integrated recruit training<\/a>,\u201d Marine Commandant Gen. David Berger said at Defense One\u2019s state of the Marine Corps event in September 2020.<\/p>\n\n\n\n\u201cWe have to get to a place where on both coasts or at a third location, or whatever we end up with that every recruit male, female, there\u2019s all there\u2019s male and female around,\u201d he added.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Maybe it would be easier if the Marine Corps \u00adabandon Parris Island altogether.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The Corps is still too early in the gender-integration planning process to give details on what exactly is being considered, a Marine Corps spokesman said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Can Parris Island survive?<\/b><\/p>\n\n\n\n
The 8,095-acre island is positioned across the water and just north of Hilton Head, South Carolina.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
A five-minute drive inland leads to the tiny community of Port Royal, South Carolina, with the picturesque town of Beaufort tucked behind it. The eastern-most edge of Parris Island abuts the Atlantic Ocean about an hour south of Charleston \u2014 a city constantly battling tides and flooding.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Keyserling said it is hard to imagine that the military is not having private meetings to figure out the future of Parris Island and other bases threatened by rising water.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
He just wishes they would announce those plans, whether they mention climate change or not.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cI don\u2019t care what\u2019s causing the water to rise, it\u2019s here,\u201d said Keyserling. \u201cI simply want protection and a plan to stop it.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
To locals, the island adjacent towns economic survival remains intrinsically linked to the Marine presence, says Keyserling.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
For decades before COVID-19, almost every weekend the town\u2019s motels and restaurants filled with \u00ad\u2014Marine families and groups visiting the base and touring the historic depot. Visitors have not been allowed at graduations since the pandemic struck in early 2020.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cApproximately 118,000 visitors toured the Parris Island Museum in 2018 and more than 66,000 to the Douglas Visitor Center,\u201d said McDonnell.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
In pre-COVID times, the area\u2019s roads, cars and trucks side and rear windows were usually covered in red, white and blue soaped \u201cProud Marine Mom\u201d and \u201cProud Marine family\u201d \u2014 bragging the names and graduation dates of their new Marines.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The majority of the island\u2019s visitors used to attend the almost weekly Friday graduation ceremonies and family days.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cAt one time, we had more generals living here per capita than any other place in America,\u201d Keyserling said. He says Beaufort always has been a military town \u2014 and he hopes it always will be.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
But, without intervention, says another retired Marine general, rising tides and sea levels eventually will submerge the majority of the island.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cThe island routinely floods, and certainly has tremendous tides,\u201d said retired Marine Brig. Gen. Stephen A. Cheney, base commander of Parris Island from 1999\u20132001.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cWhen flooding happens on a routine basis, you have to prevent that, that\u2019s called adaptation,\u201d said Cheney. \u201cParris Island is currently not adapting. They will have to build a seawall, at least in parts, it has got to be done.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Cheney described a military wary of the controversial topic of rising sea levels due to the President Donald Trump White House, reiterating several times that the administration completely removed the entire section on climate change section from the National Defense Strategy in 2018.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Cheney said he knows for a fact that then-Defense Secretary James Mattis had tried to insert climate change back into the NDS plan, but was unsuccessful.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cThe Marine Corps was running backward as fast as they can to stay out of all of that back then, the politics; it turned into a political hot potato,\u201d said Cheney. \u201cThat might change with Biden, we\u2019re hoping for tremendous change in this particular area.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Still, two years on, even after Marine Corps \u00adleadership warned that water eventually would render the depot unusable, there\u2019s little evidence that the Defense Department has taken action.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
In order for the Marines to create a plan to address flooding of the islands low-lying areas, a consensus has to be reached on a timeline and a budget that Congress will approve, funds have to be requested, and planning has to begin. So far it has not.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
At present it appears to be an \u201cif it\u2019s not broken, don\u2019t fix it approach,\u201d said Cheney.<\/p>\n\n\n\nThis wetlands area and wildlife preserve near the Marine Corps Recruit Depot at Parris Island, South Carolina, is at risk for tidal flooding. (Getty images)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\nBut even though no money has been set aside to prepare to stop the waters encroaching on Parris Island the military has taken steps to address environmental damage elsewhere.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The 2020 Department of the Navy budget, which included the Marine budget, set aside $49 million for a protective seawall near a Norfolk, Virginia, shipyard for the Navy\u2019s pivotal nuclear submarine-maintenance facility, which also faces flooding from rising waters.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
If that is an example, Parris Island will require millions of dollars, if not billions, to stay afloat and build a seawall or levee system around pivotal training areas, Cheney said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
This lack of action runs counter to adjacent of municipalities such as nearby Beaufort, Port Royal and even Charleston, which have been addressing the issues head on by forming committees, and initiating flood plans, seawall design and building.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The timetable to secure funding for Parris Island is now, said retired Army Brig. Gen. Gerald Galloway, an engineer and consultant on coastal and military construction. Galloway worked extensively on the reconstruction of the levee systems in New Orleans following Hurricane Katrina.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cThe challenge will be to develop a program, that takes time, to get a plan to work and a stream of money over some years, were talking about billions of dollars,\u201d said Galloway in 2019.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
To even begin a flood mitigation project, let alone complete construction, would take years, he said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
In November of 2020 the Lowcountry Council of Governments, which represents surrounding Beaufort County, including the city of Beaufort and the town Port Royal, secured a $475,000 grant from the Department of Defense\u2019s Office of Economic Adjustment. The grant is to implement an 18-month military installation resiliency review \u00adfocusing on sea-level rise and natural disasters effecting Parris \u00adIsland, nearby Marine Corps Air Station Beaufort, and the surrounding areas.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The council says the study aims to create an implementation plan to mitigate water intrusion and protect resources necessary to maintain military installations in relation to natural hazards.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The study is scheduled to be completed at the beginning of 2022, with the military cooperating and intending to incorporate the results in its own plans, said Stephanie Rossi, planning director at the council.<\/p>\n\n\n\t
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