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During World War II, hundreds of military training installations were built throughout the United States to prepare servicemen for the rigors of overseas combat. One such installation was Camp Cooke in California, which since 1957 has become an internationally recognized missile and rocket base renamed Vandenberg Air Force Base. Established some 150 miles north of Los Angeles, Cooke was designed for armored divisions, but by the end of the war hundreds of other specialized organizations also trained at the camp. With the outbreak of the Korean War, Cooke supported Army National Guard and reserve units. Its large 1,350-bed hospital also cared for war evacuees, and Army medical cases from other parts of the globe. The camp attracted some of Hollywood’s leading performers and many more from radio and stage. In 1958, a year after the Air Force acquired the northern half of Cooke/Vandenberg, the Navy received the southern portion and established a missile test range that extended past Hawaii. After an uneasy six-year relationship, the Navy transferred these properties to the Air Force in 1965. A year later the Air Force increased the size of the base to more than 99,000 acres.
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