Coming "Home" to Yermo

At some point in a person's life, there may be a desire to rekindle memories by visiting a childhood home.  After living in nearby Riverside, Calif. for nearly five decades, attorney Christopher Carpenter decided it was time to come "home" to Marine Corps Logistics Base Barstow, Calif., Yermo Annex.

Although he was only four years old when his father, Navy Lt. William E. Carpenter, was stationed there during World War II, he wanted to see if there were any physical memories left.  He also wanted to donate his family photos from those years to the historical gallery in the Public Affairs Building 204.

"It was an Army installation then," said Carpenter.  "It was called Yermo H&R Point (Holding and Reconsignment Point, under the Office of the Chief of Transportation)."  His father handled transportation logistics, coordinating with ports in Los Angeles and Long Beach to move equipment to the Pacific theatre of operations.

"We lived on base from summer of 1944 to May 1945," said Carpenter.   Then the family, which included his younger sister Carol and mother Margaret, moved off-post before his brother was born.  He showed a photograph of his family next to the Yermo swimming pool, which no longer exists.  Taking black-and-white photographs from his album's pages, he left several of them with the public affairs office.

"My kids wouldn't know what to do with them," he said, thinking of posterity.  "They'll have more meaning here."

Carpenter took a driving tour of Yermo Annex, now the Production Plant Barstow, Marine Depot Maintenance Command, and Fleet Support Division.  Leaving from the Nebo back gate down old U.S. Route 66, Carpenter toured the storage yards and buildings, but said he did not recognize anything from his childhood. It was all gone.

"I was surprised there was nothing left from World War II," he said. 

However, he was impressed with the extent of the rail operations at the base, and promised to bring his brother, a railroad buff, on his next visit. 

Yermo H&R Point was activated by the War Department on July 22, 1942 to regulate the flow of supplies into West Coast ports.  Units stationed there were 359th and 362st Quartermaster Service Companies, and the 7907th Service Command Unit.  Italian POW units were also housed there during the war. 

Carpenter remembers the POWs well.  "They were quite visible, picking up trash and filling oil drums," he said.  "They patted us on the head and called us 'bambinos' and made a fuss over us."

According to the National Archives, eight acres of the Yermo land was sold to the Los Angeles Railroad Company March 16, 1944 for $128.50.   The H&R activities were discontinued on Sept. 30, 1945 and the property, facilities, and supplies transferred to the jurisdiction of The Quartermaster General as the Yermo Quartermaster Subdepot.  In Oct. 1946 the facility was annexed to Marine Corps Depot of Supplies, and renamed Marine Corps Logistics Base Barstow in Nov. 1978.