Desert Oracle Radio, the voice of the desert.

Night has fallen on the desert.

Strange times in the old Bear Republic, the state of California.

Where I happen to be out by the 29 Palms Marine Corps base when the news of the rumored deployment hit the Morongo Basin, very exciting.

In a place that doesn't make the news too much.

I'm close enough to the base to see the eerie flare drops on moonless nights now and then.

Sometimes I'll be out walking on a summer night in these little mountains,

the little San Bernardino Mountains being the official name for these charming desert foothills.

And I'll spot a couple of the flares and get myself in a good position to watch them drop and light up.

Making these bright constellation patterns low in the twilight sky.

And beneath them, there are hundreds or maybe thousands of Marines engaged in wild war games,

with tanks and dust clouds and air cover and combat ground troops,

just crazy stuff.

The dust rising in columns and columns in the light,

the rough terrain and the dry lake bed,

the confusion of radio chatter, the madness and excitement.

From around this desert Marine Corps base on this early summer night, I heard the same rumors we all did out here of troop carriers, buses, full of Marines with full kit ready to go.

I've been deeply annoyed to be called back early on a Saturday night.

I heard that from Ocean Side, too.

Well, that's when I got to know the Marines a little bit, the Marine Corps.

I was a newspaper reporter, you know, for a couple of decades, a long time.

And the newspaper where I worked the longest was the old Blade Citizen, formerly the Evening Blade Tribune,

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