Bases in the desert

(vid taken by me during a demonstration on a tour of Fort Irwin)

From 1942-1991 the US Army, Navy, Air Force and Marines built enormous bases in the desert.

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Partly this was to train for the coming war in North Africa.

Indio, California. A half-ton jeep rolling over the desert at the desert training center June 1942.
Farm Security Administration Office of War Information/Library of Congress. Source.

Fort Irwin, built in 1940, deactivated 1971, returned to active status 1981.

China Lake Naval Weapons Center, which is, to use the tiredest comparison in American geography, bigger than Rhode Island.

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Marine Corps Air Ground Combat Center Twenty Nine Palms, growing and growing since 1949

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Edwards AFB.  Those are just some of the ones in California alone.

We built the bases, and then we found reasons to have wars in the desert.

Is that interesting?