An examination of how military groups employ simulation, role-playing, and performance to deliver training required to operate in the extreme conditions of combat.
Read MoreDesert Deployment: Southern California’s World War II Desert Training Center
U.S. Army Photograph, 1942. Courtesy of the General Patton Memorial Museum.
Thirty miles east of Indio, California in a largely uninhabited desert landscape, sits the largest military training ground in U.S. history, though you might not have heard of it.
Read MoreDrawing the Twentynine Palms Marine Corps Air Ground Combat Center
Incendiary Traces led a recent draw-in at the 29 Palms Marine Corps Air Ground Combat Center where participants used drawing as a tool for connecting the SoCal landscape to foreign battle zones.
Read MoreThe Simulators
29 Palms Marine Corps Air Ground Combat Center | Photo courtesy of Incendiary Traces
After participating in the Incendiary Traces visit to the 29 Palms Marine Base, writer David Buuck contributes an excerpt from a novel about role players in a military training scenario.
Read MoreHarem Girls and Camel Races: Middle Eastern Fantasies in the Deserts of Southern California
Riverside County Fair and National Date Festival Pamphlet, 1952 | Courtesy of the California History Room, California State Library, Sacramento, California
The towns in the eastern side of the Coachella Valley have long utilized romanticized portrayals of the Middle East to shape views of their own desert backyard.
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