Camp Pendleton, Calif., houses a combat division and other units of the United States Marine Corps. It covers 125,000 acres (50,590 hectares), and lies 38 miles (61 kilometers) north of San Diego. It was once the site of a Spanish ranch and mission. The Marines established the camp in 1942, and named it for Major General Joseph H. Pendleton. It was the world’s largest Marine installation until 1957, when the Marine Corps commissioned the 596,000-acre (241,000-hectare) Twentynine Palms Marine Corps Base in the California desert.
