In 1836, Crosman had presented a proposal to the higher-ups in the War Department, advocating a U.S. Army Camel Core. They were unreceptive. A decade later, however, Henry Wayne was listening.

Brehm, then a student at the University of Redlands in California, was a top of a camel in a remote desert in India when his party stopped for lunch and a much-needed break from the 100-degree heat.