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Web posted Tuesday, April
27, 2004
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Gov. Mark
Sanford has lunch with recruits in the 3rd
recruit training battalion's mess hall on Monday
during his tour of the Marine Corps Recruit
Depot Parris Island.
Pete Marovich/Carolina
Morning News
Gov. Mark
Sanford answers questions from the media
concerning the future of the military bases in
South Carolina during a tour of the Marine Corps
Recruit Depot Parris Island on Monday.
-Pete Marovich/Carolina
Morning News
| Tradition, local support protect base
PARRIS ISLAND: Governor visits recruit
depot as part of BRAC committee tour.
By Jennifer Moore
Carolina Morning News
Usually, the Marine Corps recruits at Parris
Island get one special meal before they
graduate.
Monday, a handful of recruits got
an extra treat as they ate chow on a Lowcountry
buffet with some special guests - Gov. Mark
Sanford and a few military advisors.
The
recruits, all from South and North Carolina, are
at different stages of their training. Some are in
their tenth week, doing basic warrior training
like rappelling and gas mask training. Others are
in their fifth week, working on combat survival
swimming.
Sanford asked the recruits about
the different weeks of training and why they
joined the Marine Corps as they ate Frogmore stew,
fried chicken and shrimp gumbo.
The
governor's visit was one of the last stops on his
tour of the state's military installations.
Sanford said the tours were at the behest of his
Base Realignment and Closure (BRAC)
committee.
Though Sanford grew up in
Beaufort County and had visited Parris Island
before, he said he had never toured it in an
official way until Monday. What he saw, he said
"Is a great facility that really makes a
difference in our nation's defense."
"It's
a place that has a remarkable military tradition,"
he said, but when it comes to possible base
closures, "Never say never in the world of
politics."
Sanford said that the
limitations of the Marine Corps' only other
recruit depot, in San Diego, would lead to the
conclusion that Parris Island would not be
closed.
However, he said, Shaw Air Force
Base in Sumter County is one of the places in the
state with the "brightest spotlight" on it for
possible closure.
"We would do everything
in our power to shield it" and other state
installations from being shut down, Sanford said,
partly because of the large economic impact of
base closures.
Retired Col. John Payne,
vice chairman of the governor's military affairs
committee, said that this round of base closures
would be "a tough round to get through."
"I
don't think anything's safe," he said.
Sanford said Beaufort County residents
should "Keep doing what you're doing," because the
"incredible local support" of Parris Island, the
Marine Corps Air Station Beaufort and the Beaufort
Naval Hospital are very important.
Payne
said the three military installations combined
have a $454 million-a-year economic impact on the
area, without counting the people who are employed
by non-military businesses that support the
military personnel.
Sanford was accompanied
on his tour by retired Army Gen. Jim Shufelt,
chairman of the Greater Beaufort Chamber of
Commerce's military affairs committee, retired Air
Force Maj. Gen. James Gardner, chairman of
Sanford's military advisory committee, and
Payne.
Shufelt said the committee was
putting together a case to present to the
Department of Defense to give an overall picture
of what the state's bases contribute to the
military.
Gardner said the committee would
have to be "vigilant for making the case for the
military utility" of the state's
bases.
"It's not over till it's over," he
said.
Reporter Jennifer Moore can be
reached at 837-5255, ext. 122, or
Jennifer.e.moore@lowcountrynow.com
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