Yuma Test Center Commander Kevin Hicks Keynotes 30th Camp Bouse Days

Lt. Col. Kevin Hicks, commander of the U.S. Army Yuma Test Center, returned as keynote speaker for the 30th annual Camp Bouse Days commemoration held in Bouse, La Paz County. The ceremony took place Saturday, Feb. 14, 2026, and Hicks reiterated YTC’s growing role in Army modernization during remarks published by Army Mil and posted with a DVIDS photo by Mark Schauer.

“I’m proud that the work done at Yuma Test Center today is at the forefront of current Army modernization efforts,” Hicks said. “The Secretary of War recently designated Yuma Test Center as the primary, dedicated interagency Counter-small Unmanned Aerial Systems test and training range. It is an effort that I feel is in keeping with the spirit of each generation of Soldiers that has served, from those of ‘The Greatest Generation’ who saved the world during World War II, to all that served in the following decades.” Hicks served as the ceremony’s keynote for the second consecutive year.

The ceremony emphasized YTC’s direct lineage to World War II activity in the region; Yuma Test Center is identified as the last active Army installation within the World War II-era Arizona Desert Maneuver Area, of which Camp Bouse was a part. The commemoration materials recalled that at Camp Bouse Soldiers tested the Canal Defense Light, “a 13 million candlepower arc searchlight mounted in the turret of an M3 tank at Camp Bouse.” The Army Mil copy notes the Canal Defense Light system was never fielded and that at the time the project “constituted the second-most secret Army program after the Manhattan Project.”

Army Mil and DVIDS published photography and captioning by Mark Schauer documenting the event; the DVIDS image metadata lists Photo ID 9522742 and VIRIN 260214-A-GD561-8961, with the image taken and posted on 02.14.2026 and a resolution of 3648x2432 at a file size of 1.69 MB. DVIDS shows the image location as BOUSE, ARIZONA, US and records 8 web views and 0 downloads as of the posting. The DVIDS entry also carries a public domain notice and notes that usage must comply with restrictions shown on the DVIDS site; the specific restriction URL was not included in the supplied caption extract.

Social reposts circulated on Instagram and Facebook restated the same keynote details, though one Facebook excerpt identified Hicks as “Col. Kevin Hicks” while Army Mil and DVIDS list him as Lt. Col. Kevin Hicks; the majority of official material and the photographer attribution use the Lt. Col. designation. The Army Mil story and the DVIDS photograph together provide the primary public record of the Feb. 14 commemoration in Bouse.

The Yuma Test Center remains tied to U.S. Army Yuma Proving Ground operations and, by Hicks’ account at the ceremony, now carries an official interagency Counter-small Unmanned Aerial Systems test and training mission. La Paz County residents, veterans and local officials who want the official text and photographs can review the Army Mil release and the DVIDS photo entry for the Feb. 14, 2026 Camp Bouse commemoration.