[This is a four sided monument displaying three different markers:]

Front - Facing West:

Desert Training Center

* Camp Young *

Maj. Gen. George S. Patton Jr., U.S. Army, selected Camp Young as headquarters site for the Desert Training Center in March 1942. Camp Young was the administrative center for a simulated theater of operations that 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.

Between 1942 and 1944 over one million men trained on the surrounding desert and participated in the most realistic war games under the harshest conditions imaginable. In a very important sense, many battles of World War II were won on these desert lands during these maneuvers.

This memorial is dedicated to the soldiers of the U.S. Army who participated in these events. The spirit which they displayed generated a spark that spread in every overseas theater in which they served.

Left Side - Facing North:

Lt. Gen. Samuel B. M. Young

January 9, 1840 - September 2, 1924

The Desert Training Center Headquarters was named in honor of Lt. Gen. Samuel B. M. Young on May 12, 1942. As a Captain he served with distinction with the Army of the Potomac and later with the 8th Calvary along the Mojave Road in California and Arizona. He commanded a brigade during the Spanish-American War in Cuba and later in the Philippine Islands where he was appointed Military Governor of Northwest Luzon. In 1901 he was named President of the War College Board and went on to serve as the first President of the War College. In 1903 he was appointed the first Chief of Staff of the Army. A position he held until his retirement in 1904.

[Right Side - Facing South:}

Desert Training Center

California - Arizona Maneuver Area

Map of area showing placement of camps

Dedicated on the 40th anniversary of V-E Day, May 8, 1985

U. S. Department of the Interior

Bureau of Land Management

Marker can be reached from Chiriaco Road north of Interstate 10, on the left when traveling east.

Courtesy hmdb.org

Credits and Sources: