presents
Carolina Museum of the Marine and Civic Institute
"The Draft" Newsletter Vol. 2, No. 7 July 2021
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Carolina Museum of the Marine and Civic Institute
We understand the importance of preserving the legacy of Carolina Marines and Sailors and are excited to enhance that mission with The Civic Institute - an educational component founded by General Al Gray, 29th Commandant - that will teach citizens of all ages about the ideals that are the foundation of our nation as so ably demonstrated by Marines since 1775. Courses will be offered on location at schools and businesses, online and - when the museum is completed - onsite.
Honoring the legacy, sustaining the ideals,
keeping the flame burning brightly
for future generations.
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Famous Celebrities
who served as Marines
Steve McQueen
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In 1947, after receiving permission from his mother since he was not yet 18 years old, McQueen enlisted in the Marines and was sent to Parris Island for boot camp. He was promoted to private first class and assigned to an armored unit. He initially reverted to his prior rebelliousness and was demoted to private seven times. He took an unauthorized absence by failing to return after a weekend pass expired, staying with a girlfriend for two weeks until the shore patrol caught him. He resisted arrest and spent 41 days in the brig.
After this he resolved to focus his energies on self-improvement and embraced the Marines' discipline. He saved the lives of five other Marines during an Arctic exercise, pulling them from a tank before it broke through ice into the sea. He was assigned to the honor guard responsible for protecting the presidential yacht of US President Harry Truman. McQueen served until 1950, when he was honorably discharged. He later said he had enjoyed his time in the Marines. He remembered the Marines as a formative time in his life, saying, "The Marines made a man out of me. I learned how to get along with others, and I had a platform to jump off of."
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"The Marines made a man out of me. I learned how to get along with others, and I had a platform to jump off of." |
In 1974, McQueen became the highest-paid movie star in the world, although he did not act in film for another four years. He was combative with directors and producers, but his popularity placed him in high demand and enabled him to command the largest salaries.
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How Much Do you Know
about the Seventh Amendment?
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THE FIRST MARINES
by LtCol Lynn "Kim" Kimball, USMC (Ret)
Beginning during the summer of 1940, the Marine Corps had actively searched the east and Gulf coasts for a division training area. A selection board, headed by Colonel Julian C. Smith, who would later command the 2nd Marine Division during the epic battle for Tarawa, eventually settled on the New River area of Onslow County. One of the more desirable features of this area was the sheltered cove known as Courthouse Bay, so-called because on its shores at Jarrett’s Point was established Onslow County’s first courthouse. The Major General Commandant, Thomas Holcomb, defined a scope of twenty-one activities that were to be conducted in the training area; seven of these could be associated with and would eventually influence the development of the Courthouse Bay area, including its adjoining community.
Courthouse Bay’s appeal to the Marines was much the same as that of the settlers who for generations had built their homes, farms, landings, stores and small industries around the Bay’s periphery. The Bay would provide a protected anchorage and staging area for the landing craft and amphibian tractors that would train the Marines in their ship-to-shore movement along with the necessary repair and maintenance facilities, administrative support buildings and barracks. The Bay likewise allowed easy access to the New River; which in turn provided access to the other Base enclaves along the river; the New River Inlet; the landing beaches stretching northeastward toward Brown’s Inlet; the Atlantic Intracoastal Waterway with its landward maneuver areas and, by 1942, the amphibious transport mockup; and the training areas afforded by the expanse of the river itself and its shores.
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And, it surely must be regarded as one of the more remarkable coincidences in the naming of geographic places that, decades before Camp Lejeune was even a twinkle in the Commandant’s eye, this adjoining, thriving community aboard what would become the Marine Corps’ premier amphibious base, was named ‘Marines.”
To begin at the beginning, the town of “Marines” at Courthouse Bay was begun by the Marine family patriarch Zorobabel Marine when he settled at that site in 1844 with his wife, the former Anne Elizabeth (Eliza) Covil. Zorobabel is believed to have been descended from the Marines that settled along the northwest branch of the Nanticoke River in Dorchester Count, Maryland, beginning in 1665. Zorobabel prospered as a yeoman farmer, enjoying likewise the bounty of the New River, and added his skills as a mechanic and house carpenter, and as a traveling lay-preacher associated with the Yopp Meeting House, to the growing community. To Zorobabel and Eliza were born in Marines two sons, Wiley, in 1845, and Lewis, in 1856.
Wiley grew in a maritime culture imbedded with farming and the exploitation of naval stores, and with the coming of the Civil War, served honorably with the 7th Confederate and 7th Georgia Cavalry Regiments. With Zorobabel’s passing in 1868, Wiley assumed family leadership and in conjunction with his brother Lewis, evidenced an entrepreneurship that eventually developed Marines into the largest town in the area subsequently taken by the U.S. Government, with a post office at that time that served approximately one-hundred families, a population that rivaled that of Snead’s Ferry, and that was regarded by Onslow’s most noted historian, Tucker Littleton, as the “most progressive”
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July
Important Dates
in U.S. History
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July 1, 1862 - President Abraham Lincoln signed the first income tax bill, levying a 3% income tax on annual incomes of $600-$10,000 and a 5% tax on incomes over $10,000. Also on this day, the Bureau of Internal Revenue was established by an Act of Congress.
July 1, 1863 - Beginning of the Battle of Gettysburg during the American Civil War.
July 2, 1776 - The Continental Congress in Philadelphia adopted the following resolution, originally introduced on June 7, by Richard Henry Lee of Virginia: "Resolved, That these United Colonies are, and of right ought to be, free and independent States, that they are absolved from all allegiance to the British Crown, and that all political connection between them and the State of Great Britain is, and ought to be, totally dissolved. That it is expedient forthwith to take the most effectual measures for forming foreign Alliances. That a plan of confederation be prepared and transmitted to the respective Colonies for their consideration and approbation."
July 2, 1788 - Congress announced the United States Constitution had been ratified by the required nine states and that a committee had been appointed to make preparations for the new American government.
July 2, 1964 - President Lyndon B. Johnson signed the Civil Rights Act of 1964, prohibiting discrimination on the basis of race in public accommodations, publicly owned or operated facilities, employment and union membership and in voter registration. The Act allowed for cutoff of Federal funds in places where discrimination remained.
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July 7, 1898 - President William McKinley signed a resolution annexing Hawaii. In 1900, Congress made Hawaii an incorporated territory of the U.S., which it remained until becoming a state in 1959.
July 9, 1868 - The 14th Amendment to the U.S. Constitution was ratified. The Amendment defined U.S. citizenship and prohibited individual States from abridging the rights of any American citizen without due process and equal protection under the law. The Amendment also barred individuals involved in rebellion against the U.S. from holding public office.
July 16, 1969 - The Apollo 11 Lunar landing mission began with a liftoff from Kennedy Space Center at 9:37 a.m.
July 18, 1947 - President Harry Truman signed an Executive Order determining the line of succession if the president becomes incapacitated or dies in office. Following the vice president, the speaker of the house and president of the Senate are next in succession. This became the 25th Amendment to the U.S. Constitution, ratified on February 10, 1967.
July 20, 1969 - A global audience watched on television as Apollo 11 Astronaut Neil Armstrong took his first step onto the moon. As he stepped onto the moon's surface he proclaimed, "That's one small step for man, one giant leap for mankind" - inadvertently omitting an "a" before "man" and slightly changing the meaning.
July 31, 1776 - During the American Revolution, Francis Salvador became the first Jew to die in the conflict. He had also been the first Jew elected to office in Colonial America, voted a member of the South Carolina Provincial Congress in January 1775.
July 31, 1790 - The U.S. Patent Office first opened its doors. The first U.S. patent was issued to Samuel Hopkins of Vermont for a new method of making pearlash and potash. The patent was signed by George Washington and Thomas Jefferson.
The History Place
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Click on the Eagle, Globe and Anchor (above )
for our project update.
2020-2021 Board of Directors
Executive Committee
BGen Dick Vercauteren, USMC (Ret) - Chairman
Mr. Mark Cramer, JD - Vice Chairman
CAPT Pat Alford, USN (Ret) - Treasurer
Col Joe Atkins, USAF (Ret) - Secretary
Col John B. Sollis, USMC (Ret) - Immediate Past Chairman
General Al Gray, USMC (Ret), 29th Commandant - At-Large Member
LtGen Gary S. McKissock, USMC (Ret) - At-Large Member
Members
Mr. Terry Branton
Mr. Tom DeSanctis
MyGySgt Osceola Elliss, USMC (Ret)
Col Chuck Geiger, USMC (Ret)
Col Bruce Gombar, USMC (Ret)
LtCol Lynn "Kim" Kimball, USMC (Ret)
CWO4 Richard McIntosh, USMC (Ret)
CWO5 Lisa Potts, USMC (Ret)
Col Grant Sparks, USMC (Ret)
GySgt Forest Spencer, USMC (Ret)
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Carolina Museum of the Marine and Civic Institute | 907 Lejeune Blvd, Jacksonville, NC 28540 |
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