Dr. Eugene Alvarez and Dr. Leo Daugherty’s “Parris Island: the Cradle of the Corps, A History of the United State Marine Corps Recruit Depot, Parris Island South Carolina, 1562-2015,” has been published and it serves as a comprehensive history of the East Coast Recruit Depot.
The book details the island’s early discovery by the French in 1562 through colonization by the British in the early 1700s to the island’s antebellum history in the early 19th century.
It also include an intensive study of the transfer of Parris Island to the Marine Corps in October 1915 for the use as a recruit training depot and the development of the island and the Marine Corps recruit training for 1917 until the present era.
Special emphasis is given to Marine recruit training during World War I (1917-1918), World War II (1941-1945), Korea, Vietnam and the current war on terror.
Alvarez, who served as a Marine drill instructor in the1950s and has done extensive research of Parris Island’s rich history, provides a unique insight into Marine training during this era.
Daughtery, a retired Marine master sergeant, provides information about the innovations and changes in recruit training since the 1980s.
