is a U.S. Marine Base located in Uruma City, Okinawa Prefecture, Japan. It is part of the larger Marine Corps Base Camp Smedley D. Butler and home to the

III Marine Expeditionary Force III Marine Expeditionary Force (III MEF) is a formation of the Marine Air-Ground Task Force of the United States Marine Corps. It is forward-deployed and able to rapidly conduct operations across the spectrum from humanitarian assistance and ...

3rd Marine Division The 3rd Marine Division is a division of the United States Marine Corps based at Camp Courtney, Marine Corps Base Camp Smedley D. Butler in Okinawa, Japan. It is one of three active duty infantry divisions in the Marine Corps and together with th ...

, and 3d MEB Headquarters. It is named after Major Henry A. Courtney, Jr., who was killed in action in the Battle of Okinawa. Camp Courtney covers in the Konbu, Tengan, and Uken districts of Uruma.Office of the Governor of Okinawa
"Present Condition of Bases within Okinawa Prefecture, Chapter 8: Outline of Bases, Section 1: Condition of American Military Facilities, Paragraph 1: Marine Corps, Subsection 8: FAC6029 Camp Courtney (page 204)"
March 2013. Retrieved on 28 February 2015.

History

Land was forcibly taken from local Okinawans and Camp Courtney was opened as a U.S. Marine Base in January 1956, when select units of the 3rd Marine Division were transferred there from

Camp McGill Camp may refer to: Outdoor accommodation and recreation * Campsite or campground, a recreational outdoor sleeping and eating site * a temporary settlement for nomads * Camp, a term used in New England, Northern Ontario and New Brunswick to descri ...

Yokosuka, Kanagawa is a city in Kanagawa Prefecture, Japan. , the city has a population of 409,478, and a population density of . The total area is . Yokosuka is the 11th most populous city in the Greater Tokyo Area, and the 12th in the Kantō region. The city ...

, Japan. Initially the base was called by its original name, Camp Tengan. The first Marine units occupied

Quonset hut A Quonset hut is a lightweight prefabricated structure of corrugated galvanized steel having a semi cylindrical cross-section. The design was developed in the United States, based on the Nissen hut introduced by the British during World War ...

Nissen hut A Nissen hut is a prefabricated steel structure for military use, especially as barracks, made from a half-cylindrical skin of Corrugated galvanised iron, corrugated iron. Designed during the First World War by the American-born, Canadian-British ...

s and

Butler building The Butler Building was a mansion in Washington, D.C., constructed by Benjamin Franklin Butler. It served as the headquarters of the U.S. Marine Hospital Service, and its successor the Public Health Service, from 1891 until 1929. It also conta ...

s. Most of the huts were "strong-backed", which means they had

concrete Concrete is a composite material composed of fine and coarse aggregate bonded together with a fluid cement (cement paste) that hardens (cures) over time. Concrete is the second-most-used substance in the world after water, and is the most wid ...

or concrete block ends, with cables strung over them at intervals whose ends were anchored in the ground in concrete, and had wooden

hurricane shutter Hurricane coverings, commonly known as shutters, are used in hurricane mitigation to protect houses and other structures from damage caused by storms. Hurricane shutters are used to prevent windows from being broken by flying objects during a s ...

s over the windows. This was to protect the buildings during the frequent

typhoon A typhoon is a mature tropical cyclone that develops between 180° and 100°E in the Northern Hemisphere. This region is referred to as the Northwestern Pacific Basin, and is the most active tropical cyclone basin on Earth, accounting for a ...

s that visit the

Ryukyu Islands The , also known as the or the , are a chain of Japanese islands that stretch southwest from Kyushu to Taiwan: the Ōsumi, Tokara, Amami, Okinawa, and Sakishima Islands (further divided into the Miyako and Yaeyama Islands), with Yona ...

. The original units at Camp Tengan were Headquarters

Battalion A battalion is a military unit, typically consisting of 300 to 1,200 soldiers commanded by a lieutenant colonel, and subdivided into a number of companies (usually each commanded by a major or a captain). In some countries, battalions a ...

, the Division

Band Band or BAND may refer to: Places *Bánd, a village in Hungary *Band, Iran, a village in Urmia County, West Azerbaijan Province, Iran * Band, Mureș, a commune in Romania *Band-e Majid Khan, a village in Bukan County, West Azerbaijan Province, I ...

and a

truck A truck or lorry is a motor vehicle designed to transport cargo, carry specialized payloads, or perform other utilitarian work. Trucks vary greatly in size, power, and configuration, but the vast majority feature body-on-frame constructi ...

battalion. Division Headquarters was mainly in a sprawling, one-story building just inside the main gate. Some other units, such as Division Legal Office, were in separate buildings. There was an

Army An army (from Old French ''armee'', itself derived from the Latin verb ''armāre'', meaning "to arm", and related to the Latin noun ''arma'', meaning "arms" or "weapons"), ground force or land force is a fighting force that fights primarily on ...

anti-aircraft battery located adjacent to the camp. That unit used to conduct live-

fire Fire is the rapid oxidation of a material (the fuel) in the exothermic chemical process of combustion, releasing heat, light, and various reaction products. At a certain point in the combustion reaction, called the ignition point, flames a ...

exercises once a month. For some new arrivals, the unannounced firing sometimes caused momentary consternation. Camp Courtney houses many military families, has a movie theater, exchange, commissary, medical and dental clinics, post office, chapel and bank. Many Marines living on Camp McTureous are stationed on Camp Courtney.

Crime

The

Michael Brown Okinawa assault incident On November 2, 2002, U.S. Marine Corps Major Michael Brown attempted an indecent assault on a Filipina bartender in Okinawa, Japan. The bartender accused Brown of attempting to rape her and of throwing her cell phone into a nearby river; Brown ...

occurred just outside the base on 2 November 2002.

References

External links

Camp S.D. Butler
at GlobalSecurity.org

{{US Marine Corps navbox Courtney Installations of the U.S. Department of Defense in Japan United States Armed Forces in Okinawa Prefecture

History

Crime

See also

References

External links