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Foreign officers visit Marine training site

NAHA, Japan — Military liaison officers from Germany, Israel, Japan and the Netherlands visited a U.S. jungle training center in Okinawa in May “for possible future jungle training sessions,” according to a Web site run by the U.S. Marines in Japan.

“Several foreign liaison officers attached to the Marine Corps Combat Development Command in Quantico, Virginia, visited the Jungle Warfare Training Center [at Okinawa’s Northern Training Area] for a site survey May 21,” the Marines said in a news release. “The liaisons, representing Germany, Israel, Japan and the Netherlands, toured the training area to gain firsthand insight of how Marines train in jungle environments and to build relations with the [Okinawa-based] 3rd Marines Expeditionary Force for possible future jungle training sessions,” it said.

Maj. Mark Givens, a command liaison officer, was quoted as saying, “The visit served as a stepping stone toward those long-term goals.”

The news release, quoting Marine officials, said the visit was exploratory in nature, as any arrangements for non-U.S. personnel to use the facility will first have to be approved by the government of Japan.

The Northern Training Area stretches from the villages of Kunigami to Higashi as the only jungle training center for the exclusive use of U.S. forces.

Higashi village Mayor Seikyu Iju said that while people in Okinawa earnestly want a reduction and consolidation of the U.S. military presence in Okinawa, the planned jungle training sessions “could lead to a strengthening of U.S. military facilities in Okinawa and disturb the people there.”

In a 1996 agreement on the realignment of U.S. forces in Japan, the U.S. promised to return half of the Northern Training Area to Japan.