Camp Essex Army Airfield

USA / California / Needles /
 Second World War 1939-1945, Army Air Field US, closed / former military, historic ruins
Camp Essex Army Airfield was a less permanent airfield than those located at Rice or Desert Center. Today, any buildings that may have existed have been removed or destroyed. The only remnants of the facility include roads, cement foundations, airplane taxiways, tie-down areas, and runways.

It has a unique configuration, not seen anywhere else, with six dispersal pads. Constructed by the 835th Engineer Battalion (Aviation), the field was largely a natural surface. Some of the taxiways were constructed with a sand-and-cement mix, but most of the runways were simply cleared and compacted by watering. The main runway measured 4,000 by 150 feet. At some point between 1949-54, the former Camp Essex Airfield was reused as a private airfield, as that is how "Essex" was depicted on the 1954 Mojave Desert World Aeronautical Chart. It was described as having a 4,900' unpaved runway.

Keith Wood observed, "The dispersal pads look like they are for B-17s, B-24s or B-29s, the standard pattern for WW2 forward positioning fields. The two runways would permit a mass launch. The combination of these, the sparse facilities on the field & the location make it likely that this was intended as a fallback field, supporting March Field in Riverside as well as the Desert Training Center."

www.airfields-freeman.com/CA/Airfields_CA_SanBernardino...
Wikipedia article: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Essex,_California
Nearby cities:
Coordinates:   34°46'18"N   115°13'15"W

Comments

  • You will find additional history of the Camp Essex Tactical Aerodrome, part of General Patton's Desert Training Center, here: <http://skytrail.info/new/essex_airfield.htm>.
This article was last modified 8 years ago