Compass Points - Lunga Park
Out of war comes a peaceful park
Compass Points - Lunga Park
Out of war comes a peaceful park
February 15, 2026
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Sunday is a good day for reflection.
This Sunday is a good day for reflecting on Lunga Park at MCB Quantico.
As all Marines know, Marine Corps Base Quantico is a sprawling facility south of Washington DC off US Highway 95. In addition to the many tenant units at the base, Quantico is home to Lunga Park and Lunga Reservoir.
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Lunga Park is open 7 days a week, sunrise to sunset. Personal watercraft may launch sunrise to sunset with self check-in. Rentals are only available during Boathouse hours. Come and explore the beach volleyball area, General Store & Boat House, playground area, grills for family and unit cookouts, boat dock, pavilions, and onsite watercraft rentals. Also available, tent camping and rustic cabin rentals to make the outing a little easier!
. .. Lunga Reservoir is the largest and historically was the most popular body of water on MCBQ. It contains 477 acres, has a watershed of 6,880 acres and a water storage capacity of 7.75 billion gallons.
-- Marine Corps Community Services, MCB Quantico
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Lunga Park today at Quantico evokes thoughts of peaceful picnics, fishing, and camping. But the name “Lunga” does not come from a peaceful place. The name “Lunga” comes from months of brutal fighting in the South Pacific in World War II. Eighty-three years ago this month, in the first US offensive ground campaign in the Pacific, US Marines defeated the Japanese at Guadalcanal. Months before when the 1st Marine Division under Major General Alexander A. Vandegrift, landed at Guadalcanal, they landed near Lunga Point, at the mouth of Lunga River, near the town of Lunga, and near the Lunga airfield.
The Marines quickly re-named Lunga airstrip, Henderson Field, after Major Lofton Henderson, a Marine diver bomber who had perished while leading a bombing run at the Battle of Midway the previous month. Henderson Field would quickly become the center of combat operations for the conflict on Guadalcanal.
As the weeks and months of fighting continued on land at Guadalcanal and in the surrounding waters, both the US and Japan poured in more troops. The Japanese conducted one banzai charge after another on Henderson Field, but Marines like John Basilone continued to fight.
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“Banzai! Banzai!” screamed the Japanese at the top of their lungs as they launched a ferocious night attack against Marines dug in on Guadalcanal. It was October 24, 1942, and the intensity of the Japanese assault in the darkness was terrifying. Through it all, however, Sgt. John Basilone—known as “Manila John”—his fellow Marines gave him that nickname because Basilone had been a soldier in the Philippines in the late 1930s—kept his cool. He was constantly on the move–repositioning the heavy .30-caliber machine guns in his weapons platoon, helping nervous gunners clear jams, and inspiring the Marines in his company to fight on as their battle against overwhelming odds persisted through the long night.
Basilone’s heroism that night was recognized with the award of the Medal of Honor–the first to an enlisted Marine in World War II.
-- Warfare History Network
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Finally in February 1943 the remaining Japanese forces on Guadalcanal were withdrawn during a series of night evacuations. The fighting ended.
More than 20,000 Japanese were killed in the fighting on Guadalcanal. The Americans sustained some 1,600 killed, 4,200 wounded, and several thousand dead or disabled from malaria and other tropical diseases.
The Marine commander at Guadalcanal, Major General Alexander A. Vandegrift, went on to become the 18th Commandant of the Marine Corps. After the fight at Guadalcanal, General Vandegrift also fought for stronger Marine Corps in a series of Congressional hearings
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On 1 January 1944, as a lieutenant general, Vandegrift was sworn in as Commandant. On 4 April 1945 he was promoted to general, and thus became the first Marine officer on active duty to attain four-star rank.
In the final stages of the war, General Vandegrift directed an elite force approaching half-a-million men and women, with its own aviation force. Comparing his Marines with the Japanese, he noted that the Japanese soldier “was trained to go to a place, stay there, fight and die. We train our men to go to a place, fight to win, and to live. I can assure you, it is a better theory.”
After the war, Vandegrift fought another battle, this time in the hal1s of Congress, with the stakes being the survival of the Marine Corps. His counter-testimony during Congressional hearings of the spring of 1946 was instrumental in defeating initial attempts to merge or “unify” the U.S. Armed Forces. Although his term as Commandant ended on 31 December 1947, General Vandegrift would live to see passage of Public Law 416, which preserved the Corps and its historic mission.
-- First Offensive: The Marine Campaign for Guadalcanal
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Compass Points salutes all those in the broad community of Marines today who are fighting like Alexander Vandegrift for a stronger Marine Corps.
Today Lunga Point at Guadalcanal has fostered Lunga Park at Quantico. But all is not peaceful. The US still faces threats in the Pacific and around the world. The Marine Corps itself is still facing threats to its very existence. The Marine Corps today needs a new generation of Marines to step forward, Marines with the same fighting spirit as John Basilone and Alexander Vandegrift. It is significant that Guadalcanal was the first offensive ground campaign of the Pacific war. The Marines were an offensive force at Guadalcanal and must refocus on offensive operations today. No matter the odds and no matter the enemy, Marines today must fight on until victory is won.
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Marines in World War II Commemorative Series
First Offensive: The Marine Campaign for Guadalcanal
By Henry I. Shaw, Jr.
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Warfare History Network
Sgt. John Basilone: Marine Hero of Guadalcanal and Iwo Jima
By Fred L. Borch & Robert F. Dorr
https://warfarehistorynetwork.com/article/sgt-john-basilone-marine-hero-of-guadalcanal-and-iwo-jima/
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Remember the United States Congress passed into Law that a Study of Force Disaster be conducted. Grok:**”No, the results of the congressionally mandated FFRDC study on Marine Corps Force Design have not been publicly published as of February 15, 2026.**
Congress required this independent assessment in Section 1076 of the FY2024 NDAA (enacted December 2023), directing the Secretary of Defense to contract with a federally funded research and development center (FFRDC) for a comprehensive review of Force Design initiatives. The mandate aimed to address persistent questions, concerns, and criticisms about the program's direction, changes (e.g., divestments in tanks/artillery, personnel reductions, shift to distributed/littoral ops), and alignment with defense priorities.
Despite the requirement (with agreement to be sought within ~90 days of enactment, so around spring 2024), no public report, findings, or outcomes from this FFRDC study appear in:
- Official Marine Corps sources (e.g., Force Design updates from 2025 on marines.mil, which detail progress/refinements but omit any FFRDC reference).
- Congressional Research Service (CRS) reports on Force Design (latest November 2025 update to R47614, which covers background, congressional involvement, and issues but does not mention or summarize FFRDC results).
- Major defense news, congressional records, or related publications through mid-February 2026.
The study may have been completed internally, classified/limited-distribution (common for DoD FFRDC work via centers like RAND, CNA, or IDA), delayed, or used quietly to inform Marine Corps adjustments without public release. Critics (including in sources like Marine Corps Compass Points) continue noting the absence of transparent answers from such a mandated effort.
For the latest, monitor marines.mil/Force-Design, congress.gov for NDAA follow-ups, or CRS updates—any release would likely appear there first.” !
Lunga #1: Lunga Park - I have fond memories of 1996 at TBS. As the summer moved, I would do a run from Camp Barrett to Lunga. Always good up there...the horse flies ensured you kept your speed up...or got eaten. On one occasion, I decided to do a run-swim-run. Ran out to the tip of one of the fingers going into the reservoir by a rec area. Dove in to swim to the next finger. Heard a splash from the other side of the lake and noticed something in the water. Eventually, I realized it was swimming for me, and swimming fairly fast. When I realized it wasn't going to slow down, I sped up. I reached the target shore and was out of the water about 15 seconds ahead of a rather large and angry beaver. Satisfied that I was no longer in his bath tub, he told me off in 'beaver' and headed back to the far side. Smoked from my quicker than expected swim, I headed off to brave the lunga horseflies once more.
Lunga #2: in the late '00s, my parents moved to a place near Hickory NC. There, they made fast friends with their neighbor, Joe Gobel, former Sergeant, Guadalcanal vet, Silver Star winner. Great Marine vet who came home wounded, and went on to do great things as a citizen. My father was a Marine combat Vietnam vet, and mom lost her first husband as a Marine KIA in Vietnam, so they all had an easy connection. Joe had sponsored and helped to create the trail network in their community and I had the good fortune to enjoy running and walking those trails. My son still has the walking stick Joe carved for my dad.