I entered the U.S. Air Force shortly after graduating from Franklin & Marshall College in 1964.  After 3 months at Officer Candidate School in San Antonio, TX and a year studying Meteorology at Texas A&M University I received my first assignment to Naha Air Base on Okinawa as a weather forecaster. 

 Naha AB was the smaller of the two main USAF facilities on Okinawa at the time, the larger being Kadena AB.  Naha AB was located in the southern portion of the island next to the city of Naha, which is the capitol and the largest city on Okinawa.  Naha AB had several missions when I was stationed there.  It provided the air defense of the island, was home to a C-130 air transport wing,  hosted a number U.S. Navy aircraft, and was the civilian air terminal for Okinawa.

Okinawa is the largest island in the Ryukyu chain, an archipelago stretching between Japan and Taiwan.  Although Okinawa has its own unique culture and the population is ethnically neither Chinese nor Japanese, the island has been dominated throughout its history by either China or Japan.  For most of its modern history Okinawa was under the control of Japan.  The culmination of that control was the Battle of Okinawa in World War II, which resulted in the Ryukyu Islands coming under the administration of the U.S.  This administration lasted from the end of the war until the early 1970s, when the islands were once more made part of Japan. 

It was during the later years of the US administration, in 1966 and 1967, that I was assigned to Okinawa.  I am some what ashamed that during the time I was on the island I really didn't learn a great deal about the culture and history of this place and these people.  Like most military personnel I spent the bulk of my time on the Air Base, and had little contact with the native population.  I hope some day to re-visit Okinawa, as it is a beautiful sub-tropical island and the people are among the most friendly and hospitable in all of Asia.