DTC.

This is coolbert:

Devoted readers to the blog please be aware here is yet one more instance of where I am wrong.

That Desert Training Center as used by the U.S. Army during World War Two [WW2] NOT in the same exact area where the American military practices desert warfare today.

American ground forces during WW2 training for desert warfare and also developing techniques of armored [tank] maneuver combat stationed and based in the high desert of California, military camps again not exactly located where the present day Ft. Irwin [army] or Twenty Nine Palms [Marines] are situated. Close but not quite.

"The Desert Training Center (DTC), also known as California-Arizona Maneuver Area (CAMA), was a World War II training facility established in the Mojave Desert, largely in Southern California and Western Arizona in 1942."

"Its mission was to train United States Army and Army Air Corps units and personnel to live and fight in the desert, to test and develop suitable equipment, and to develop tactical doctrines, techniques and training methods."

That entire area seventy years ago hardly even as densely populated as it is now. And no interstate highways either, the road network sparse and unimproved in most instances. Click on the map to see a larger image.

"It was a key training facility for units engaged in combat during the 1942–1943 North African campaign. It stretched from the outskirts of Pomona, California eastward to within 50 miles of Phoenix, Arizona, southward to the suburbs of Yuma, Arizona and northward into the southern tip of Nevada."

The current U.S. Marine base called the Air Ground Combat Center located in that area NORTH [see map] of Twenty Nine Palms.

"The Marine Corps Air Ground Combat Center (MCAGCC), also known as 29 Palms, is a United States Marine Corps base. It was a census-designated place (CDP) officially known as Twentynine Palms Base located adjacent to the city of Twentynine Palms in southern San Bernardino County, California."

Good training possible here!!

That location of Fort Irwin [army] even further NORTH, see the map where it says: " To Death Valley".

"Fort Irwin & the National Training Center (NTC) is a major training area for the United States Military and is a census-designated place located in the Mojave Desert in northern San Bernardino County, California."

"The base is part of the Installation Management Command (IMCOM). The opposing force at the NTC is the 11th Armored Cavalry Regiment, the Blackhorse Cavalry, who are stationed at the base to provide an enemy force to units on a training rotation at Fort Irwin."

The 11th ACR the OPFOR. Opposing force. Simulates the role of the adversary during "war games".

That 11th ACR [armored cavalry regiment] generally conceded to be the # 1 unit in the U.S. Army most prepared for conventional combat as that term understood in the modern context.

Also duty very rigorous with severe hardship. A minimum of two hundred days in the field per year, under the extremes of desert conditions. Day/night simulations without respite, "war games" realistic as to the greatest extent possible.

Good training possible and is!!

coolbert.