You are about to embark on an astonishing historical adventure which will transport you back to the time of World War II and this nation's gallant response to the vulgar treachery of the Axis nations. You will witness one of the desert's hidden secrets, the skeletal remains of the world's largest military training center: The Desert Training Center (DTC). The DTC, as conceived by General "Old Blood and Guts" Patton, was spread over southeastern California, southern Nevada, and western Arizona, and its Spartan circumstances produced the world's best trained troops.

The DTC was created in answer to the jolting Japanese, December 7th, 1941 military surprise attacks perpetrated against seven Pacific targets including the US Pacific Fleet at anchor in Pearl Harbor, Hawaii. That act impelled the United States of America into active war against the Axis nations of Germany, Italy, and Japan.

Today, camouflaged by relentless erosion, and obstinately withstanding re-growth of Creosote and Sage, the august remains of the DTC are still perceptible. This DTC Sky Trail will provide you the opportunity to contemplate the ghostly remains of the former campsites from a vantage point that will permit you to appreciate the immensity of the many individual Divisional Camps that comprised the DTC. As you experience several of them in succession, you will begin to appreciate the grand scale of the DTC. When you consider that this undertaking was conceived, approved, and operational within four months of the attack of Pearl Harbor, you begin to understand the emotional atmosphere of this nation when it entered World War-II.

The United States of America was completely and wholeheartedly committed to massing a mighty military force so overwhelmingly powerful as to completely crush the Axis armed forces. President Franklin Delano Roosevelt, in his December 9th, 1941 Fireside Chat broadcast to the American people over radio, stated that the war-effort was the most tremendous undertaking in this nation's history. The cost was astounding, but the results gave the people of the world an opportunity to move forward into broad, sunlit, uplands, and escape the abyss of a new dark-age.

As you first overfly the ghostly remains of the Desert Training Center divisional camps, you will be surprised to see that such large (2 to 3 miles long, by 1 mile wide) camps were located in the remote, barren Mojave and Colorado Deserts. As you progress along the sky trail, you will see a succession of these mammoth camps, and begin to appreciate just how vast the WW-II military training effort was. Then permit yourself to imagine each of these camps filled with 1,500 men and vehicles participating in mock battles throughout the area of nearly 12 million acres. As the feeling of patriotic gratitude wells up within you, consider that this represents only a very small part of the mobilization of citizens in response to the insane, tyrannical, and barbarous attempt at world domination by the Axis powers.

The heroic preparations for war manifest by the people of this nation were immense! Not only were millions of Americans inducted into the armed forces and asked to offer the ultimate sacrifice, but many more men, women, and children on the home-front sacrificed their way of life for the good of the world. Commodities necessary for the implements of war were rationed. Red meat was rationed at home to feed troops and the people of the Allied nations. Citizens were asked to save the fat drippings from their morning bacon, and render it unto the government for war use. Copper used to mint pennies was diverted to manufacture shell casings; pennies were made of zinc plated steel or red waxed cardboard during the war years. Rationing of gasoline reduced travel, thus lessening the demand for rubber tires. Women were pressed into jobs left vacant by men swelling the military ranks. For years military production continued 24 hours a day, 7 days a week. Citizens were urged to assist in financing the war through the purchase of War Bonds. Nightly blackouts were observed on the coasts, and anti-aircraft fire lit the night sky over Los Angeles.