In 1981, Coastal Enterprises, Inc. opened its doors as a private non-profit 501(c)3 organization serving the community by providing training and employment opportunities for persons with disabilities. By 2001, it had expanded its operations into Wilmington, and today provides over $6 million in wages and benefits to over 600 adults with disabilities in our communities.
While a significant portion of the Coastal Enterprises, Inc. contracts are for services performed aboard Marine Corps Base Camp Lejeune and Marine Corps Air Station New River, the Jacksonville location office also manufactures various items for the Defense Logistics Agency (DLA). This includes brass and chrome belt buckles as well as panel signal markers for landing zones and are attached to tanks, trucks, rucksacks and anything that needs to be identified from the air. Over the years, and with the ingenuity of creative employees, they even have proprietary equipment to make these items as efficiently and cost effectively as possible.
Perhaps the most amazing piece of equipment they manufacture is the blank firing apparatus or BFA for the M4 Carbine and M16 rifle. Through a series of presses, and a manufacturing partner in Onslow County, Coastal Enterprises produces approximately 80,000 BFAs a year and is DLA’s sole supplier of BFAs. Every Marine that passes through Jacksonville and Onslow County should be happy to know that Coastal Enterprises, Inc.–and a neighbor of Marine Corps Base Camp Lejeune–is a part of their training