Marine Corps Base Hawaii
Mission: Marine Corps Base Hawaii provides forward-based, sustainable and secure training and operational support, facilities, and services to enable Operational Forces to accomplish their mission.
Lines of Effort:
PROJECT POWER embodies our ability to be the mid-Pacific platform from which the Nation deters the enemy and dispatches lethal forces when called upon.
PRODUCE READINESS signifies our ability to set conditions and manage resources to enable the operating forces to deploy at a moment’s notice.
PROMOTE RESILIENCY conveys our ability to actively support enduring self-reliance and when needed, quick recovery.
PROTECT RESOURCES describes our responsibility to proactively preserve not only the natural resources of our environment, but also the people and equipment necessary for Marines in Hawaii to achieve operational excellence.
The Greatest Generation forged the Marine Corps’ legacy in the Pacific, bringing their ingenuity to distant shores and atolls. The Pacific Campaign was honed on Marine Corps Bases in Hawaii, from Marine Corps Air Station Ewa on the Leeward Coast, to Camp Tarawa in Waimea on the Island of Hawaii. New adversaries will recognize the threads of our heritage in how we deliver today’s Fight, whether it be experiential, adaptive, or deterrent.
Marine Corps Base Hawaii provides a broad range of support functions and facilities on the farthest extension of American soil. From this unique locale, we are able to Protect Resources, Promote Resiliency, Produce Readiness, and Project Power into the Indo-Asia Pacific Region, and beyond. The base offers many exclusive opportunities desired by the Marine Corps’ Future Force, such as littoral maneuver training, energy generation and storage, artificial intelligence experimentation, expeditionary logistics, and partnerships necessary for the Asia-Pacific Rebalance. Our Military-Civilian partnerships have aided us in keeping pace with technologies which signify our commitment to the environment, sustainability, and conservation, while sparing no effort to produce Ready Forces capable of undertaking our Nation’s bidding.
Projecting Power begins with a resilient Marine, going beyond mere physical fitness. The intricacy of the future environment, equally chaotic and complex, will demand critical thinking and mental dexterity, which Marine Corps Base Hawaii fervently provides. Through the delivery of this support, we actively participate in building a professional, disciplined, and moral Force dispersed around the globe. We Promote Resiliency for the individual Warfighter through the deliberate and heartfelt preparation of our Operating Forces for complete fitness across the Mental, Physical, Spiritual, and Social domains.
Since the first permanent garrison of Marines was established on Hawaii in 1904, the Marine Corps has proudly maintained a presence on the island. In 1918, the installation was commissioned as Fort Kuwaaohe Army Military Reservation, consisting of 332 acres, later be named Fort Hase, and served as a defense battalion of the Windward Coastal Artillery Command. The Marine Corps presence was greatly increased in the 1930s when war in the Pacific loomed, and has been streamlined in the decades since World War II.
In 1939, the construction of Naval Air Station Kaneohe Bay commenced. During 1939, a Marine Corps security detachment reports to the Naval Air Station as the first military unit with a primary mission to protect construction materials aboard the air station. Security patrols by the Marines were accomplished using horses that were stabled west of the runway. December 7th, 1941, the Japanese Navy attack the air station 8 minutes prior to the attack on Pearl Harbor.
In 1949, the U.S. Navy decommissioned Naval Air Station Kaneohe Bay. The Marine Corps assumed control of both Fort Hase and the air station after landowner, Mr. Harold K. Castle, refused to take back the property in 1951. Castle was a descendent of prominent businessmen and missionaries in Oahu in the 1800s. His family’s Kaneohe Ranch started in 1917, with significant land holdings largely on the windward (eastern) side of Oahu. He believed it was important to maintain a military base on the windward side of Oahu for defense and economic continuity. The Castle family played a prominent role in the development of modern Hawaii.
By 1952, Marine Corps Air Station Kaneohe Bay was officially commissioned. During this year, Marine Aircraft Group 13 arrived with their F4U “Corsairs” aircraft. In 1953, the 1st Provisional Marine Air-Ground Taskforce was established at Marine Corps Air Station Kaneohe Bay.
From 1960 to 1990, Marine Corps Air Station was home to a succession of Marine Corps fighters including F-8 Crusader, F-4 Phantom and F/A-18 Hornet.
In 1992, Marine Aircraft Group 24 along with its F/A-18 & CH-46 Squadrons realigned to Marine Corps Air Station Miramar leaving the CH-53D squadrons behind as only the only operational aircraft aboard the installation. In 1994, the Marine Corps consolidated all of its installations and facilities in Hawaii under a single command, identified as Marine Corps Base Hawaii (MCBH) with Marine Corps Air Facility (MCAF) and HQBN as subordinate commands in accordance with the successful base realignment and closure strategy. The 1st Marine Expeditionary Brigade was also deactivated.
In 1999, U.S. Navy Patrol & Reconnaissance Wing Two and Helicopter Anti-Submarine Squadron Light-37 realign to Marine Corps Base Hawaii, Kaneohe Bay, following the base realignment and closure of Naval Air Station Barbers Point. During 2009, Marine Corps Air Facility is redesignated as a Marine Corps Air Station by Headquarters Marine Corps.
Later in 2011, Marine Corps Base Hawaii aligned under Marine Corps Installations Pacific, Japan. In 2016, Marine Medium Tiltrotor Squardon-268 and VMU-3 Squadrons established at Marine Corps Base Hawaii, bringing the first MV-22B Ospreys and Unmanned Aerial Vehicles into the region. In 2017, Commander Patrol and Reconnaissance Wing-2 was disestablished while Helicopter Anti-Submarine Squadron Light-37, Patrol Squadron Special Projects Unit-2, and the other Navy Detachments remained.
In 2018, Marine Medium Tiltrotor Squardon-363 relocated from Marine Corps Air Station Miramar, CA, to Maine Corps Air Station Kaneohe Bay.