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The United States Marine Corps base at Futenma is located in the city of Ginowan on the island of Okinawa at 26.27° N 127.76° E. Its ICAO airport code is ROTM. It is home to around 4,000 Marines and has been a key US military airbase since the island was occupied by the Americans in 1945.
The base includes a 2,800 meter-long runway as well as extensive housing, administrative and logistical facilities. The Marine Corps Air Station is tasked with operating a variety of fixed and rotary-wing aircraft in support of the III Marine Expeditionary Force. The base is also used as a United Nations air facility, but the rent of the base is paid for entirely by the United States government.
MCAS Futenma is a key American air-base where Marine Corps pilots and aircrew are assigned for training, providing the air complement to other land-based Marines in Okinawa, and to help fulfil the 1952 treaty commitment of the United States to defend Japan. But noise and air pollution from the base has become a controversial issue in Ginowan City. In 1997, it was decided that the base should be relocated to a more expensive but much quieter off-shore location at Henoko. This was, and remains, an extremely controversial decision, since the base is to be constructed on a living coral reef, and in a 1997 referendum, a majority of local people voted against it. Construction has yet to begin, and at present it is the subject of an international Greenpeace campaign.
Base to move
The governments of the United States and Japan agreed on October 26, 2005 to move the base from the south of Okinawa Island to the more northerly Camp Schwab. Thousands of Marines will relocate, affecting the retail economy near both bases. The move is partly an attempt to relieve tension between Okinawa locals and the soldiers. Protests from environmental groups and residents over the construction of part of a runway at Camp Schwab, and from businessmen and politicians around Futenma and Henoko, are likely.
External links
The content of this page is retrieved from http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Marine_Corps_Air_Station_Futenma under GFDL
