A sign stands at the entrance to Camp Davis North/South in the Greater Sandy Run Training Area on Marine Corps Base Camp Lejeune, N.C., Aug. 28, 2023. (Cpl. Daniela Chicas Torres/U.S. Marine Corps)
The Marine Corps has reopened Camp Davis South in North Carolina — the World War II home of Army anti-aircraft artillery training — with an upgraded airfield that can handle all the Corps’ planes and helicopters, according to the service.
The Marines spent 18 months and some $28 million completing the renovation of the airfield on Camp Lejeune’s Greater Sandy Run Training Area, service officials at the sprawling North Carolina installation said this week. The airfield features a 4,525-foot airstrip with 3,600 feet of asphalt runway and concrete turnarounds at each end specially designed to handle the high heat produced by vertical take-off and landing aircraft, such as the Marines’ version of the F-35 Lightning II stealth fighter jet.
Col. Ralph Rizzo, the commander responsible for Camp Lejeune’s infrastructure, called Davis South’s reopening “a significant milestone.”
“Aviation and ground units across the region will be able to use this runway to exercise the full spectrum of training capabilities in preparation for missions around the globe, to include simulating austere airfield conditions,” Rizzo said.
In total, the Camp Davis airfield encompasses some 275 acres of training ground, which features old buildings, aircraft hangars and grounded aircraft that the Corps plans to use to simulate attacks on an airfield, according to Camp Lejeune officials.
The revamp saw the entire runway — built during World War II for small planes to tow targets for anti-aircraft artillery training — torn up and resurfaced with three layers of rock, gravel and asphalt, according to the Marines. It can now handle any aircraft in the Marines’ arsenal and others as large as the Air Force’s 174-foot-long C-17 Globemaster III transport jet.
Aerial drone photograph of the newly resurfaced Camp Davis South outlying landing field taken on Camp Lejeune, N.C., Aug. 23, 2024. The runway will serve as a multipurpose field that is capable of supporting every airframe in the Marine Corps arsenal, including KC-130 Hercules transport aircraft, the F-35 Joint Strike Fighter, the MV-22 Osprey, and other rotary-wing assets. (Cpl Daniela Chicas Torres/U.S. Marine Corps)
The airfield was initially constructed in 1941. At its height during World War II, it boasted some 20,000 troops — the vast majority preparing to ship out to Europe or the Pacific, officials said. After the war’s end, the Army closed Camp Davis in 1946.
The Navy purchased what is now the Greater Sandy Run Training Area, which includes Camp Davis, in 1992. Camp Lejeune Marines have since used the Camp Davis airfield primarily for helicopter training.
