The nation’s first naval amphibious training base was established at Solomons, where between 1942 and 1945 some 68,000 sailors, marines, coast guardsmen, and soldiers were trained. They formed major components of the amphibious forces that landed at Guadalcanal, North Africa, Sicily, and Normandy. Ironically, some of those trained at Solomons, Maryland, later participated in the landings in the Solomon Islands in the Pacific.