NEW BOOK in Garey, California

This book examines the intriguing story of Camp Cooke, an Army training installation in California that sent thousands of soldiers overseas during World War II and the Korean War, and produced six Congressional Medal of Honor recipients. During the war years, Cooke hosted numerous USO camp shows featuring some of Hollywood's leading entertainers as well as many other luminaries from radio and stage.
In xxxx, the Air Force acquired the installation and a year later renamed it Vandenberg Air Force Base. It has since become America's only space and missile base. America's first spy satellite program, known as Corona (code-named Discoverer), was conducted from Vandenberg. The intelligence data collected from these missions exploded the myth of a "missile gap" with the Soviet Union. At the height of the Cold War America's first ICBM missile equipped with a nuclear warhead was based at Vandenberg.
Topping the list of important visitors to the base was President John F. Kennedy who witnessed the launch of an Atlas missile. And, as part of an unprecedented trip to the United States, Russian Premier Nikita Khrushchev passed through the base on a locomotive in xxxx.
The book is filled with many other fascinating accounts including the exposure of 1,000 Camp Cooke soldiers to above-ground atomic bomb detonations in the Nevada desert, missile accidents at Vandenberg, and the tragic death of a young airman in a training exercise that went wrong.
The appendices include biographies of Generals Cooke and Vandenberg, a list of nearly every Army unit that trained at Cooke, and a historical summary of every launch facility at Vandenberg and the types of missiles flown from these facilities up to the present. This book is the definitive history of Camp Cooke and Vandenberg AFB. Written by the former historian at Vandenberg, the detailed narrative is enriched by many rare and previously unpublished images.
284pp. Softcover (6 x 9), xxxx
102 photos, 5 maps, 7 appendices, notes, bibliography, and index.
Publisher: McFarland & Company. www.mcfarlandpub.com
Publisher's Price: $39.95
AUTHOR'S PRICE: $36.95 - Postage free
To order a signed copy of the book directly from the author for $36.95 postage free, please contact Jeffrey Geiger at this ad.
What people are saying about the book . . .
"The book is terrific." --Actress Elinor Donahue
"Excellent -- scholarly and readable" --Philip Gambone
"Geiger, a retired chief civilian historian at Vandenberg Air Force Base, recounts the history of the California base from its origins as Camp Cooke in xxxx to its development as a missile and rocket base. Drawing on US Army and other publications, he describes the search for potential sites for Camp Cooke, its construction, the arrival of the first station troops, and camp activation; its reaction to Pearl Harbor, military training, the secret radar station south of the camp, war bond rallies, civilian employees, German and Italian prisoners of war at the camp, and preparations for the invasion of Japan; the interwar years when the disciplinary barracks served as temporary caretakers for the vacant camp, and its use for grazing; the Korean War and the training of soldiers for overseas combat duty, the reopening of the Station Hospital, the soldiers who participated in atomic bomb testing at the Nevada test site, and the army's education program to overcome illiteracy in the troops; the civilian entertainment shows from the USO and other groups; the closing of the camp in xxxx and its transfer to the US Bureau of Prisons; and its transfer to the Air Force in xxxx, the missile activities, and its role in national defense." Annotation ©xxxx Ringgold, Inc., Portland, OR (protoview.com) - (Book News)