History of the Command
THE PEOPLE
The most vital part of any military organization is its people. At Marine Corps Logistics Base Albany, Ga., an integrated workforce of military and civilian men and women accomplish the base's mission of supporting its organizations that help sustain Marines around the world. From the administrative clerk to the equipment operator, the budget clerk to the management analyst, the mechanic to the musician—all work as a team to keep MCLB Albany functioning at its best to take care of the warfighters serving in every clime and place.
COMMAND HISTORY
Marines and civilian-Marines continue an illustrious history of their predecessors. Marine Brig. Gen. Raymond P. Coffman assumed command and a small contingent of Marines established headquarters in temporary buildings when the base was commissioned on March 1, 1952, as the Marine Corps Depot of Supplies. Construction continued rapidly, and by early 1954, the station was sufficiently complete with warehouses and administration buildings to assume supply support for Marines east of the Rocky Mountains and in the Atlantic area.
On July 29, 1954, the command was renamed the Marine Corps Supply Center Albany. The MCSC managed and controlled supplies at storage and issue locations in the eastern half of the United States, the Caribbean and the Mediterranean. Depot-level rebuilding operations began at the base in October 1954.
MCSC Albany received a re-designation to Marine Corps Logistics Support Base Atlantic on April 1, 1976, because the Marine Corps Supply Activity at Philadelphia and its inventory control, financial management, procurement and technical support functions relocated to the Albany installation.
Renamed Marine Corps Logistics Base Albany on Nov. 1, 1978, the installation's workforce performed the full spectrum of logistics support functions required to support the Marine Corps' ground weapon systems and equipment. On Jan. 17, 1990, the commandant of the Marine Corps directed the base's commanding general to also take on the responsibilities of commander, Marine Corps Logistics Bases. The reorganization placed control of MCLB Albany, MCLB Barstow, Calif., and Blount Island Command, Jacksonville, Fla., under this single commander.
PRESERVING BASE HISTORY
Native American artifacts, more than 200 to date, have been unearthed on base. The artifacts indicate that a Native American hunting camp once stood on the high ground at the east end of the base. The discovery of these artifacts provides another link in the historical chain of Native Americans living in this part of Georgia.
University of Georgia archaeologists believe the flint knives, scrapers, drills, agricultural tools, arrowheads and spearheads found here date back some 8,000 to 10,000 years. These items are evidence that Native Americans also used the site where MCLB Albany is located as a center of resupply, or as a supply base.
The artifacts also indicate a Native American site here in the early Archaic or Paleo cultural periods. Of special interest was a piece of black flint found at the site. Black flint comes from North Georgia, so it is thought that South Georgia Native Americans, through early trade, made this a very early example of commerce in the southeast. Trading is thought to have begun during the Archaic cultural period.
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