No, we did not get to enter the base. Our bus just passed by one of the gates…
Before my trip to Okinawa, I had been expecting to see military aircraft all over the sky there because it is a major base for American aviation forces in Asia. But during the four-day vacation, I only saw one C-130 (below) when I was cruising in Naha Harbor and two USMC Harriers take off from Kadena AFB when our bus drove by. The Harriers were flying too fast for me to get out the camera. I did not have time to change to a bigger lense for the C-130 either. All other military aircraft I saw were on the ground but I was not able to get any clear shot. Sigh…
So, to me as an aviation enthusiast, the trip to Okinawa was somewhat disappointing. I had studied the layout of Naha International Airport on Google Maps before I set out. The satellite photo (http://maps.google.com/?ie=UTF8&ll=26.197105,127.649218&spn=0.002166,0.005375&t=k&z=18&om=1) clearly shows some F-4 and P-3C parked there. I did see them when the China Airlines Boeing 737 I flew just landed, but it was too fast for me to take any photo of them. So I hoped I could photograph them from the airport terminal when I waited for my return flight because the terminal looked quite close to the ramp for the military aircraft.
Unfortunately, the terminals with air bridges are in fact terminals for domestic flight. Since there are fewer than ten scheduled international flights to Naha, the international terminal is located in a small, one-story building to the North. In the photo below, the international terminal is the building with a sign saying “Naha International”, while the domestic terminal is the much larger building with the curved roof and the sign “那霸空港” in Kanji. From the international terminal, there is no way to see any of the military aircraft because there is no direct line of sight. Worse, all the windows facing the runway are blocked by either TV minitors or signs.
Because there are few international flights, Naha’s international terminal has only one X-ray machine. We had to wait in a long line to pass the security check point. It was not very efficient and of course did not make a good impression on me. And since there is no air bridge, we were bussed to our aircraft. So I was not able to get a good shot of the aircraft for the return flight, which was a Boeing 737-800 (B-18610) in the speical Lavanda markings. Darn it!
B-18610 has been fitted with winglets, just like the Boeing 737 B-18607 I flew to Okinawa four days earlier (foreground) and B-18605 (background):
Anyway, it is worth noting that in the first hotel I stayed, we could watch American Forces Network (AFN) on the TV. Actually it was the channel I watched the most because it was the only channel with programs in English. I also saw a military surplus shop in Naha which sold used ammunition boxes. I did not buy any because I was not sure if it was legal to bring one home…
The influence of American forces present on this island can be seen even on the taxi:
Was stationed at the 6927th RSM at Onna Point, Okinawa from Oct 1958 to Apr 1960. The reason vor the cabs with on-base authorization is because the vast majority of Okinawan taxis (“Kamakazies”)don’t carry the level of insurance the military requires and thus are prohibited from operating on bases. Fares were considerably cheaper. So we would take an on-base cab to the gate for 25 cents and then take a Kamakazie for the 18 mile run to Onna Point if we missed the last bus for the evening. The fare on the Kamakazie was about the same as the price of an “all-nighter” if you get my drift.
Most guys ended up taking the first bus back the next morning.
Also had occasion to visit Shulinkou a couple of times while on Oki. Great place. The ride up the unpaved road on a six-by was a killer.
Sadly, both sites have been copletely razed with not so much as a curbstone remaining.