Name: Marine Corps Recruit Depot San Diego
Brand: Matthew J. Morrison
SKU: 9780738588780
Price: 24.99 USD
Availability: InStock

Marine Corps Recruit Depot San Diego

9780738588780

$24.99

Located northwest of downtown San Diego, the Marine Corps Recruit Depot (MCRD) is rich in the history and traditions of the US Marine Corps. The base was born in part of the perseverance of Col. Joseph H. Pendleton and the efforts of Congressman William Kettner. MCRD San Diego was commissioned in 1921 and officially designated as the Marine Corps Recruit Depot in 1948. It is the oldest operational Marine Corps base on the West Coast and graduates over 20,000 new Marines every year. MCRD San Diego is one of only two Marine Corps recruit-training bases in the United States and is responsible for the basic training of all male recruits west of the Mississippi River. Every Marine begins his career by participating in a 13-week training period that isolates him from the civilian world. Basic training at MCRD San Diego emphasizes physical fitness and adaption to the Marine Corps lifestyle.

Nevada Test Site

9781467117449

$24.99

Since Pres. Harry Truman established the Nevada Test Site (NTS) in December 1950, it has played a vital role in the security of the United States. For four decades, the test site's primary purpose was developmental testing of nuclear explosives. Atmospheric tests conducted over Yucca Flat and Frenchman Flat between 1951 and 1962 involved thousands of Army troops and Marines simulating nuclear battlefield conditions. Civil defense planners studied blast and radiation effects and evaluated bomb shelter designs. Testing moved underground in 1963 to eliminate radioactive fallout. Other projects at the NTS included nuclear rocket engine development for space travel, training for NASA's Apollo astronauts, excavation experiments, radioactive waste storage studies, and aircraft testing. Since the last underground nuclear test in 1992, this geographically diverse testing and training complex north of Las Vegas--known since 2010 as the Nevada National Security Site--has been used to support nuclear stockpile stewardship and as a unique outdoor laboratory for government and industry research and development efforts.

The Benicia Arsenal

9781467109635

$23.99

The Benicia Arsenal served the US Army in the West for 117 years. Located at a strategic location between the San Francisco Bay and the interior of California, the military reservation began as cavalry barracks. During the Civil War, the arsenal was the logistics headquarters of the California Volunteers, a force that replaced the Army units that went east to fight. In the later 19th century, the arsenal supported missions in Russia, Hawaii, and South America. The 20th century took the arsenal from the horse-and-buggy era to Nike missiles and provided support during World War I, World War II, the Korean War, and the Vietnam War. During World War II, half the workforce was made up of women, and in the postwar period, as the Army integrated, so did the arsenal. The arsenal closed in 1964, and the land was converted into an industrial park that now houses over 300 companies.

Edwards Air Force Base

9780738580777

$24.99

Known for more "first flights" and record flights than any other place, Edwards Air Force Base is legendary. Centered around an ancient dry lakebed in the Mojave Desert 90 miles north of Los Angeles, activity at Edwards has sharpened the cutting edge of aviation and aerospace since the 1940s. The complex is a strategic flight test, research, and development center for the U.S. Air Force, NASA, and civilian contractors. Since the 1950s, almost every U.S. military aircraft has been partially tested here. The skies above Edwards have been the scene of remarkable achievements, including Chuck Yeager's world-famous breaking of the sound barrier in 1947. The base was first established near the small town of Muroc in 1933 and became renowned for its giant runways painted onto the flat, dry lakebed. Speed and altitude records were commonplace at Edwards during the 1950s. Suborbital space flights began there in the 1960s. In the 1970s it was the primary testing site for the space shuttle program. Dramatic aerospace research continues today at Edwards, America's proving ground for the future of high tech aviation.

Malmstrom Air Force Base

9781467105484

$24.99

Malmstrom Air Force Base is located east of Great Falls, Montana. The base was activated as an operational Second Air Force training installation in 1942, when the first B-17 landed on Great Falls Army Air Force Base. B-17 combat crew training ended in October 1943, and Lend-Lease operations were begun to provide support to Russia during World War II. The base also served as the primary C-54 training site for Berlin Airlift aircrews. In 1954, the base was named after the 407th vice wing commander, Col. Einar Axel Malmstrom, who died in a T-33 crash. From 1954 to 1991, Strategic Air Command tankers were on the base, and in 1961, the 341st Missile Wing was activated and became the nation's first Minuteman ICBM wing, which continues today with the Minuteman III, one-third of the nation's land-based missile deterrent. Today, Malmstrom Air Force base is preparing to field the new Northrop Grumman Ground Based Strategic Deterrent intercontinental ballistic missile weapon system, program to replace the decades-old Minuteman III.

Lowry Air Force Base

9780738596648

$24.99

From 1937 to 1994, Lowry Air Force Base, located on the eastern edge of the city of Denver, served the nation and the surrounding community in many distinguished ways. The air base, primarily a technical training center, graduated more than 1.1 million enlisted members and officers in skills ranging from armament to photography, tremendously strengthening the country's war efforts in World War II, the Korean War, the Vietnam War, and the Cold War. In addition, from the 1980s, Lowry Air Force Base remained one of Colorado's largest employers, with approximately 10,000 military and civilian men and women, providing an economic impact approaching $1 billion annually. Thus Lowry significantly contributed to maintaining the world's largest air force and to promoting the accelerated growth of the Denver metro area and Colorado.

World War II Hawaii

9781467161770

$24.99

In World War II Hawaii, experience the untold stories of Hawaii at war where children worked the pineapple fields and women served in armed volunteer units. Makeshift bomb shelters were constructed, trenches dug around public buildings, and barbed wire strung on beaches. This tropical paradise transitioned into an active war front where over one million servicemen and tens of thousands of civilian defense workers came through and changed Hawaii forever.

Within hours of the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor, martial law was declared in Hawaii. Schools were taken over by the military, and neighborhoods were evacuated. All communication was censored, and every citizen was fingerprinted and registered. The US government burned over $2 million and replaced it with newly minted currency that had “Hawaii” stamped on it in case of invasion by the Empire of Japan.

Dorothea N. Buckingham is a librarian, author, and World War II historian. John C. Buckingham is a retired US Marine Corps officer, author, and active docent with Pearl Harbor museums. Through this collection of rarely seen images, taken mainly from the Hawaii War Records Depository, they present daily life in Hawaii during World War II as it has never been seen before.

Cover image for World War II Hawaii, isbn: 9781467161770

Vandenberg Air Force Base

9781467132091

$24.99

A historical cornucopia ranging from native tribal lands and ranch living to infantry training grounds and missile launch site, the location currently known as Vandenberg Air Force Base has held an amazing legacy that continues today. Stretching over 45 miles of pristine California coastline and covering over 99,000 acres, the base has been the vanguard for the United States' space and missile program. Showcasing over 1,900 launches since 1957, Vandenberg put the world's first photoreconnaissance (spy) satellite into orbit and is the only launch location for America's operational intercontinental ballistic missile force. Within Vandenberg's lands are ancient rock drawings from the native Chumash tribe, hundreds of species of plants, insects, and animals, and untouched beaches--protected and thriving under the military's stewardship of the lands. Within these pages are stories and photographs that highlight Vandenberg Air Force Base's legacy as the free world's first missile base.

Rosie the Riveter in Long Beach

9780738558141

$24.99

During World War II, an unprecedented number of women
took jobs at aircraft plants, shipyards, munitions factories, and other concerns across the nation to produce material essential to winning the war. Affectionately and collectively called "Rosie the Riveter" after a popular 1943 song, thousands of these women came to the U.S. Army-financed Douglas Aircraft Plant in Long Beach, the largest wartime plane manufacturer, to help produce an astonishing number of the aircraft used in the war. They riveted,
welded, assembled, and installed, doing man-sized jobs, making attack bombers, other war birds, and cargo transports. They trained at Long Beach City Schools and worked 8- and 10-hour shifts in a windowless, bomb-proof plant. Their children attended Long Beach Day Nursery, and their households ran on rations and victory gardens. When the men came home after the war ended, most of these resilient women lost their jobs.

Alameda Naval Air Station

9780738580401

$24.99

The 56-year history of the Alameda Naval Air Station from 1940 to 1997 was a major military presence in the San Francisco Bay Area. As one of the largest and most important naval air stations in the United States, with a population of 45,000, it occupied 300 buildings to service squadrons and Carrier Air Groups. The large Overhaul and Repair facility operated from 1941 through the jet age, and U.S. Naval Reserve squadrons were added in the postwar years.

Travis Air Force Base

9780738529417

$24.99

Soon after the attack on Pearl Harbor on December 7, 1941, the Fairfield-Suisun Army Air Base, later to become Travis, was born on the windswept plains of Solano County. To meet the urgent need for an air gateway to the Pacific, the base soon had two runways on a 945-acre site between the twin farming communities. The gusty winds challenged the gutsy young pilots who trained here, many of whom saw the Golden Gate--their last view of the mainland--as they flew out to do battle. Expanding through the next two decades until it encompassed over 6,000 acres, Travis is now the largest base under the U.S. Air Force Mobility Command.

World War II Shipyards by the Bay

9780738547176

$24.99

In the dark, frenzied years of World War II, the San Francisco Bay Area was the geographic center of a $6.3 billion West Coast shipbuilding industry. Stretching from the Golden Gate to Vallejo to Sunnyvale, 14 Bay Area yards launched many of the ships that helped save the free world. Basalt Rock of Napa, Bethlehem Steel of San Francisco and Alameda, Hunters Point and Mare Island Naval Shipyards, Joshua Hendy Iron Works of Sunnyvale, Marinship of Sausalito, Permanente Metals in Richmond, and Western Pipe and Steel in South San Francisco are names that still conjure memories for many locals of one of the most impassioned war efforts in human history. Offering new opportunities for African Americans and women, recruiters searched the nation for workers who relocated here by the thousands. These motivated men and women delivered Liberty cargo ships like the SS Robert E. Peary, built in seven and a half days, a shipbuilding record that stands to this day.

Marinship

9781467129770

$24.99

Marinship was a World War II shipyard built by the W.A. Bechtel Company to fulfill an urgent need for cargo ships to support soldiers all over the world. Sausalito was selected as the site for its unused railroad capacity and access to a deepwater channel and the Golden Gate Bridge. In March 1942, the shipyard was built on the site of the railroad maintenance yard and adjacent vacant mudflats, with the first ship being launched in September. At the time of its peak operation, there were as many as 20,000 workers. Workers were recruited from local resources at first but eventually a more widespread recruitment brought people from the Midwest and the South. These new workers, including minorities and women, enabled Marinship to become a leader in the integrated workforce phenomenon. As the war in Europe was won, fewer ships were needed. The Marinship labor force was reduced by about half until the victory in Japan, when ships were no longer needed. Marinship was soon taken over by the US Army Corps of Engineers, which disposed of what it did not need for its operations and currently maintains several buildings to facilitate its regional operations.

The Navy in San Diego

9780738555508

$24.99

San Diego has never been afraid to call itself a "Navy Town," and the positive and inspiring link between the navy and the city knows no equal across the country. For over 150 years, beginning with the U.S. Navy's capture of the city for the United States in the opening days of the Mexican War, the navy has been an indelible part of San Diego's lifestyle, culture, and vitality. Not only has the navy formed the bedrock of the region's economy, but it has helped shape the population while endowing the city with a sense of international and cosmopolitan awareness that separates San Diego from many other cities of its size. San Diego and its navy enjoy a special relationship, one deeply rooted in historic perspective that renews itself with each
passing year.

Beale Air Force Base During the Cold War

9781467130813

$24.99

KLAXON! The alarm immediately sent the aircrews at Beale Air Force Base, California, scrambling to their alert aircraft in a race to get airborne first. The KC-135 tankers were usually the quickest to taxi out, with the B-52 bombers following closely behind. Soon, the air filled with the rumble of engines as aircraft roared down the runway trailing great clouds of exhaust and disappeared into the skies of Northern California. It was a dramatic scenario practiced many times during the Cold War and one that Universal Pictures filmed at Beale AFB for its movie A Gathering of Eagles, starring Rock Hudson and Rod Taylor.

Beale Air Force Base During the Cold War

Fort Bragg

9781467130851

$24.99

In 1857, Fort Bragg was an Army post on the Mendocino Indian Reservation. Coastal California north of San Francisco had been home to the Pomo and Yuki people for thousands of years. In the early 1800s, that area was visited by Russian, English, and French fur trappers. In 1850, an opium trader carrying goods from the Orient to gold-rush San Francisco shipwrecked near Fort Bragg. Would-be salvagers discovered giant redwood trees, and lumber mills soon sprang up at the mouth of every stream. "Dog-hole schooners" transported lumber, passengers, and supplies, and the world-wide Dollar Shipping Lines started here. Former reservation lands were acquired by lumber interests, and the city of Fort Bragg sprang up around them, all while photographers, artists, and writers documented the "far West." Today, the former California Western logging railroad transports tourists through the redwood forests. Hollywood movies continue to be set in the New England-style towns along the rocky Mendocino Coast, and Paul Bunyan Days celebrates old-time logging skills. The area's colorful past permeates and enriches local culture.

Fort Ord

9780738528694

$24.99

From its establishment during World War I to its closure at the end of the Cold War, the Army installation best known as Fort Ord made a significant contribution to our national defense. Founded as a training area for Presidio of Monterey troops in 1917, Fort Ord covered more than 28,000 acres near the city of Monterey in its heyday. The local topography made it ideal as an infantry training center, and this was its primary mission throughout much of the 20th century. Most recently, Fort Ord was home to the 7th Infantry Division (Light), which was inactivated in 1993. In September 1994, Fort Ord closed its gates and became a part of military history.

Marine Corps Air Station El Toro

9780738501864

$24.99

In 1943, the finishing touches on El Toro's construction turned a bean field into one of the country's finest military air stations. Located in a quiet valley at the base of the Saddleback Mountains and only a few miles from the Pacific
Ocean, Marine Corps Air Station El Toro stood proud and tall on behalf of the U.S. military for 57 years and four wars.
In this publication dedicated to the history of the Marine Corps Air Station (MCAS) El Toro, with a sub-section covering MCAS Tustin, Thomas O'Hara presents a detailed account of the installation's achievements and activities during the entire period of its service to the U.S. military. Over 200 images--from photos of the first Woman Reserve Officers in 1943 to documentation of the annual airshow--illustrate the base's history from its role in World War II through Desert Storm.

World War II at Camp Hale

9781467118545

$24.99

In April 1942, a little over two years before the Tenth Mountain Division officially obtained its name, the U.S. Army began the unprecedented construction of a training facility for its newly acquired ski and mountain troops. Located near Pando in Colorado's Sawatch Range, the site eventually known as Camp Hale sits at an elevation of 9,250 feet. Immense challenges in its creation and subsequent training included ongoing racial conflict, the high altitude and blustery winters. However, thanks to contributions from civilian workers and the Women's Army Corps and support from neighboring communities, the camp trained soldiers who helped defeat the Axis powers in World War II. Veteran David R. Witte brings to life this enduring story.

The Marines at Twentynine Palms

9780738547725

$24.99

The largest Marine Corps base in history, the Marine Air Ground Task Force Training Center at Twentynine Palms is located on 930 square miles of harsh terrain, nearly the size of Rhode Island, in southern San Bernardino County. An army base for training glider pilots at the outset of World War II, the former navy facility was taken over by the corps in 1952 during the Korean War and the advent of the cold war. The base provided adequate space and ranges to test new artillery and missile technology and was ideal for the largescale training of ground forces. In the 21st century, every U.S. Marine does a stint at Twentynine Palms because the climate, terrain, and remote location simulate many international hot spots of world strife. The marines have continually upgraded and expanded the Twentynine Palms facilities as daily maneuvers involve transports, tanks, artillery, and aircraft, particularly at the Expeditionary Air Field.

Los Angeles in World War II

9780738581811

$24.99

During World War II, the Los Angeles region underwent rapid industrial growth as Kaiser Steel opened a giant mill in Fontana, and the aircraft giants--North American Aviation, Lockheed, Douglas, and Hughes--expanded with war contracts. The war economy's demographic and ethnic dimensions included women and African Americans entering factory work and troops streaming through Union Station to San Pedro for embarkation. The Zoot Suit Riots defined the tensions between servicemen and the Mexican American community, and the internment of Japanese Americans led to the eventual disappearance of established neighborhoods. The war inspired home front efforts by local civic and academic institutions, by the entertainment industry, and by émigrés from Nazi Germany. It led to the training of civilian corps, rationing, and vigilance for enemy activities. American participation in World War II from 1941 to 1945 energized the region's growing industrial infrastructure and spurred postwar economic and housing development.

Fort Yellowstone

9780738593142

$24.99

On August 17, 1886, Capt. Moses Harris and the troops of Company M rode into Yellowstone to take over guardianship of America's first national park. Receiving orders thereupon that the company was staying indefinitely, Captain Harris ordered the construction of Camp Sheridan. Seeing no end in sight for this "temporary" duty, the US War Department established Fort Yellowstone in 1891. For 32 years, ceremonial splendor of the US Army filled this era of Yellowstone with booming cannons at sunrise and sunset, crackling rifle-range practices, flashing saber drills, exacting military maneuvers, and dashing dress parades led by the regimental band. With the creation of the National Park Service in 1916, the Army began a two-year administrative transition and formally abandoned Fort Yellowstone in October 1918.

Camp Pendleton

9780738529820

$24.99

Camp Pendleton was established in 1942 by the Navy Department as the West Coast training facility for the United States Marine Corps. Located in rugged northwest San Diego County, Camp Pendleton quickly became one of the largest training centers for infantry, aviation, and amphibious units and has long been the threshold for Marines embarking to participate in armed conflicts in the Far East and around the globe. From World War II to Operation Iraqi Freedom, Camp Pendleton has served as the backdrop and staging ground for troops, artillery, tanks, and infantry. Named for Maj. Gen. Joseph H. Pendleton, who pioneered Marine activity in San Diego, Camp Pendleton is situated on approximately 250,000 acres on the California coast and its access to land, sea, and air has been instrumental in cross-training Marines. Thousands of Marines have called "CamPen" home since its inception, including the oldest and most decorated Marine unit, the 1st Marine Division.

Fort Laramie

9780738580531

$24.99

Fort Laramie was one of the most important frontier outposts of the American West. Founded as the trading post Fort William in 1834, the fort became a U.S. military post in 1849. Beginning in 1841, emigrants stopped at Fort Laramie while traveling the Oregon, California, and Mormon Trails. Fort Laramie served as a gathering place for thousands of Native Americans and hosted the 1851 and 1868 treaty councils. When the treaties failed, the post became the staging area for campaigns that eventually led to the tribes's confinement on reservations. Fort Laramie was abandoned by the military in 1890; the buildings were auctioned and served private interests during the homestead period from 1890 to 1937. Fort Laramie was acquired by the state of Wyoming in 1937, and the fort became a unit of the National Park System in 1938. Fort Laramie National Historic Site is open daily except New Year's Day, Thanksgiving, and Christmas. The restoration of many structures to their historical appearance provides visitors with a glimpse of the past.

San Francisco in World War II

9780738530505

$24.99

Everything changed on the morning of December 7, 1941, and life in San Francisco was no exception. Flush with excitement and tourism in the wake of the 1939 Golden Gate International Exposition, the city was stunned at the severity of the Pearl Harbor attack, and quickly settled into organized chaos with its new role as a major deployment center for the remainder of the war. "Frisco" teemed with servicemen and servicewomen during and after the conflict, forever changing the face of this waterfront city. Warships roamed the bay, and fearsome gun embankments appeared on the cliffs facing the sea, preparing to repel an invasion that never happened.

San Diego's Naval Training Center

9780738559582

$24.99

San Diego's Naval Training Center (NTC) was commissioned on June 1, 1923, and for 70 years served as a young recruit's introduction to a naval career, beginning with nine weeks of basic orientation and organization training (BOOT) camp. Originally consisting of 135 acres adjacent to San Diego Bay, NTC eventually expanded to almost 550 acres with 300 buildings, landscaped promenades, parade grounds, and a concrete training "non-ship," the USS Recruit (a.k.a. USS Neversail), where recruits learned their first duties of seamanship. Advanced training schools were later added for military personnel learning specialized duties. After training hundreds of thousands of recruits, NTC was officially closed on April 30, 1997, and has since been transformed into San Diego's new and vibrant cultural center, Liberty Station.

Dublin and the Tri-Valley

9781467131063

$24.99

In 1941, the Navy sought West Coast locations for bases to ship men, material, and equipment into World War II's Pacific theater. The Dublin and Livermore area offered wide-open spaces with good transportation routes to the San Francisco Bay area. Near Dublin, the Navy built Camp Parks, Camp Shoemaker, and Shoemaker Naval Hospital. Camp Parks prepared Seabees to build and maintain airfields, ports, and hospitals from Guadalcanal to Japan. Hundreds of thousands of other sailors and WAVES came to Camp Shoemaker on their way from basic training to postings on ships, bases, and stations throughout the Pacific. Shoemaker Hospital saw them again when they returned injured or ill. Farther east, the Navy built Livermore Naval Air Station to train thousands to fly.

California Cavalry

9781467131100

$24.99

California was home to the one of the first Native American cavalries and one of the first African American cavalries, commonly known as the Buffalo Soldiers. It was in California where the country saw the last official military cavalry in operation. California Cavalry displays the history of cavalry battalions and regiments, detailing a critical and controversial period and the eventual change from horse to mechanized technology. This book attempts to approach the topic of the cavalry in California both from indigenous and from military perspectives. Geographic regions are expanded beyond California to give context and continuity to the movement of military operations.

Camp Roberts

9780738530550

$24.99

Camp Roberts, in the Salinas Valley, is one of California's largest military training camps. Named for a heroic World War I tank driver, it took the threat of global war in 1940 to kick-start its construction. Soon Camp Roberts had a capacity to house and train 23,000 men. During the war, almost half a million men trained here. Row upon row of wooden buildings, replete with churches, stores, a hospital, and an amphitheater where A-list stars performed, made it a mobilized city of 45,000 at its peak. In 1946, it became a ghost town overnight. Revived during the Korean and Vietnam conflicts, it passed into National Guard control in 1971. However, all branches of the military continue to train here, and the camp has renewed relevance for troops bound for the Middle East.

Fort Logan

9780738575827

$24.99

For most Colorado citizens, Fort Logan usually brings to mind the large national cemetery of the same name. Often unrealized is that nearby, there are fine, substantial brick buildings that mark the remains of a once-bustling military post. Fort Logan began in 1887 and became a part of the US Army's new network of urban-type forts with strategic rail links. Located in the beginning about eight miles southwest of Denver, it variously housed important infantry, cavalry, and engineer units and later served as a key recruit and discharge center. It also once attracted Denverites to elaborate parade ceremonies, stirring band concerts, and competitive athletic events. After World War II, it became property of the State of Colorado and today is the site of the Colorado Mental Health Institute at Fort Logan.

Colorado Frontiersmen

9781467153652

$23.99

Early Icons and Landmarks As western migration came to the Colorado frontier, forts were established to protect the settlers. These forts were intertwined with the lives of the frontiersmen. Scout Thomas Tate Tobin oversaw the workers who built the adobe fortress known as Fort Garland. Here, Tobin delivered the heads of the murderous Espinosas gang to Colonel Sam Tappan. Fort Sedgwick, originally known as Camp Rankin, was attacked by the Cheyenne Dog soldiers, including George Bent. Fort Lyon, an expanded fortress of William Bent's third fort, became the staging point for Colonel John M. Chivington's march to Sand Creek where peaceful Cheyenne were murdered. Later, Christopher "Kit" Carson died in the fort's chapel. Legendary Jim Beckwourth was associated with both Fort Vasquez and Fort Pueblo. Author Linda Wommack revisits the glory and the mistakes of the frontiersmen who defined Colorado and the forts that dotted the wild landscape.

Marine Corps Air Station Miramar

9780738530581

$24.99

The U.S. Marine Corps Air Station Miramar is an essential component of America's homeland security, as aircraft from this base patrols the country's border with Mexico as well as the international waters of the open Pacific. The Marines operated part of the base during World War II, when their island-hopping campaign was crucial to Allied victory in the Far East. The Navy took over operations on the base after the war and until 1997, when the Marines regained control and established both jet and helicopter squadrons there--the aviation combat units of the 3rd Marine Air Wing and the reserves of the 4th Marine Air Wing. During the Navy years, the popular 1986 Tom Cruise movie Top Gun was filmed on the base, which is the largest singular piece of dedicated land on the City of San Diego map.

Fort Missoula

9780738599557

$24.99

Born of perceived military necessity and local economic boosterism, "the beautiful little post on the Bitterroot" provided a home for the US Army in Montana from 1877 onward. Called into service almost by accident for the 1877 Nez Perce War, Fort Missoula hosted African American Buffalo Soldiers, aviation pioneers, early military automobile mechanics, Civilian Conservation Corps workers, World War II Italian and Japanese national internees, US military prisoners, and a variety of US Army and Navy units. The base bequeathed to its community a level of sophistication and a connection to the national story unique to the American West. Fort Missoula's architectural legacy also reflects the nation's journey from frontier settlement to world power as an assortment of log structures evolved into "the Million Dollar Post."

Hamilton Field

9780738559087

$24.99

In response to the growing need for military air defense in the 1920s, a parcel of Novato farmland on the San Pablo Bay was chosen as the future site for Hamilton Field. Constructed in the early 1930s and dedicated in 1935, Hamilton was originally established as a bombardment base of the 1st Wing of the air force. The base played a pivotal role during World War II as a flight-training facility and was an official point of departure for bombardment groups heading to the Pacific. Renamed the Hamilton Air Force Base in 1947, the base is also known for its well-planned community layout and landscaping, as well as its architecturally cohesive design in the Spanish Eclectic style. Decommissioned and vacated by 1975, the former base now serves as a planned housing, business, and civic park. Hamilton remains an important historical and community asset of Novato and Marin County.