Camp Kearny: Where the Doughboys Trained

When the United States entered World War One in nineteen seventeen, the Army needed training camps fast. Camp Kearny appeared almost overnight on the mesa north of San Diego, named for General Stephen Kearny, the officer who had seized California from Mexico during the Mexican-American War. At its peak the camp held tens of thousands of soldiers, making it one of the largest military training installations on the West Coast.

The troops trained here included elements of the fortieth Infantry Division, later called the Sunshine Division, which deployed to Europe. After the armistice the camp was shuttered, then reactivated during World War Two before finally being decommissioned in nineteen forty-six. The land was subdivided into the neighborhoods of Kearny Mesa, Linda Vista, and later Miramar, names that still trace the outlines of what was once a city of tents and training grounds.