Postcard from Yuma

This image of an old portable missile launcher was taken at the Yuma Proving Grounds…the part that is accessible to civilians. It is an outdoor museum of weaponry dating from World War II all the way up to Vietnam. There may be even more modern weapons in the collection, but I can’t recall off the top of my head.

Believe it or not the Yuma Proving Ground (known to the locals as YPG), is one of the largest military installations in the world. It is mainly used for testing military equipment and encompasses over 1,300 square miles in the northwestern Sonoran Desert.

The proving ground conducts tests on nearly every weapon system in the ground combat arsenal. Munitions and artillery systems are tested here in an area almost completely removed from urban encroachment and noise concerns. Restricted airspace controlled by the test center amounts to over 2,000 square miles.

According to an article I read, every year, over 500,000 artillery, mortar and missile rounds are fired, 36,000 parachute drops take place, 200,000 miles are driven on military vehicles, and over 4000 air sorties are flown from the proving ground’s Laguna Army Airfield. Though about 90 percent of the proving ground's workload is devoted to the test and evaluation of weapon systems and munitions, dozens of units visit the proving ground each year for realistic desert training, especially before deploying overseas.

In short it is quite a place. I am just glad they have a museum where photographers and weaponry aficionados can go to see weapons that are part of our country’s history. It was fun creating this image in Photoshop with the help of several different plug-ins. God, how I love digital photography.

(To see a larger version of this photo, just click on the image)

To see more of my work, both in photography and digital painting, please visit my website, www.corkrum.com

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