Marine Corps Air Ground Combat Center Twentynine Palms

 military, United States Marine Corps

Twentynine Palms is the largest Marine Corps base in the U.S. Its stated mission is:
"To conduct relevant live-fire combined arms training, urban operations, and Joint/Coalition level integration training that promotes operational forces readiness as well as to provide the facilities, services, and support responsive to the needs of resident organizations, Marines, Sailors, and their families today and tomorrow."
Marine Corps Base Camp Pendleton Base Headquarters issued Post Order 343, and Marine Corps Training Center, Twentynine Palms, was born. Two years before, the nation had become embroiled in the Korean War. As the need for live-fire training grew along with the swelling ranks, it became obvious that more ranges were needed. 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.

The base was re-designated on February 6, 1953 as Marine Corps Training Center, Twentynine Palms. By February 1, 1957, it grew to base status and was again re-designated as Marine Corps Base, Twentynine Palms, Calif.

Only 70 Marines comprised the detachment at the Center. Manned by Marines from Camp Pendleton, its primary mission was to prepare the new base for the arrival of permanent personnel. By mid-December, 1952, a fresh 3rd Marine Division, with assistance from the 12th Marine Regiment, conducted the first large-scale, live-fire field exercise aboard the new base. The exercise gave Marines a glimpse of the facility's potential and foreshadowed the large-scale combined-arms exercises (CAXs) for which the base is now known.

In 1976, under the command of Brigadier General Ernest R. Reid, Jr., 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. Following completion of the expeditionary airfield, its name was changed to Marine Corps Air Ground Combat Training Center Oct. 1, 1978, and changed yet once more to Marine Corps Air Ground Combat Center (MCAGCC) on February 16, 1979. It was also during this time that plans for the Combined Arms Exercises were conceived. Supplanting an earlier exercise known as Desert Palm Tree, the new CAXs were remarkable in two respects: the practice of combined arms, and live-fire and movement during the exercises were unprecedented in scale. Just as noteworthy was the creation of a Tactical Exercise Control Center with the primary purpose of controlling, instructing and critiquing the exercises. In the words of base historian, Col. Verle E. Ludwig, USMC (Ret.), "Twentynine Palms was to be a permanent 'combined-arms exercise college' for all of the Marine Corps."

On Oct. 1, 2000, after 21 years as MCAGCC, the command was re-designated as Marine Air Ground Task Force Training Command, Twentynine Palms, California. This re-designation accompanied a change in policy that placed MAGTF Training Command under the auspices of Training and Education Command, Headquarters Marine Corps, MCCDC, Marine Corps Base Quantico, Virginia. This arrangement simplifies what was occasionally a complicated chain of command.

The base is currently home to the largest military training area in the nation (and the largest US base in the world), and consequently, the largest training program. The program known as Mojave Viper has become the model of pre-Operation Iraqi Freedom deployment training. The majority of units in the Marine Corps will undergo a month at Mojave Viper before deploying to Iraq or Afghanistan. Live fire exercises, artillery, tank, and close air support training are used for training. In addition to the sprawling "Combat Town," a two-acre fabricated Middle Eastern village, complete with a mosque, native role-players, an "IED Alley," and other aesthetic touches.
Source:Wikipedia
More Info:www.29palms.usmc.mil/