Commander honored by LA County
LA District has long history with Fort Irwin
David A. Salazar
LOS ANGELES--The National Training
Center was officially activated on Oct. 16, 1980,
making the current incarnation of the sprawling Fort Irwin 33 years old. But did you know
that the Los Angeles District worked under the
direction of Gen. George S. Patton Jr. to procure
the land to build an early and more vast version
of NTC—then known as the Desert Training
Center-California-Arizona Maneuver Area—in
1942?
“Patton in his characteristic flamboyant
style, informed Lt. Col. Edwin C. Kelton, (then)
District engineer of the Los Angeles District,
that he would return with his division and its
support personnel, consisting of approximately
60,000 Soldiers, in 40 days, by which time he
expected facilities ready for quartering and
messing these men,” according to “Did You
Know? Vol. II,” a historical guide written by Dr.
Anthony Turnhollow, who served as the District’s historian from 1966 to 1998.
True to his word, Patton’s troops began
to arrive on April 11, 1942, to find the facility
fully-annexed and ready for training. Patton
went on to use the dry, rugged terrain to prepare
Soldiers of the I Armored Corps for battle during the opening salvoes of U.S. involvement in
World War II in French North Africa.
The official history of the 773rd Tank
Destroyer Battalion, which was among the first
units to train at DTC-CAMA, described the
area as: “The world’s largest Army post and the
greatest training maneuver area in U.S. military history. Eighteen thousand square miles
of nothing in a desert designed for hell.” More
than one million men experienced the Desert
Training Center’s version of “hell” before the
post was closed in 1944.
The original Desert Training Center
spanned 350 miles from Pomona, Calif., to the
Arizona Desert, and 250 miles from Yuma,
Ariz., to Boulder City, Nev. Today, despite its
dramatically decreased size to its present 996
square miles, the National Training Center at
Fort Irwin is regarded as the nation’s premier
training center.
The Los Angeles District has continued its
10 NewsCastle
General George S. Patton worked with the Los Angeles District in 1942 to develop the first iteration of
the National Training Center at Fort Irwin, then known
as the Desert Training Center-California Arizona
Manuever Area. The official history of the 773rd Tank
Destroyer Battalion, which was among the first units
to train at DTC-CAMA, described the area as: “The
world’s largest Army post and the greatest training
manuever area in the U.S. military history. Eighteen thousand square miles of nothing in a desert
designed for Hell.” More than one million men experienced the Desert Training Area’s version of “hell”
before the post was closed in 1944. (Illustration by
Bill Fleming)
partnership with the National Training Center in recent months, having broken ground
on a new hospital and water treatment plant
for the post. In August, an emergency contingent of engineers and other responders
were deployed to assess damage and begin
reconstruction efforts after a monsoon-like
storm flooded much of the training center,
causing an estimated $50 million in damage.
Los Angeles District Commander, Col. Kim Colloton, was presented with a scroll by Los Angeles ??[? H?\\??\????XH[?[?H?? ? ??\?B??[??YH ???[??[\?[?[? ?X???][???X??Z[?? H\? ?X?8?&\?
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