Volume 11 , Issue 28

Camp Cooke, California Oct. 5, 1941

1941, 5 October ... United States Army activated Camp Cooke, California. Used during World War II as an armored and infantry training site. Now site of Vandenburg AFB. The year 1941 brought with it the beginnings of unprecedented change to California's picturesque Central Coast.

Once a haven for wild game and cattle grazing, some 86,000 acres of open lands in the Lompoc-Guadalupe-Santa Maria triangle passed to the United States Army, and practically overnight became the site of a huge military encampment called Camp Cooke. As a training center for armored and infantry troops, young recruits assigned to Cooke were forged into combat-ready soldiers and shipped overseas for duty against German and Japanese forces.

After the war and a short period of inactivation, the installation was called up again for the Korean War in 1950. Between the wars and as late as January 1957, the military reservation had reverted to its previous use for cattle and sheep grazing.

Transformation of Camp Cooke into the nation's first space and ballistic missile operational and training base began in 1957 when it was transferred to the United States Air Force. In the proceeding year it was renamed Vandenberg Air Force Base.
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