In 1944, with the war still on, a handful of teenagers stuck in a brand-new Marine base chose a nickname for themselves. Their parents were Marines, so the obvious choice was Devil Dogs. But devil dogs were grown-ups in green wool, and these kids were not grown up yet. So they took a half-step down the chain of command and called themselves the Devilpups. The first class graduated in 1945. They have been called Devilpups ever since.
Lejeune High sits on Stone Street on Marine Corps Base Camp Lejeune, behind the gates and the guards and the perimeter signs. Roughly 400 students walk its halls, and every one of them has a parent in uniform or a parent supporting someone in uniform. Eligibility is strict: families have to live on base at Camp Lejeune or MCAS New River, or be on the list waiting for base housing. The school is run not by Onslow County but by the Department of Defense Education Activity, an arm of the Pentagon that operates 163 schools worldwide for the children of service members. In the early years a Marine officer served on the faculty alongside the principal, enforcing grooming standards and locker inspections. The Pentagon's DNA still threads through everyday school life.
Both the school and the base bear the name of John A. Lejeune, the 13th Commandant of the Marine Corps. Lejeune commanded the 2nd Division in World War I and shaped the modern Corps as Commandant from 1920 to 1929. When he died in November 1942, the Marine Barracks at New River was rechristened Camp Lejeune in his honor. The school followed. For its first two decades it was called Camp Lejeune High School, until 1968 when the Camp was quietly dropped. The Devilpups stayed.
The first campus stood on Brewster Boulevard, named for Caleb Brewster, an artillery commander in the Revolution. In 1961 the school moved to 825 Stone Street, into a building later inherited by Brewster Middle School. A new campus rose in 1990 with its main entrance still on Stone Street and a secondary entrance back on Brewster Boulevard, closing the loop. The Devilpups now share their track and athletic fields with the middle school next door, the way kids in a small town might share a single set of bleachers. There is something fitting about that, given that the population of Camp Lejeune is in many ways a small town, just one fenced and patrolled.
Roughly seventeen principals have led the school since Kerstetter took the job in 1944. Tom Hagar served from 1985 to 1991, Brenda Johnson from 1994 to 2002, Todd Carver since 2023. The alumni are the children of Marines who fought in Korea, Vietnam, the Gulf, the Balkans, Iraq, Afghanistan. They are also, many of them, the children of the Camp Lejeune water contamination years, a chapter the base is still reckoning with through the Janey Ensminger Act of 2012 and the Camp Lejeune Justice Act of 2022. Some Devilpups grew up drinking the water before the wells were shut off. The school they attended on a Marine Corps base is woven into that history, too. Not just the proud parts.
Located at 34.7143 degrees north, 77.358 degrees west, on the eastern side of Marine Corps Base Camp Lejeune. View from 1,500 to 2,500 feet AGL for a clean look at the campus, the New River off to the west, and the broader base layout. Nearest airports: MCAS New River (KNCA) approximately three nautical miles west, Albert J. Ellis (KOAJ) twelve nautical miles northwest. Coastal haze can cut visibility on humid afternoons.
Located at 34.7143 degrees north, 77.358 degrees west, on Marine Corps Base Camp Lejeune. View from 1,500 to 2,500 feet AGL. Nearest airports: KNCA (MCAS New River) and KOAJ (Albert J. Ellis). Restricted airspace over the base; check NOTAMs.