Camp Coxcomb

The bronze here was not put up by the state. Billy Holcomb Clampers, veterans of the 6th Armored Division and the 7th Armored Division Association placed it on Armistice Day 1989, and having written the camp's history themselves they spent the last of the space on this: the 6th Armored was named a liberating unit for Buchenwald, 11 April 1945. Men who learned the desert on this flat opened that gate. The camp was canvas, up from spring 1942 until the centre closed in 1944.

What the plaque says

Camp Coxcomb was established at this site in the spring of 1942. It was one of fifteen such camps built in the Southwestern desert to harden and train United States troops for service on the battlefields of World War II. The Desert Training Center was a simulated theater of operations that included portions of California, Arizona and Nevada. The other camps were Young, Granite, Iron Mountain, Ibis, Clipper, Pilot Knob, Laguna, Horn, Hyder, Bouse and Rice. A total of thirteen Infantry Divisions and seven Armored Divisions plus numerous smaller units were trained in this harsh environment. The training center was in operation for almost 2 years and was closed early in 1944 when the last units were shipped overseas. During the brief period of operation over one million American soldiers were trained for combat. The Sixth Armored Division was declared a liberating unit by the US Army's Center of Military History and the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum for the liberation of the Buchenwald concentration camp on April 11, 1945. This monument is dedicated to all the soldiers that served here and especially for those who gave their lives in battle, ending the Holocaust and defeating the armed forces of Nazi Germany, Fascist Italy and Imperial Japan.

Where it stands

More markers nearby

• Camp Iron Mountain — 14 mi