Condor Field Remembered Traditional Cache
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Placed for the Somebody Loves You event on the Marine Base 10.25.2008. Condor Field used to be a glider airport which was part of the Marine Base right up the road. Now it will become a storage facility. How times change!
In 1950, the nation was embroiled in the Korean War. As the need for live-fire training grew along with the swelling ranks, it became obvious that more training ranges were in order. Camp Pendleton's Marines looked southward and happened upon the abandoned Condor Field, a World War II Army and Navy glider base located in the vicinity of what is now Mainside. On Aug. 20, 1952, Camp Pendleton Base Headquarters issued Post Order 343, and Marine Corps Training Center, Twentynine Palms, Calif., was born.
Only 70 Marines comprised the initial Marine detachment at the Center. Manned by Camp Pendleton Marines, its primary mission was to prepare the new base for the arrival of permanent personnel.
The base has undergone numerous changes. Since its beginnings, many hundreds of thousands of Marines have prepared for war here, practicing their warfighting skills in the challenging terrain and climate of the Mojave Desert. In the early days it was primarily seen as a place for artillery units to unmask their devastating firepower in training. Subsequently, it has been home to numerous tenant commands, earning a reputation as the premier combined-arms training facility in the Marine Corps.
In 1976, work began to add an expeditionary airfield to the base's growing infrastructure. When the first C-5 Galaxy landed in August 1978, it was apparent that the air-ground capability of the base was complete. It also was during this time that plans for the Combined Arms Exercises for which the base is now famous were conceived. Supplanting an earlier exercise known as "Desert Palm Tree," the new CAXes were remarkable in two respects: the practice of combined arms and live fire and movement during the exercises were unprecedented in scale.
Throughout its short but illustrious history, the base was known by five previous names. Officially christened in 1952 as the Camp Detachment Marine Corps Training Center, Twentynine Palms, Calif., it was redesignated Feb. 6, 1953, as the Marine Corps Training Center, Twentynine Palms. By Feb. 1, 1957, it grew to base status and was again redesignated as Marine Corps Base, Twentynine Palms, Calif.
Following completion of the expeditionary airfield, its name was changed to Marine Corps Air Ground Combat Training Center Oct. 1, 1978, and changed to Marine Corps Air Ground Combat Center on Feb. 16, 1979.
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