MacDill will receive replicas of historic Marine uniforms

TAMPA — Replicas of historic Marine Corps uniforms will be headed to Marine Corps Forces Central Command, or MarCent — a subcommand of MacDill-based U.S. Central Command in Tampa.

The Tampa Bay Times reports retired Gunnery Sgt. Tom Williams studies history for a nonprofit educational group he helped create to support the Corps, and in the next few months he’ll be delivering a tangible lesson to MacDill Air Force Base: replicas of Marine uniforms dating to the service’s founding at Philadelphia’s Tun Tavern on Nov. 10, 1775.

In November, MarCent signed a $47,000 purchase agreement with the United States Marine Corps Historical Co., the Virginia-based nonprofit organization run by Williams.

Officials say the uniforms were bought for a Marine Corps birthday pageant.

The purchase contrac t was not put out to bid, MacDill purchasing officials said, because they determined the historical company is the only one able to fulfill the contract.

About 200 Marines work with MarCent at MacDill, about 6,000 in the 20 nations of the entire CentCom region. MarCent serves as a conduit between the commandant of the Marine Corps and Centcom.

“We purchased the uniforms for our Marine Corps b i r t h d ay p a ge a n t , ” s a i d Maj. Brad Avots, a MarCent spokesman, “which shows the history from when we started to now.”