| Camp Lawrence J. Hearn | |
|---|---|
| Part of Southern California Border District [1] | |
| Palm City, San Diego | |
| Site information | |
| Controlled by | |
| |
| Site history | |
| In use | 1916–1931 |
| Garrison information | |
| Garrison | 11th Cavalry |
Camp Lawrence J. Hearn was a United States Army facility formerly located in Palm City, San Diego, California. The Third Oregon Infantry established the camp in 1916 during its border service; it was abandoned in 1931 by the 11th Cavalry Regiment when the regiment moved to the Presidio of Monterey.
Beginning in 1916, the Third Oregon Infantry established the post during its border service. [2] [3] The United States Army maintained Camp Lawrence J. Hearn in honor of Major Hearn of the 21st Infantry Regiment in order to patrol the border during the Mexican Civil War. [4] It was manned by the 1st Cavalry Regiment. [5] It was abandoned in August 1920 but re-established by the 11th Cavalry Regiment in October of that same year. [6] Brigadier General F.C. Marshall visited the post just before he died in a plane crash while traveling to Tucson, Arizona. [7] Until 1921 the post consisted of a tent cantonment with no permanent structures and soldiers requiring medical care would be sent to Fort Rosecrans for treatment. [8] [9] Conditions on the post did not improve significantly. Army Chief of Staff Major General Summerall described them as being like a "logging camp" composed of "tumbledown shacks". [10] In 1924, cavalrymen from the post assisted local officers and federal agents in enforcing a 9 pm curfew at the international border crossing. [11] It continued to be in use until it was abandoned in 1931. [12] [13] Later the Coastal Artillery Corps considered the former post as the site of a future battery. This, however, was never built. [14]
The hospital at Fort Rosecrans is in size entirely inadequate. It is used as a base hospital for the troops at Camp Walter R Taliaferro, San Diego; Camp Lawrence J Hearn, at Palm City; the Signal Corps Aviation School and one company of Infantry at Tecate. The hospital is continually overcrowded and many of the patients are being cared for in tents. Estimates for the erection of a 24 bed ward are now being prepared.
Camp Gen Marshall. Those two camps are along the Mexican border in California, at places where the troops suffer inconvenience due to the very unusual weather conditions that prevail at those places. The temperature goes up as high as 112 or 114 degrees and the humidity is very high. They are living in tents with no comforts or accommodations whatsoever.
From 1916 to 1931, Camp Hearn, established for potential skirmishes with the troops of Pancho Villa, was a military presence.
A troop of the 11th Cavalry was stationed at Fort Rosecrans from October 1931, following the abandonment of Camp Hearn at Imperial Beach. In August 1932 they moved on to Monterey.
The board chose a site for one battery of 155mm guns at Point Loma near the new lighthouse, and recommended a location 1,500 yards south of Coronado Heights and west of south San Diego, on the former Camp Hearn site, for the other 155mm battery, which was never built.