Current Base Housing Information: Family Housing: Family Housing Areas: 22 Family Housing Units: 7,545
Bachelor Housing: Bachelor Housing Areas: 14 Bachelor Enlisted Quarters (BEQ): 188 Capacity: 38,000+
were being built; the Marines eventually moved into new barracks at Las Flores in 1967. World War II-era structures in the San Luis Rey area were demolished, making room for new houses for field grade officers and their families. In the early 1970s, a Bachelor Enlisted Quarters (BEQ) modernization program included renovation of open bay barracks, providing modern-style BEQs with separate rooms designed to house two to three Marines and included a bathroom and lounge area. New BEQs were built in five of the major camps throughout the base; these modern BEQs closely resembled college dormitories. To alleviate a continuing family housing shortage, over 2,200 additional two-, three-, and four-bedroom homes were built in the Wire Mountain, O’Neill Heights (Deluz Canyon), South Mesa, and San Onofre areas. A mobile home park was also built in San Onofre. Following the Vietnam War, construction and modernization programs resulted in renovation or replacement of a majority of temporary World War II facilities. Over 1,400 family homes were built in San Onofre, South Mesa/Forster Heights, and O’Neill Heights. Modern BEQs were built in over half of the 18 cantonments aboard the base. Housing projects in the 1980s and 1990s included a 300unit complex at San Onofre for company grade officers and junior enlisted personnel and 104 units for junior enlisted personnel in the South Mesa housing area. New bachelor
quarters were built in six cantonments across the base. In 1996, Congress established the Military Housing Privatization Initiative (MHPI) to increase service members’ quality of life by improving their housing. This initiative attracted private sector financing, expertise and innovation to revitalize and privatize military housing. A private entity therefore became responsible for construction, renovation, and maintenance of Public Private Venture (PPV) housing. For Camp Pendleton, the result was a series of substantial family housing improvements. Conducted in phases, the first PPV executed in November 2000 privatized 512 existing DeLuz housing units which included constructing 200 new units. The next venture in October 2003 redeveloped 3,210 existing housing units in four and a half years. In October 2004, 76 units were privatized at San Mateo Point. In September 2006, the remaining existing 2,771 units were privatized. Between 2007 and 2014, 315 new homes were built, with the remaining 250 to be completed in mid-2017. The base’s two PPV partners will manage military family housing until 2050. Between 2008 and 2011, the Marine Corps Barracks Recapitalization program funded 42 barracks projects worth $1.4 billion at Camp Pendleton. Newly constructed or renovated barracks resulted in individual rooms accommodating up to two Marines or Sailors, allowing between 90 and 180 square feet of living space (rank dependent) with a shared or private bathroom. Fortunately, tent cities, wood-framed H-style barracks, corrugated steel Quonset huts, and reinforced concrete “flat top” barracks with open squad bay living accommodations and community-style bathrooms are a thing of the past. Sources: Camp Pendleton Archives; Marines of the Margarita: The Story of Camp Pendleton and the Leathernecks who Train on a Famous California Rancho, Robert M. Witty and Neil Morgan (1970); Building the Navy’s Bases in World War II website, www.ibiblio.org/hyperwar/USN/Building_Bases/bases-15.html; various issues, Oceanside Daily Blade Tribune newspaper; FY2002 Department of the Navy Budget Submission; Commander, Navy Installations Command website, www.cnic.navy.mil/ffr/housing/HQ_Housing_Programs/ppv. html
Aerial view of Sterling Homes, military housing within the City of Oceanside, location on Mission Avenue. Circa 1945
www.oceansidechamber.com
CAMP PENDLETON – Celebrating 75 years
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