The Great Diamond Hunt continues with the military

Yuma's military history can be traced back more than 150 years and has played an vital role in making the area what it is today.

In 1846, during the war between Mexico and the United States, Col. Stephen W. Kearny, who was in command of the 1st United States Dragoon Regiment, led his army across the Colorado River near Pilot Knob on his way to California to claim it for the United States.

Today Yuma is the home to several military installations, museums and training grounds, including Marine Corps Air Station Yuma and Yuma Proving Ground.

Military training

Early in World War II, the War Department realized that troops needed to be trained to handle the rigors of battle in rough terrain and inhospitable climates, and the Yuma area was ideal as a simulated theater of operation.

In 1942, Gen. George S. Patton established the Arizona-California maneuver area, which spanned Yuma and included Camps Young, Laguna and Horn.

Those camps trained nearly a million American service men and women and was the world's largest military installation in both size and population. In fact, 10 of the 35 Army divisions credited with liberating concentration camps in World War II were trained in this region.

Yuma Proving Ground

Modern military equipment testing in Yuma can be traced back to 1943, when the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers opened the Yuma Test Branch. The test site was located on the Colorado River below Imperial Dam for the purpose of testing new bridge designs, boats, vehicles and well-drilling equipment for the Allied Armies during World War II. This eventually became Yuma Proving Ground.

Last year, YPG racked up 2.77 million direct labor hours while conducting military tests in Yuma and around the globe. It accounted for 30 percent of the Army's total test workload with evaluations conducted in Yuma, Alaska, Panama and Suriname. It is the country's premier facility for testing military equipment

The Heritage Center at YPG, which is open from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. weekdays, preserves and shares the history of the U.S. Army in the area. Admission to the museum is free but to get on to base will require a picture ID, vehicle registration and proof of insurance. For more information, call 328-3394.

Marine Corps Air Station Yuma

MCAS Yuma began as a civilian airport named Fly Field with temporary dirt runways back in 1928. The installation was taken over by the Army Air Corps at the outbreak of World War II and renamed Yuma Army Airfield.

The site of one of the busiest flying schools in the nation, it graduated pilots by the hundreds. At the end of the war, all flight activity here ceased and the area was partially reclaimed by the desert.

On July 7, 1951, the Air Force reactivated and operated the base until it was signed over to the Navy on Jan. 1, 1959. On Jan. 10, it became the newly designated Marine Corps Auxiliary Air Station. Then on July 20, 1962, the designation of the installation was changed to the Marine Corps Air Station.

MCAS Yuma is now home to four squadrons of AV-8B Harrier IIs of the 3rd Marine Aircraft Wing — VMA 211, 214, 311 and 513 — Marine Aviation Weapons and Tactics Squadron 1 (MAWTS-1) and Marine Fighter Training Squadron 401 (VMFT-401), an air combat adversary squadron of the 4th Marine Aircraft Wing of the Marine Corps Reserve. It is the busiest air station in the Marine Corps and the third busiest in the Navy.

MCAS Yuma recently began building for the future in preparation for the arrival of the new vertical takeoff F-35B Joint Strike Fighter, which will begin arriving in phases starting in September.

One of the Marine Corps' premier aviation training bases, with access to 2.8 million acres of bombing and aviation training ranges, and superb flying weather, MCAS Yuma supports 80 percent of the Corps' air-to-ground aviation training. Each year, the air station hosts numerous units and aircraft from U.S. and NATO forces.

Remembering the past

Yuma's rich history can be seen at the Yuma Quartermaster Depot which, established in 1864, was once used by the U.S. Army to store and distribute supplies for all the military posts in Arizona, Nevada, Utah, New Mexico and Texas and was an active military installation during the Civil War.

Five of the original depot buildings remain on the park grounds. Four of them contain exhibits that cover both the military history of the site and the history of the U.S. Bureau of Reclamation's construction of major irrigation works in the Yuma area during the early 1900s.

And the Armed Forces Park, 281 Gila St., is filled with several tiered walls covered in black plaques honoring members of the military, past and present. It is the only park of its kind in the state.

James Gilbert can be reached at jgilbert@yumasun.com or 539-6854. Find him on Facebook at www.Facebook.com/YSJamesGilbert or on Twitter @YSJamesGilbert.