Camp Leatherneck Camp Leatherneck is a 1 , 600 acre United States Marine Corps base located in Helmand Province , Afghanistan . The site is located mostly in Washir District and is conjoined with Camp Bastion , the main British military base in Afghanistan . History . Camp Leatherneck was Master - Planned by the United States Army Corps of Engineers ( USACE ) Europe District FEST - A Team from Wiesbaden , Germany in October / November 2008 . Upon arrival to Kandahar , the team was tasked by the Theater Engineer of U . S . Forces Afghanistan ( USFOR - A ) to find a suitable location in Helmand Province for 2K - 15K troops . The primary purpose for the base was to house troops for a majority of an estimated 26 , 000 increase of forces . Throughout all of southern Afghanistan , bases were all at or above capacity leading to the paramount need for a large centrally located base for the surge . The site was chosen primarily to take advantage of the adjacent British Airfield on Camp Bastion and to provide much needed protection to the primary east - west corridor of Highway 1 in Helmand Province . The 25th Naval Construction Regiment ( 25th NCR ) was the primary construction unit with construction oversight and the command element that the FEST Design team was later attached during the initial stages of construction . The units responsible for the overall construction work in 2008 under the 25th NCR was the Naval Mobile Construction Battalion s Five , Seven and Seventy - Four . Camp Leatherneck was built in a modular fashion to maximize the efficiency of construction locations to provide housing and work space as surge forces flowed into theater . The base layout was designed in modular ‘ blocks ’ , so the base could have forces on the ground as construction continued in adjacent compartments . All aspects of the design were focused on the speed for construction and with the understanding that the number of troops was unknown . Initially dubbed Tombstone II as an expansion of a smaller Special Forces Camp adjacent to the ANA Shorabak base , it was eventually renamed Camp Leatherneck once it was formerly announced that I Marine Expeditionary Force would move to southern Afghanistan and determined the main force occupying the base in 2009 . The authorization to move forces was not given until after new Commander - in - Chief Inauguration of President Obama in early 2009 . From Design to Initial Occupancy of Forces was only four months with a late - November 2008 ground - breaking . Although construction was continued by the Marines for several years to improve facilities , the overall basecamp was functional and operational in less than six months for over 12 , 000 troops and an equal number of civilian contractors prior to their arrival . Marines from the 2nd Marine Expeditionary Brigade arrived in March 2009 to establish Command and Control of Camp Leatherneck and prepare for the arrival of I Marine Expeditionary Force to assume the role as the Regional Command Southwest who ultimately replaced the 2nd Marine Expeditionary Brigade in March 2010 . National Geographic Explorer profiled the base in a 2010 episode . On 16 May 2010 , the Supply Management Unit lot had a fire that burned for over 8 hours , causing extensive damage . Marine Wing Support Squadron 274 ' s CFR ( Crash Fire Rescue ) and British firefighters from Camp Bastion was responsible for extinguishing the blaze . Through the fire Camp Leatherneck was also hit with one of their most intense sandstorms to date . In 2013 , the Special Inspector General for Afghanistan Reconstruction , John F . Sopko , stated that $ 34 million had been spent on a 64 , 000 - square - foot facility that " presumably will never be used " .