In advance of invading North Africa to fight the German Army's General Romell in the Sahara Desert, in 1942 General George Patton set up a vast Desert Training Center, a.k.a. "Camp Young," in the Eastern Mojave, the largest military base ever established. It would eventually extend from Pomona, CA, to Phoenix, AZ, from Yuma, AZ, to Boulder City, NV, and would include a network of training facilities at Camps Clipper, Coxcomb, Granite, Ibis, Iron Mountain and Pilot Knob in California, and Camps Bouse, Horn, Hyder and Laguna in Arizona. Over a million men trained there.

Today a whole museum of indoor and outdoor displays is dedicated to the memory of this base: the General Patton Memorial Museum, 30 miles east of Indio [www.letsgoseeit.com/index/county/rvr/indio/loc01/patton.htm]

Last update 12:44 PM Fri. 27-Feb-2004 by ABS.