Yaphank was the home of Camp Upton, which was used as a boot camp in 1917. In 1947, the U.S. Department of War transferred the Camp Upton site to the Atomic Energy Commission, and it now serves as the home of Brookhaven National Laboratory. Before the end of World War I, more than 30,000 men received their basic training there, including songwriter Irving Berlin. It was there that Berlin composed the musical comedy revue "Yip Yip Yaphank", which had a brief run on Broadway, and wrote the patriotic tune "God Bless America".