Why a Naval base in the California desert?

Piper, Karen,  A Girl's Guide to Missiles: Growing Up in America's Secret Desert.  New York:
         Viking, 2018.  ISBN: 9780399564543

 Karen Piper won awards for writing on water and climate issues, but in A Girl's Guide to Missiles, she delves into her past to try and make sense of her present.  She had hit a point in her life where a trip down memory lane would help her make sense of why she is where she is, why she thinks as she does, and make sense of several mysteries that have bugged her for years. 

Piper frames her biography with a trip back to China Lake Research Base to visit the petroglyphs found in the desert with her mother.  She provides a brief history of China Lake which opened as a rocket design base during World War II.  In 1973, the Pipers moved to China Lake from Seattle (WA) which was quite an adjustment especially since they moved into base housing.  Life got better later when they moved off-base to a local town.  But the base was the focus of their lives, especially since both parents worked there (One worked on the Sidewinder while the other worked on the Tomahawk missile).  Later Karen works at the base during summer vacations as a teenager and college student.  She provides a sense of what life was like in China Lake during the Carter. Reagan, and Bush years with details that will remind baby boomers of those times.

But what about the mystery she wrote the book to solve?  In the end she does come to a conclusion when she finally gets the courage to visit her father's grave site.  She spent her life hunting for her father's back story, especially what he had done during World War II.  During the course of solving that mystery, she also found out the backstory of China Lake, the part it played in missile development, the Cold War, and every war since WWII.   And she thinks she got a grasp on her life, so she can move forward.

In a meandering, but ultimately mesmerizing story, Karen Piper uses her family as a way to use the reader's sense of place and time to discuss issues of history, geography, religion, and education.  Baby boomers will wax nostalgic at reminders of their past while others will shake their heads over secrets hidden in plain sight.