We left Camp Pendleton for Okinawa in October, 1983. Everyone in the barracks got large sturdy cardboard boxes (UA boxes) to store whatever they weren't taking to Oki with them. The Squadron had a shed they could lock across the street from the flightline, and everything that wasn't going to Oki was stored there.
The flight to Oki was long, long, long. We got in buses and rode up to MCAS El Toro, which was in Irvine, CA. Third Marine Aircraft Wing was headquartered there, along with a lot of jet aircraft ("fast movers") units. It is closed now, along with MCAS Tustin, which was nearby, and the home to most, if not all the Medium and Heavy helicopter squadrons on the West Coast. We got on a commercial jet at El Toro and flew to Elmendorf Air Force base, AK. We all got off the plane for an hour or two while they refueled, and then we flew across the Pacific Ocean to Yokuska, Japan, and then our final leg to MCAS Futenma (pronounced "Foo-tee-mah"), Okinawa. The squadron's enlisted Marines were housed in two one story buildings at the end of a row of one story buildings for squadrons on rotation. The Staff NCOs had a few rooms in the housing set aside for them, and the officers were over at the other end of the base in the Officer Housing. Futenma had a chowhall, pool, and a small PX complex with a movie theater, PX, gym and hotdog shack. There was also a small building on the side where two little Okinawa women worked, wrapping and boxing anything that you wanted to mail home. They would take a large sheet of cardboard and cut it and fold it, and made a box the size of your item for you, from scratch. There were also little old mamasans in the barracks that you could hire for about $15 per week to wash your clothes and shine your boots. There was an enlisted club on the base near the front gate, which had a restaurant and a room full of slot machines, and a place to drink and dance. There were damn few females on Futenma, so that was nothing to get excited about.
The first thing we did after we got settled in the barracks was to go offbase and up the street a few blocks to a Mongolian barbeque restaurant. I guess it was a tradition. We were sat down, and ordered huge bottles of Sapporo beer, and then we went into this room and filled a bowl with shaved slices of lamb, chicken, beef and pork and cabbage and sprouts and peppers and all kinds of other stuff. We poured some flavored oils on the whole thing, then gave it to one of several men standing around a domed stove, with a roaring fire inside. The guy would dump the stuff on his section of the stove and chop and stir it, and when he felt it was done, would scoop it all back in your bowl and give it back. We went back to our table and there were bowls of rice beside our plates. It was all you can eat, so you could go back and try different combinations.
Camp Butler was the home of the First Marine Aircraft Wing, to which we were attached while on Oki. It was joined with Camp Foster, which was mostly a logistics base, lots of supply and maintenance units of one type or another. Camp Foster had the main Marine Corps PX, and a commissary. Navy Federal Credit Union had an office there, and at the time, about the only way you could join NFCU as a Marine was to be deployed somewhere. I joined, and am forever glad I did so. It is a great credit union, and I recommend every Marine join as soon as possible. They have great rates and give loans out to Marines when other places won't, and have offices near almost every Marine Corps base, and lots of places overseas, as well. JOIN NFCU, you won't regret it.
Kadena Air Force base is just a few miles up the island from Camp Butler, and had a much larger PX, a rec center and phones where you could call home. Air Force bases always tend to be nicer than Marine Corps ones, so they are nice to have around. We could even get in the chowhall there, which was a nice change from Futenma's chowhall. Right outside Kadena on the east side was Gate 2 street, a whole street full of shops and bars catering to the military. In some ways, they were really behind times, as the t-shirt and embroidery shops featured logos and images from Vietnam. It was kind of a time warp, and I didn't understand how they sold anything. Branching off Gate 2 street were lots of streets with "hotels". I didn't know anything, and thought that was exactly what they were. I didn't find out until my second time over that they were really whorehouses. Go figure. Of course, everyone knew about "Whisper Alley", a particular alley off Gate 2 street. As you walked down the alley, little mamasans would stand in the doorway and say, "Psst, psst, hey, Marine". Everybody had to walk down Whisper Alley at least once, just to say they had done it. The bars off Gate 2 were a rip-off. If you got pulled into one, you got sat down next to an Okinawan girl and you had to buy her drinks, at some pretty expensive rates, and which was actually fruit juice. There was usually some crappy band playing or loud music on a stereo. I did it a couple times, and it was a waste of time, so I didn't do it anymore. Bars were never my scene, anyway.
Ian and I explored the island together. We bought fins and snorkels, and dove off the seawall. We went over to Camp Butler and Kadena to the PX. Everybody picked up a hobby on Oki. Some guys bought radio-controlled aircraft, some bought bicycles, some took up scuba diving. Lots of guys bought cameras and electronics. I guess it used to be a great bargain over there, but it really wasn't by 1983, and you had to mail everything back home. I bought a Canon T-50 35mm camera and an 80-300 zoom lense. I still have that camera today, and it still works great. I have taken hundreds and hundreds of pictures with it. Never use the f-stops, just leave it on AE and focus, frame and shoot. Every picture I show here in "My Experiences" was taken with that camera.
Vote for my site at
R. Lee Ermy's website
Copyright © 2008 Cindy's Treasures.
All rights reserved.