the post was activated on december 2, 1942, initially designated as arlington staging area and arlington special training center, and renamed camp anza on december 12, 1942. camp anza was a large army base with 512 buildings housing 20,000 troops. over 600,000 troops were processed over the three years of use. the camp had over a hundred wood barracks. also built were: headquarters, recreation rooms, chapel, laundry building, southern pacific railroad station, library, fire station, newspaper print room ("anza zip"), 2,000 seat outdoor theater, water storage tower, motor pool, heating plant, and mess halls. bob hope, jack benny and eddie cantor often entertained troops there. "the pepsodent show starring bob hope", a radio shows was broadcast from the camp one night. most troops at the camp were shipped out at the los angeles port of embarkation at camp ross. before departing troops had immunizations, gas masks training, complete a will, rope ladder climbing training, recorded personal property, and at hole lake "abandoned ship" training. possessing took eight to ten days before shipping out to the pacific war. on august, 1945 returning troops started to arrive at camp anza. to serve the troops the camp also had an army camp hospital. the 8th italian quartermaster service company, one of many italian service units worked at camp anza.