The Marine Corps Air Ground Combat Center (MCAGCC), also known as 29 Palms, is the largest United States Marine Corps base. The base covers a total area of 596,288 acres (931.7 sq mi).
It was a census-designated place (CDP) officially known as Twentynine Palms Base located adjacent to the city of Twentynine Palms in southern San Bernardino County, California. As of the 2000 census, the base had a total population of 8,413. The zip code of the base is 92278; base housing's zip code is 92277. The CDP was discontinued prior to the 2010 census.
History
From 1942 through July 1944, during World War II, the airfield at Twentynine Palms was utilized by the U.S. Army Air Force for primary flight training. What is now the "Marine Corps Air Ground Combat Center" was taken over by the Eleventh Naval District, headquartered in San Diego, as Naval Auxiliary Air Station Twentynine Palms, in July 1944. After the war, its future was uncertain. Then, on August 20, 1952, Marine Corps Base Camp Pendleton Headquarters issued Post Order 343 creating the Marine Corps Training Center, Twentynine Palms.
During the Korean War, it became obvious that more live-fire training ranges were needed. Pendleton's Marines looked to 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 designated on February 6, 1953, as Marine Corps Training Center, Twentynine Palms. By February 1, 1957, it grew to base status and was 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 base. The exercise gave Marines a glimpse of the facility's potential and foreshadowed the large-scale combined arms exercises for which the base is 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. Following completion of the expeditionary airfield, its name was changed to Marine Corps Air Ground Combat Training Center on October 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 combined arms exercises 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, Colonel Verle E. Ludwig, "Twentynine Palms was to be a permanent 'combined-arms exercise college' for all of the Marine Corps."
On October 1, 2000, after 21 years as MCAGCC, the command was designated as Marine Air Ground Task Force Training Command, Twentynine Palms, California. This 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. The expeditionary airfield and surrounding spartan accommodations for visiting units was named "Camp Wilson".
The base is currently home to one of the largest military training areas in the nation. 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 deploying to Iraq were trained at Mojave Viper or a mixed training venue using the Mountain Warfare Training Center (south of Lake Tahoe) for Afghanistan. Live fire exercises, artillery, tank, and close air support training are used for training, in addition to the sprawling "Combat Town," a fabricated Middle Eastern village, complete with a mosque, native role-players, an "IED Alley," and other immersive touches.
In August 2008, the Marine Corps submitted a land withdrawal application to the Bureau of Land Management for approximately contiguous to base as part of an ongoing study by the Marine Corps for possible base expansion, along with the establishment of corresponding special-use airspace, necessary to train a Marine expeditionary brigade at the Combat Center.