Read More: First Phase of Construction: Tent Camp Area

Tent Camp Area
Tent Camp in 1941

Tent Camp, 1941

Construction of the Tent Camp Area (now known as Camp Geiger) began at the end of April 1941, with the post command established there on 1 May. The 1st MarDiv, for which the camp was built, began arriving in September, and by October the Tent Camp was 98 percent complete. Billeting consisted of tents on wooden platforms secured to wooden frames with associated wood-frame washroom buildings, mess halls, storehouses, and other support facilities. Approximately 6,000 Marines were stationed at the base at that time, most billeted in the Tent Camp.

Tent Camp No. 2
An extension to the Tent Camp, appropriately named Tent Camp No. 2, was approved in December 1941 after the U.S. entered World War II. Wood and canvas had been rationed as part of the war effort, so the new "tent camp" actually consisted of 667 16-man portable Homosote huts, which were built of paraffin-impregnated particle board panels hung on a wooden frame. By the end of World War II these two camps together held nearly 2,000 tents, huts, and other structures.