Congresswoman: Marines Not Trying to Return to El Toro

The U.S. representative whose district includes the Marine Corps boot camp said Tuesday that Commandant Gen. James Jones assured her he has not engaged in any “in-depth discussions” about moving the base to the former El Toro Marine base.

Rep. Susan Davis (D-San Diego) said Jones told her that any consideration of moving the boot camp, officially called the Marine Corps Recruit Depot, would be done “in conjunction with the people of San Diego and their elected representatives.”

Last week, Rep. Randall “Duke” Cunningham (R-Escondido) said Jones mentioned to him the idea of moving the base to El Toro.

The Marine Corps immediately issued a statement seeming to distance itself from Cunningham’s assertion, branding the idea as Cunningham’s, not Jones’.

Last year, Cunningham suggested moving the boot camp to Camp Pendleton, a suggestion the Marine Corps studied but rejected.

“After speaking with the commandant of the Marine Corps,” Davis said, “I believe that recent reports about the depot’s demise have been greatly exaggerated.”

Cunningham said the move would be a “win-win,” providing more space for the boot camp at El Toro and room to expand Lindbergh Field, which is adjacent to the base.

Also Tuesday, San Diego Councilman Byron Wear, the city’s representative to the newly formed San Diego Regional Airport Authority, said the boot camp property would be inadequate to provide anything but a “Band-Aid” to the airport’s crowding problems. Wear and other officials are searching for a new site for an airport.

The suggestion to move the boot camp to Orange County was made a week after the Navy, which oversees the El Toro Marine Corps Air Station, announced its intent to sell all or part of the 4,700-acre base, which has been closed since 1999, to private developers.

Navy officials are expected to make a final decision about the former base’s future by April 23.