More on Victorville

Victorville was the site of George Air Force Base from 1941 to 1992-a front-line United States Air Force base until its closure.  The federal government in an effort to help Victorville recover from the base’s closure, helped to create a logistics center here on the base, which is now called the Southern California Logistics Airport or SCLA.  The center was designed to provide major corporations who have logistics needs, access to a global intermodal logistics gateway to the Western United States.  Train facilities and Interstate 15 are readily available to the multitude of warehouses situated here on a 5000-acre complex located only twenty miles away from San Bernardino.

Additionally, the airport runway at 15, 059 feet is the second longest public-use runway in the United States.  Only Denver International Airport has a longer runway.  Troops en route to the Army’s National Training Center at Fort Irwin are brought through SCLA-the main transportation hub for 70,000 troops per year.  The airport has proven to be the safest and most efficient site for this military activity.  This is also home to a heavily modified McDonell Douglas DC-10 Air Tanker used to fight forest fires any where in California.  There is also an aircraft “boneyard” located here. 

Not far away down the street is the United States Penitentiary at Victorville for around 960 high-security male inmates.  In 1984 parole for Federal inmates was abolished for anyone convicted from that date forward.  The prison houses murderers, gang members, a body guard for a Mexican drug lord and a leader of a spy ring to describe just a few of those housed there.

As of last year there was an unemployment rate in this town of 12% and we have seen numerous homeless encampments.  But there are also beautiful new housing developments and a large, newer complex of mall shopping options along Interstate-15 just a few miles southwest of us toward a town called Hesperia.  So far our experiences here have been pleasant and we are looking forward to getting inspections here done tomorrow and Tuesday before heading up the road to Barstow.