Camp Clipper, Desert Training Center Commemorative Plaque outside Needles, California

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(wording on plaque)

CLIPPER DIVISIONAL CAMP

CAMP CLIPPER

DESERT TRAINING CENTER

CALIFORNIA-ARIZONA MANEUVER AREA

Camp Clipper was established at a site that reached from Essex Road to this location in the spring of 1942. It was one of twelve such camps built in the southwestern deserts to harden and train United States Troops for service on the battlefields of World War II. The Desert Training Center was a simulated theater of operations that included portions of California, Arizona and Nevada. The other camps were Young, Coxcomb, Iron Mountain, Ibis, Granite, Pilot Knob, Laguna, Horn, Hyder, Bouse and Rice.

A total of 13 infantry divisions and 7 armored divisions plus numerous smaller units were trained in this harsh environment. The Training Center was in operation for almost two years and was closed early in 1944 when the last units were shipped overseas. During the brief period of operation over one million American solders were trained for combat.

The 33^rd and 93^rd Infantry divisions were trained here.

This monument is dedicated to all the solders that served here and especially for those who gave their lives in battle, ending the Holocaust and defeating the Armed Forces of Nazi Germany, Fascist Italy and Imperial Japan.

Plaque placed by the Billy Holcomb Chapter of the Ancient and Honorable Order of E Clampus Vitus, Cal-Trans, Essex Maintenance Station and in cooperation with the Bureau of Land Management, Needles Resource Area.

October 13^th, 1991