Marine Corps Base Hawaii (
MCBH), formerly
Marine Corps Air Station, Kaneohe Bay and originally Naval Air Station Kaneohe Bay, is a
U.S. Marine CorpsThe United States Marine Corps is a branch of the United States Armed Forces responsible for providing power projection from the sea, using the mobility of the United States Navy to deliver combined-arms task forces rapidly. It is one of seven uniformed services of the United States...
base facility and air station located on the Mokapu Peninsula of windward
O'ahuOahu or Oahu , known as "The Gathering Place", is the third largest of the Hawaiian Islands and most populous of the islands in the U.S. state of Hawaii. The state capital Honolulu is located on the southeast coast...
in the
City & County of HonoluluThe City and County of Honolulu is a consolidated city–county located in the U.S. state of Hawaii. The municipality and county includes both the urban district of Honolulu and the rest of the island of Oahu, as well as several minor outlying islands, including all of the Northwestern Hawaiian...
. As of the 2000 Census, the base had a total population of 11,827. Marine Corps Base Hawaii, Kaneohe Bay is home to Marines, Sailors, their family members, and civilian employees. The United States Marine Corps operates a 7800 feet (2,377.4 m)
runwayAccording to ICAO a runway is a "defined rectangular area on a land aerodrome prepared for the landing and take-off of aircraft." Runways may be a man-made surface or a natural surface .- Orientation and dimensions :Runways are named by a number between 01 and 36, which is generally one tenth...
at the base.
MCBH is home for Combat Logistics Battalion 3, the
3rd Marine RegimentThe 3rd Marine Regiment is an infantry regiment of the United States Marine Corps based at Marine Corps Base Hawaii. They fall under the 3rd Marine Division and the III Marine Expeditionary Force.-Current units:...
,
Marine Aircraft Group 24Marine Aircraft Group 24 is a United States Marine Corps aviation unit based at Marine Corps Air Facility Kaneohe Bay that is currently composed of three CH-53D Sea Stallion squadrons, a personnel support detachment and a maintenance and logistics squadron...
and
3rd Radio BattalionRadio Battalions are tactical electronic warfare units of the United States Marine Corps. There are currently three operational Radio Battalions in the Marine Corps organization: 1st, 2nd, and 3rd...
.
The base lies between the two largest windward O'ahu communities of Kailua and Kāne'ohe and the main gate is reached at the eastern end of
Interstate H-3Interstate H-3 is an intrastate Interstate Highway located on the island of O'ahu in the state of Hawai'i in the United States. H-3 is also known as the John A. Burns Freeway...
. The main access to the base is by either H-3 or by Mokapu Road. MCB Hawaii is located on the windward side of Oahu, approximately 12 miles (19.3 km) northeast of Honolulu. Marine Corps Base Hawaii, occupies the entire Mokapu Peninsula, of 2951 acres (11.9 km²). Two areas of the base are classified conservation land which includes the Ulupau Crater area (north east peninsula) and the Nuupia Pond area (at the Mokapu Road).
History
In 1918, President Woodrow Wilson designated 322 acres (1.3 km²) of land on Mokapu Peninsula for the military. The Kuwaahoe Military Reservation, became known later, in 1942 as “
Fort Hase”. In 1941, Army artillery units moved into the area. In 1939, the Navy constructed a small seaplane base and upon its completion, Naval Air Station Kaneohe Bay's role was expanded to include the administration of the Kaneohe Bay Naval Defense Sea Area.
Attack on Pearl Harbor
On December 7, 1941, Naval Air Station Kaneohe Bay was attacked approximately 9 minutes prior to the
attack on Pearl HarborThe attack on Pearl Harbor was a surprise military strike conducted by the Imperial Japanese Navy against the United States naval base at Pearl Harbor, Hawaii, on the morning of December 7, 1941...
.
Post WWII
In 1951, the Marines assumed control of the air station activities when naval aviation moved to
Barbers Point Naval Air StationKalaeloa Airport , also called John Rodgers Field and formerly Naval Air Station Barbers Point, is a joint civil-military regional airport of the State of Hawaii established on July 1, 1999 to replace the Ford Island NALF facilities which closed on June 30 of the same year...
. On January 15, 1952
Marine Corps Air Station Kaneohe BayMarine Corps Air Station Kaneohe Bay or MCAS Kaneohe Bay is a United States Marine Corps airfield located within the Marine Corps Base Hawaii complex, formerly known as Marine Corps Air Facility Kaneohe Bay or Naval Air Station Kaneohe Bay...
was commissioned. On 15 April 1994, the Marine Corps consolidated all of its installations in Hawaii. MCAS Kaneohe Bay,
Camp H. M. SmithCamp H. M. Smith is a United States Marine Corps installation in the Hawaiian town of Aiea on the island of Oahu, near the community of Halawa Heights...
, Molokai Training Support Facility, Manana Family Housing Area, Puuloa Range, and the Pearl City Warehouse Annex combined to form a new command, the Marine Corps Base Hawaii, headquartered at MCBH Kaneohe Bay.
All U.S. military units located in Hawaii fall under the command of the U.S. Pacific Command (
USPACOMThe United States Pacific Command is a Unified Combatant Command of the United States armed forces responsible for the Pacific Ocean area. It is led by the Commander, Pacific Command , who is the supreme military authority for the various branches of the Armed Forces of the United States serving...
) which is headquartered at
Camp H. M. SmithCamp H. M. Smith is a United States Marine Corps installation in the Hawaiian town of Aiea on the island of Oahu, near the community of Halawa Heights...
on Oahu. The Commanding General of Marine Forces Pacific (MARFORPAC) also commands 12 Marine Corps bases and stations in
ArizonaArizona ; is a state located in the southwestern region of the United States. It is also part of the western United States and the mountain west. The capital and largest city is Phoenix...
,
CaliforniaCalifornia is a state located on the West Coast of the United States. It is by far the most populous U.S. state, and the third-largest by land area...
,
HawaiiHawaii is the newest of the 50 U.S. states , and is the only U.S. state made up entirely of islands. It is the northernmost island group in Polynesia, occupying most of an archipelago in the central Pacific Ocean, southwest of the continental United States, southeast of Japan, and northeast of...
and
JapanJapan is an island nation in East Asia. Located in the Pacific Ocean, it lies to the east of the Sea of Japan, China, North Korea, South Korea and Russia, stretching from the Sea of Okhotsk in the north to the East China Sea and Taiwan in the south...
, operational forces in Hawaii and
Okinawa Prefectureis one of Japan's southern prefectures. It consists of hundreds of the Ryukyu Islands in a chain over long, which extends southwest from Kyūshū to Taiwan. Okinawa's capital, Naha, is located in the southern part of Okinawa Island...
, and units deployed to
SoutheastSoutheast Asia, South-East Asia, South East Asia or Southeastern Asia is a subregion of Asia, consisting of the countries that are geographically south of China, east of India, west of New Guinea and north of Australia. The region lies on the intersection of geological plates, with heavy seismic...
/
west AsiaWestern Asia, West Asia, Southwest Asia or Southwestern Asia are terms that describe the westernmost portion of Asia. The terms are partly coterminous with the Middle East, which describes a geographical position in relation to Western Europe rather than its location within Asia...
.
The base is less than a mile north of
Plantation EstatePlantation Estate is a single-story wood frame Pacific Ocean-front house at 55 Kailuana Place in Kailua, Honolulu County, Hawaii that Barack Obama rented to be used as a Winter White House during Christmas break vacations in 2008, 2009 and 2010....
where
Barack ObamaBarack Hussein Obama II is the 44th and current President of the United States. He is the first African American to hold the office. Obama previously served as a United States Senator from Illinois, from January 2005 until he resigned following his victory in the 2008 presidential election.Born in...
has set up his
Winter White HouseA "Winter White House" is typically the name given to the regular winter vacation residence of the standing President of the United States aside from Camp David, the mountain-based military camp in Frederick County, Maryland, used as a country retreat and for high-alert protection of the President...
during Christmas break visits in 2008, 2009 and 2010. During his visits Obama works out at the base and attends various dinners.
Geography
MCBH is located at 21°26′37"N 157°44′56"W (21.443580, -157.748883).
According to the
United States Census BureauThe United States Census Bureau is the government agency that is responsible for the United States Census. It also gathers other national demographic and economic data...
, the base has a total area of 5.8 square miles (15.1 km²), of which, 4.4 square miles (11.4 km²) of it is land and 1.4 square miles (3.7 km²) of it (24.74%) is water.
Demographics
As of the
censusA census is the procedure of systematically acquiring and recording information about the members of a given population. It is a regularly occurring and official count of a particular population. The term is used mostly in connection with national population and housing censuses; other common...
of 2000, there were 11,827 people, 2,332 households, and 2,283 families residing on the base. The
population densityPopulation density is a measurement of population per unit area or unit volume. It is frequently applied to living organisms, and particularly to humans...
was 2,696.2 people per square mile (1,040.2/km²). There were 2,388 housing units at an average density of 544.4/sq mi (210.0/km²). The racial makeup of the base was 66.6% White, 12.1%
African AmericanAfrican Americans are citizens or residents of the United States who have at least partial ancestry from any of the native populations of Sub-Saharan Africa and are the direct descendants of enslaved Africans within the boundaries of the present United States...
, 1.1% Native American, 5.3%
AsiaAsia is the world's largest and most populous continent, located primarily in the eastern and northern hemispheres. It covers 8.7% of the Earth's total surface area and with approximately 3.879 billion people, it hosts 60% of the world's current human population...
n, 1.2% Pacific Islander, 7.6% from other races, and 6.1% from two or more races. 14.6% of the population were Hispanic or
LatinoThe demonyms Latino and Latina , are defined in English language dictionaries as:* "a person of Latin-American descent."* "A Latin American."* "A person of Hispanic, especially Latin-American, descent, often one living in the United States."...
of any race.
There were 2,332 households out of which 66.7% have children under the age of 18 living with them, 93.0% were
married couplesMarriage is a social union or legal contract between people that creates kinship. It is an institution in which interpersonal relationships, usually intimate and sexual, are acknowledged in a variety of ways, depending on the culture or subculture in which it is found...
living together, 3.7% have a female householder with no husband present, and 2.1% were non-families. 1.5% of all households were made up of individuals and none had someone living alone who was 65 years of age or older. The average household size was 3.21 and the average family size was 3.23.
On the base the population was spread out with 24.0% under the age of 18, 43.5% from 18 to 24, 31.0% from 25 to 44, 1.4% from 45 to 64, and 0.1% who were 65 years of age or older. The median age was 22 years. For every 100 females there were 202.6 males. For every 100 females age 18 and over, there were 258.8 males.
The median income for a household on the base was $34,757, and the median income for a family was $34,918. Males had a median income of $16,436 versus $21,108 for females. The
per capita incomePer capita income or income per person is a measure of mean income within an economic aggregate, such as a country or city. It is calculated by taking a measure of all sources of income in the aggregate and dividing it by the total population...
for the base was $12,983. About 6.2% of families and 7.2% of the population were below the poverty line, including 9.8% of those under the age of 18 and none of those 65 and older.
Renewable Energy and "Green" Initiatives
Since 2004, MCBH has partnered with Ocean Power Technologies, Inc. to test the
generation of electric power from ocean wavesWave power is the transport of energy by ocean surface waves, and the capture of that energy to do useful work — for example, electricity generation, water desalination, or the pumping of water...
using a "PowerBuoy" wave energy converter, one of the first wave power projects in the U.S.
Marine Corps Base Hawaii, under current commanding officer Col. Robert Rice, has stopped using plastic shopping bags aboard the installation, installed solar water heaters on all base housing units, and on Dec. 8, 2010, will debut a "Net Zero" sustainable energy home which uses solar power. The base fleet of government vehicles is also being changed over to hybrid and electric vehicles and most other "FlexFuel" vehicles now operate on E85 ethanol-based fuel. MCB Hawaii installed the first E85 pump in the state of Hawaii in November 2010, which is also the first US military installation in the world to do so.
See also
- U.S. Army Coast Artillery Corps
The U.S. Army Coast Artillery Corps was a Corps level organization responsible for coastal and harbor defense of the United States between 1901 and 1950.-History:...
- 16th Coast Artillery (United States)
The 16th Coast Artillery Regiment was a Coast Artillery Regiment in the United States Army,-Lineage:Constituted 27 February 1924 as 16th Artillery Coast Artillery, and organized 1 July 1924 at Fort Armstrong, from the following Companies- 104th, 90th, 99th, 105th, 111th, 159th, and 186th.* HHB...
- List of United States Marine Corps installations
External links