From Army Outpost to Military Training
Installations for Worldwide Operations: How
WWII Transformed the Military Presence
in the Southwestern United States
Donald E. Sabol and Eric V. McDonald
Abstract The southwestern United States contains the largest and most technologically advanced military training and testing installations in the world. Many of these
of these installations range in size from 1000 to 7000 km2 (386–2700 mi2) and are
surrounded by several large metropolitan centers that have greatly expanded since
1970. The establishment of these installations was, in part, a serendipitous timing
of the evolving and increasingly mechanized military during early World War II
coupled with the availability of an extremely desolate and expansive region of the
deserts in the southwestern United States. Prior to WWII, the United States military
presence consisted of widely scattered and small forts that existed between 1847 and
1900 for the protection of settlers and supply routes. Military interest in the desert
radically changed with the entry of the United States into WWII and with the need
for troops trained for desert warfare in Northern Africa. General George Patton,
clearly seeing the advantages of training in the southwestern deserts, established the
Desert Training Center (DTC). The DTC, later the California-Arizona Maneuver
Area (CAMA), covered extensive parts of California, Arizona, and Nevada was
the first of its kind in that it allowed large-scale maneuvers and training of mobile
military operations including armor, mechanized infantry, and supply and logistics.
Many additional training facilities were also established during WWII to support
the war effort. At the end of WWII, many of the military installations in the regions
(including the CAMA) were deactivated. The onset of the Cold War, with combat in Korea and later in Vietnam, several of the former WWII installations were
reactivated and expanded in the size and capabilities due to the rapid evolution of
military equipment and the increasing need for joint service military training. These
large installations, including the Yuma Proving Ground, the National Training Center, Nellis AFB, and the Marine Corps Air Ground Combat Center at Twentynine
Palms, all originated during WWII and have evolved into world-class training and
testing facilities for world-wide operations.
D. E. Sabol () · E. V. McDonald
Division of Earth and Ecosystem Sciences, Desert Research Institute, 2215 Raggio Parkway,
Reno, NV 89512, USA
e-mail: [email protected]
E. V. McDonald
e-mail: [email protected]
© Springer Science+Business Media New York 2016
E. V. McDonald, T. Bullard (eds.), Military Geosciences and Desert Warfare,
Advances in Military Geosciences, DOI 10.1007/978-1-4939-3429-4_2
19
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D. E. Sabol and E. V. McDonald
Keywords Deserts · Patton · Training · Cold War · Test and evaluation · Mojave ·
Sonoran
1 Introduction
The southwestern United States contains many of the largest and most technologically advanced military training and testing installations in the world. The establishment of these installations was, in part, a serendipitous timing of the evolving
need for increasingly mobile and mechanized military forces early in World War II
(WWII) coupled with the availability of an extremely desolate and expansive region
of deserts in the southwestern United States. Multiple camps for training as well as
for testing field equipment were established in the deserts of California, Arizona,
and Nevada during WWII. The largest training site was the Desert Training Center,
initially established under the direction of General George S. Patton, Jr. for largescale desert warfare training to prepare American troops for combat in North Africa
(Bischoff 2000). The Desert Training Center (later the California-Arizona Maneuver Area) was closed near the end of WWII along with most of the training camps in
the area; however, a few of the camps and other facilities established during the war
were maintained through the 1950’s and 1960’s and were instrumental in establishment and growth of local communities. Many of these camps eventually evolved
into major military installations which, because of their desert locations, became
more important for training and equipment testing with the First Gulf War in 1990
and subsequent military operations worldwide. Expansion of these critical military installations occurred largely before the 1990’s when considerable increases in
population in the desert southwest began. This area continues to fill the military’s
need for expansive, unpopulated, and electronically unpolluted space for large-scale
integrated military training and it is the home of several Army, Air Force, Navy, and
Marine key training installations. The focus of this paper is to describe the setting
and timing for expansion and development of DoD training and testing operations
in the Southwestern United States.
2 Southwest Military Facilities Prior to WWII
Much of southwestern North America became part of the United States with the end
of the Mexican-American War, when the region was seceded to the United States
by Mexico as part of the Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo (1848). That same year,
gold was discovered in California and the “California Gold Rush” began, bringing
an influx of settlers into the region. The increasing population required continual
presence of United States soldiers to protect both settlers and the local native population. These early Army installations were generally sited in posts previously occupied by Mexican troops. Inland garrisons, typically small and scattered, were estab-
From Army Outpost to Military Training Installations for Worldwide Operations
21
lished to protect travel, supply, and communication routes and usually served their
purpose after just a few years when they were subsequently abandoned or moved
(Fig. 1) (Beck and Haas 1974). This general trend of temporary military occupation
in the southwestern United States continued up near the end of the 1800’s. Most of
these Army posts were abandoned because the expansion of railroads made supply
less of a problem and issues with Native Americans had declined (Frazier 1972).
Military concerns with national security became focused on coastal defenses and
military activity in the deserts was minimal (Frazier 1972). Except for the Civil War
(mostly confined to the eastern United States), up until WWI, the military force was
relatively small (Fig. 2). With a large number of citizens called into military service
during WWI, 32 new camps were created by the Army for mobilization and training
of troops. One of these was in the Southwest United States at Camp Kearny, which
later evolved into the Marine Corps Air Station (MCAS) Miramar.
The close of WWI signaled the beginning of a need for a mechanized military
force. As a result, increases in land for military training were required to coincide
with the development of tanks, transported vehicles, and combat aircraft. Although
the size of the American armed forces remained relatively small between WWI and
WWII (Fig. 2), the southwestern United States became an important military training area with the establishment of several new military installations including Las
Fig. 1 United States Military posts in the southwest United States prior to WWII. (modified from
Beck and Haas 1974, p. 54; These posts were generally small and existed for several years before
closing)
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D. E. Sabol and E. V. McDonald
Fig. 2 United States military personnel as a percent of the total U.S Population (1890–2006).
(modified from Department of Defense Selected Manpower Statistics (2003) and Segal and Segal
(2004)). WWII signaled the beginning of a relatively large standing armed force
Vegas Army Airfield (now Nellis AFB), the Desert Test Facility near Yuma, AZ, an
artillery training area near Indio, CA, Camp Haan in Riverside, CA, an antiaircraft
training ground (now Ft. Irwin), and Blythe Army Air Field, CA. All of these installations would expand in size and new installations would be established with the
United States involvement in WWII, but the greatest impact in the region would
come with establishment of the Desert Training Center in April, 1942.
3 WWII: Rapid Growth of Southwest Military Facilities
3.1 The Desert Training Center
On its entrance into WWII, the United States primary divisional training centers
were located in Louisiana and Tennessee. These were designed to handle a maximum of two corps in a confined military environment (Crossley 1997). With the
United States now involved in a global conflict, the War Department decided that
the armed forces needed special training, which resulted in the opening of four
special training camps. Three of the camps were located in other parts of the U.S:
the Airborne Training Command at Camp Benning, GA; the Amphibious Training
Center at Tallahassee, FL; and the Mountain Training Center at Camp Carson, CO.
From Army Outpost to Military Training Installations for Worldwide Operations
23
When the decision was made to invade North Africa, it became clear that the
United States Army needed large-scale training in desert warfare. The army’s Chief
of Staff, LTG Lesley J. McNair, envisioned a desert training center and, in early
1942, assigned General George S. Patton, Jr. to locate a suitable training area (Henley 1989). Patton, an ex-cavalryman who had turned into an expert on tank warfare, was a tough no-nonsense soldier who would expect a similar attitude toward
training and combat from his troops (Fig. 3). A 1909 graduate of the United States
Military Academy at West Point, he saw action during the 1916 punitive expedition
against Poncho Villa and was a decorated for his service during WWI.
Patton took command of the I Armored Corps and by early March 1942 scouted
the deserts of eastern California and western Arizona by jeep, horseback, foot, and
private plane (Bischoff 2008). A native Californian, Patton was familiar with the
area from his youth and from having participated in Army maneuvers in the Mojave
Desert in the 1930’s (The California State Military Museum 2012). He loved what
he saw. An expansive area, with a small population, minimal radio interference and
demanding weather, with terrain he deemed similar to the deserts of North Africa.
Water resupply was possible from the Water District of Los Angeles and rail was
accessible for bringing in troops and supplies (Bischoff 2008). In addition, most
of the land was government-owned and the rest was sparsely populated making it
relatively easy for the government to acquire for training. Many of the inhabitants
in the area were forced to leave their land until the end of training activities near the
end of WWII (Bischoff 2000).
Fig. 3 LTG George S. Patton Jr taken on 30 March
1943. (Source: United States
Library of Congress, ID:
LC-USZ62-25122)
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D. E. Sabol and E. V. McDonald
Patton returned to Washington D.C. to report recommendations and findings
and immediately received the go-ahead to establish training activities in the desert
(Bischoff 2008). By late March 1942, the first camp was established, Camp Young,
named for the army’s first chief of staff, GEN Samuel Young (Bischoff 2008).
Camp Young, designed according to Patton’s instructions, was simple and would
mimic accommodations similar to those in the North African Theater of operations
(Bischoff 2008). Very few wooden structures such as administrative centers and
hospitals were to be built and the troops would live in large tents with no electricity.
The other 13 camps that would be built would follow this model (Bischoff 2008).
The Desert Training Center (DTC) was officially established on 30 April 1942
and covered 26,000 km2 (10,000 mi2) in California, Arizona, and Nevada (Henley
1989). By mid-1943, this would grow to an enormous 73,000 km2 (28,000 mi2)
and include 14 divisional camps located across a significant portion of the Mojave
and Sonoran Deserts (Bischoff 2008) (Fig. 4). Within days of the DTC establishment, the I Armored Corps began arriving on troop trains and were initially located
at Camp Young. Soon, the other 13 camps were built for other arriving divisions.
These camps centered on all aspects of mobile military operations including armor,
mechanized infantry, and supply and logistics. The vast expanse of the DTC allowed the Army to operate any size of combined aircraft and ground unit operation
Fig. 4 Major military installations in the southwest United States during WWII. (modified from
Beck and Haas 1974, p. 87; Bischoff 2008)
From Army Outpost to Military Training Installations for Worldwide Operations
25
Table 1 The California/Arizona Maneuver Area general training program. (Lynch et al. 1986;
Henley 1989; Bischoff 2008)
Week
Unit size training
Focus
1
Individual, crew, and squad
Teamwork; Junior Officer
Leadership
2
Company/battery
3
Battalion
4
Regimental
Testing vehicles, equipment,
weapons
5–7
Divisional field exercises
8–13
Corps Maneuver
and tactical maneuvers and under realistic conditions (Lynch et al. 1986; Henley
1989). This was not possible at any other military installation in the United States.
By the fall of 1942, more than seven stationary and two moving target ranges were established, as well as one infantry and two mechanized combat ranges
(Bischoff 2008). Training followed a strict training regimen. Patton established an
intensive 13 week program that emphasized teamwork and leadership development.
The size and scope of training progressively increased by incorporating a greater
number of units involved during training as the weeks progressed (Table 1). Adequate physical conditioning was an essential part of the training. Troops made
their first desert march within 4 days of their arrival (Henley 1989) and all soldiers
were required to run 1.6 km (1 mi) in 10 min with full combat gear, including rifles.
The final weeks of training involved large-scale exercises involving over 10,000
men and covering several hundred square kilometers. This scale of training allowed
the troops to directly learn the capabilities and limitations of weapons and vehicles
(Blake 1987).
In late summer of 1942, Patton and the I Armored Corps departed the DTC to be
part of the invasion of North Africa (Operation TORCH) and were replaced by MG
Alvan Gillem and the II Armored Corps. In early 1943, with the campaign in North
Africa coming to a close, the concept changed training for operations in Africa to
general large-scale training and maneuvering. This led to a name change for the
DTC to become the California-Arizona Maneuver Area (CAMA) (Bishoff 2008).
Successive units training at the CAMA following the II Armored Corps were: the
IX Corps, XC Corps, IV Corps, and the X Corps. Overall, 20 separate divisions consisting of more than 1 million men trained at CAMA during WWII (Bishoff 2000).
By late 1943, the CAMA was experiencing a personnel shortage in service specialists (communications and transportation to maintain needed services) because
they were needed overseas, and by 30 April 1944, combat training at CAMA ended
and the area was turned over to the Army Service Forces (and eventually back to
the Department of Interior and to private land owners (Bureau of Land Management
2012; Bischoff 2008)).
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D. E. Sabol and E. V. McDonald
3.2 Other Military Installations Established During WWII
Many other training areas, especially gunnery and artillery trainings ranges, were
also established across the deserts of the United States during WWII in addition to
CAMA (Fig. 4). Although not nearly as large as CAMA, many of these installations,
which served specific training needs during WWII later evolved into contemporary
military installations. A full discussion of all the installations is beyond the scope of
this paper, but the evolution of six installations is summarized in Table 2. As WWII
wound down, training areas in the southwestern United States largely became demilitarized.
3.3 Rapid Regional Population Growth Follows WWII
Fortunately, the critical requirement to establish large training areas for divisionscale military training in the southwestern American deserts occurred at the time
were sparsely populated and provided an ideal setting to fill these needs. As the
military expanded its presence in these deserts, the population also dramatically
increased. This expansion resulted in improvements to the infrastructure (e.g. roads,
highways, water resources, and railroads) that helped support a rapid population
increase in the region (Fig. 5). The population trend shown in (Fig. 5) depicts the
increase in permanent population and does not show short-term spikes associated
with 1–2 month deployment of military units in the area for training. The population of this area grew from 404,072 in 1940 to 625,499 in 1950. This is a 54.8 %
increase as compared to an 18.5 % increase in the population between 1930 and
1940 for the same area. Between 1950 and 1980, population had increased another
Table 2 Six of the military installations during WWII and their current names and purposes.
(GlobalSecurity.Org 2011, 2014a, b, c; WWW.YUMA.ARMY.MIL n.d.a; MilitaryBases.Com
2014; Nellis Air Force Base n.d.a; O’Hara 2007)
Installation name
Purpose (WWII)
Current installation
Purpose (current)
(WWII)
name
Las Vegas AAF
Advanced flight train- Nellis AFB
Fighter pilot training
ing; gunnery training
Marine Corps warfare
Condor Field
AAC air field; glider Marine Corps Air
training
Ground Combat Cen- training
ter Twentynine Palms
Mojave Anti-Aircraft Anti-aircraft training Fort Irwin
Army National TrainRange
ing Center
Camp Pendleton
Marine amphibious/
Marine Corps Base
Marine amphibious/
land combat training Camp Pendleton
land combat training
Camp Laguna
Equipment testing/
Yuma Proving Ground Equipment testing/
troop training
troop training
Muroc Remote Bomb- Bomb range; rocket
Edwards AFB
Military aircraft
ing Range
test site
testing
From Army Outpost to Military Training Installations for Worldwide Operations
27
Fig. 5 Change in the population of the southwestern deserts since 1870. Produced using data from
the California State Data Center (March 2013). The United States federal census for the counties
shown in gray were used to create the graph
28
D. E. Sabol and E. V. McDonald
~ 350 % and exceeded 2,000,000. The exponential increase in regional population
after 1950 may be due in part, to the establishment of major cities and urban areas
near military installations.
The seeds of large scale, modern United States military facilities in the southwestern American deserts (discussed below) were sown with the military requirement for expanded training and testing facilities during WWII. With the exponential
increase in the population in the southwestern deserts since WWII, it is unlikely that
large military facilities could be readily established today.
4 Post WWII: Regional Expansion and Development
of Southwest Military Facilities
With the onset of the Korean and Vietnam Wars in the 1950s and 1960s, many former WWII installations in the desert southwest were expanded and several former
training ranges where re-activated. In addition, a large-scale joint Army and Air
Force training exercise called “Desert Strike” was held in May 1964 to test tactical
operations on a nuclear battlefield. This exercise, lasting 2 weeks, involved more
than 90,000 Army and 10,000 Air Force personnel, 780 aircraft, 1000 tanks and
7000 wheeled vehicles (Exercise Desert Strike 1964). The training exercise covered
13 million acres in California, Arizona, and Nevada (Fig. 6), overlapping much of
the same area that comprised CAMA during WWII. The ongoing Cold War and
lessons from the Desert Strike exercise resulted in further expansion in the size and
capabilities of military training and testing installations. This period of expansion
coincided with a need for large areas to conduct military operations, which was
driven by a rapid evolution of the capabilities of military vehicles, aircraft, and
weapons after WWII and the increasing need for joint service military training.
This post-WWII history of tremendous expansion resulted in the transformation of
numerous WWII training facilities into an extensive array of Army, Navy, Marine,
and Air Force installations that currently stretch across a wide swath of the desert
southwest (Fig. 7). The military mission also expanded with training designed to
prepare the armed forces for conflict throughout the world and development of extensive military test and evaluation centers. Several examples of these premier military installations that were primarily established during WWII include: the Yuma
Proving Ground, the National Training Center, Nellis AFB, and the Marine Corps
Air Ground Combat Center at Twentynine Palms. The following sections of this
study briefly describe the history and current style of military activities for these
four installations.
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