritt Field in honor of Major General Lewie G. Merritt, USMCR of Ridge Spring, South Carolina.

The air station encompasses 6,900 acres (28 km²). It is also associated with a large air-to-air combat area off the coast of South Carolina and Georgia as well as a 5,200 acre (21 km²) air-to-ground combat and bombing range in McIntosh County, Georgia. Also attached to the base is the housing complex of Laurel Bay, just 3 miles (5 km) from the station, that provides family housing for area service people.

MCAS Beaufort hosts all active duty USMC F/A-18 air operations on the East Coast, assigned to MAG-31. The mission of the Marine Corps Air Station Beaufort is to provide support as an operational base for MAG-31, and the support units. The mission of the Marine Aircraft Group (MAG-31) is to conduct anti-air-warfare and offensive air support operations in support of Fleet Marine Forces from advanced bases, expeditionary airfields, or aircraft carriers and conduct such other air operations as may be directed. The population of the on-base “city” includes nearly 4,000 active-duty service members and more than 700 civilian workers.

MCAS-Beaufort’s nickname is “Fightertown East”; MCAS Miramar is the more commonly known “Fightertown”, also called “Fightertown USA”.

That Noise You Hear Is The Sound Of Freedom!

Naval Hospital Beaufort

Naval Hospital, Beaufort was opened in 1949 on 127 acres of land. Historically, the site was formerly the John Joiner Smith Plantation which included Camp Saxton, a Civil War Garrison and Fort Frederick, both recognized as National Historical sites. The earliest federally authorized black unit to fight for the Union, the First South Carolina Volunteers, was camped at this site. On January 1, 1863, General Rufus Saxton assembled a large populace for one of the earliest readings of the Emancipation Proclamation. An annual reenactment of the reading is held at the Camp Saxton site, along with a Civil War encampment both of which are enjoyed by members of our staff and the local community.

Fort Frederick was built by the English in 1735 to protect Beaufort from the Native Americans in the area and the Spaniards to the south. Today, the remains of its walls stand within the Naval Hospital compound as a duly designated historical monument. During the Civil War, the site became a Garrison named Camp Shaw. The present hospital replaced the Naval Hospital, Parris Island which was open from 1891 through 1 May 1949. Naval Hospital, Beaufort was commissioned on 29 April 1949, and the first patient was admitted on 5 May 1949.

Naval Hospital, Beaufort consists of the hospital and two Branch Medical Clinics – one at Marine Corps Recruit Depot (MCRD), Parris Island and the other at Marine Corps Air Station (MCAS), Beaufort.