Word: iwakuni
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Helicopters, it turns out, do not fly upside down. I know this by hard, albeit simulated, experience. I was on the stick of an MH-53 helicopter, a 21-ton flying monster that is one of the largest craft of its type in the world, at the Iwakuni Air Base in western Japan. My co-pilot and instructor-an officer in the Japanese Maritime Self-Defense Force (MSDF)-guided me as I lifted the copter off the ground and pointed it toward the Akinada Sea. A little spin over the water, no problem, and then my instructor asked...
...That change is slowly playing out at Iwakuni. The seaside MSDF facility not far from Hiroshima was a main Japanese air force base through World War II, before it was eventually taken over by the Americans, and the grounds are now shared with the U.S. Marines. It's in the midst of a $1.9 billion expansion program, paid for by the Japanese government, and its contingent of U.S. planes will eventually double to over 100 as part of a global realignment of American forces. There's a reason for the move-Iwakuni is within striking distance of every potential...
...specter of a rearming and aggressive Japan gives the rest of Asia flashbacks to the war, but the truth is that Iwakuni, like all Japanese military facilities, is still far more defensive than offensive. While missile-armed F/A-18 Hornets launch daily from the American side of the base, Japan's hangars are filled with support craft like the MH-53, which sweeps for mines, and the US-1A, a giant propeller-powered flying boat used for sea rescues. The division of labor is obvious at Iwakuni in other ways. The U.S. keeps nearly half of the base to itself...
...unquestioned priority over commercial and other concerns. This has been especially true when it comes to Japan given that the Pentagon looks at Japan as an "an unsinkable aircraft carrier" in the Far East where we have placed premium value on base rights at Camp Zama, Yokosuka, Yokota, Misawa, Iwakuni and throughout Okinawa Prefecture. While not every Japanese is fond of U.S. bases on Japanese soil, the deal has been sweetened by virtually throwing open the U.S. market to Japanese goods...
...Marine Corps Air Station at Iwakuni, 662 miles north of Okinawa, it was Friendship Day, an annual occasion when Japanese visitors are invited to tour the base and view displays of planes, weapons and vehicles. Among the crowd-pulling exhibits were two Sikorsky CH-53D Sea Stallion helicopters, the Marines' workhorse troop carrier. The two choppers, similar to those used in the ill-fated attempt to rescue U.S. hostages in Iran in April 1980, had flown in for the event from their base in Okinawa. When the display ended, they left for home...