Camp Courtney is a United States Marine Base located in Uruma City

Uruma, Okinawa

is a city in Okinawa Prefecture, Japan.It was formed on April 1, 2005, from the merger of the old cities of Gushikawa and Ishikawa, and the towns of Katsuren and Yonashiro, both from Nakagami District....

, Okinawa Prefecture

Okinawa Prefecture

is one of Japan's southern prefectures. It consists of hundreds of the Ryukyu Islands in a chain over long, which extends southwest from Kyūshū to Taiwan. Okinawa's capital, Naha, is located in the southern part of Okinawa Island...

, Japan. It is part of the larger Marine Corps Base Camp Smedley D. Butler

Marine Corps Base Camp Smedley D. Butler

Marine Corps Base Camp Smedley D. Butler is a United States Marine Corps base located in the Japanese prefecture of Okinawa. It was named for legendary Marine Smedley D. Butler.-Installations:...

 and home to the III Marine Expeditionary Force headquarters as well as the 3rd Marine Division Headquarters. It is named after Major Henry A. Courtney, Jr., who was killed in action in the Battle of Okinawa

Battle of Okinawa

The Battle of Okinawa, codenamed Operation Iceberg, was fought on the Ryukyu Islands of Okinawa and was the largest amphibious assault in the Pacific War of World War II. The 82-day-long battle lasted from early April until mid-June 1945...

.

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 in Yokosuka, Kanagawa

Yokosuka, Kanagawa

is a city located in Kanagawa, Japan. As of 2010, the city had an estimated population of 419,067 and a population density of 4,160 people per km². It covered an area of 100.62 km²...

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

Quonset hut

A Quonset hut is a lightweight prefabricated structure of corrugated galvanized steel having a semicircular cross section. The design was based on the Nissen hut developed by the British during World War I...

s, Nissen hut

Nissen hut

A Nissen hut is a prefabricated steel structure made from a half-cylindrical skin of corrugated steel, a variant of which was used extensively during World War II.-Description:...

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

Concrete

Concrete is a composite construction material, composed of cement and other cementitious materials such as fly ash and slag cement, aggregate , water and chemical admixtures.The word concrete comes from the Latin word...

 or concrete block ends, with cable

Cable

A cable is two or more wires running side by side and bonded, twisted or braided together to form a single assembly. In mechanics cables, otherwise known as wire ropes, are used for lifting, hauling and towing or conveying force through tension. In electrical engineering cables are used to carry...

s strung over them at intervals whose ends were anchored in the ground in concrete, and had wooden hurricane shutter

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 storm...

s over the windows. This was to protect the buildings during the frequent typhoons that visit the Ryukyu Islands

Ryukyu Islands

The , also known as the , is a chain of islands in the western Pacific, on the eastern limit of the East China Sea and to the southwest of the island of Kyushu in Japan. From about 1829 until the mid 20th century, they were alternately called Luchu, Loochoo, or Lewchew, akin to the Mandarin...

. The original units at Camp Tengan were Headquarters

Headquarters

Headquarters denotes the location where most, if not all, of the important functions of an organization are coordinated. In the United States, the corporate headquarters represents the entity at the center or the top of a corporation taking full responsibility managing all business activities...

 Battalion

Battalion

A battalion is a military unit of around 300–1,200 soldiers usually consisting of between two and seven companies and typically commanded by either a Lieutenant Colonel or a Colonel...

, the Division Band

Military band

A military band originally was a group of personnel that performs musical duties for military functions, usually for the armed forces. A typical military band consists mostly of wind and percussion instruments. The conductor of a band commonly bears the title of Bandmaster or Director of Music...

 and a truck

Truck

A truck or lorry is a motor vehicle designed to transport cargo. Trucks vary greatly in size, power, and configuration, with the smallest being mechanically similar to an automobile...

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

Military law

Military justice is the body of laws and procedures governing members of the armed forces. Many states have separate and distinct bodies of law that govern the conduct of members of their armed forces. Some states use special judicial and other arrangements to enforce those laws, while others use...

, were in separate buildings. There was an Army

United States Army

The United States Army is the main branch of the United States Armed Forces responsible for land-based military operations. It is the largest and oldest established branch of the U.S. military, and is one of seven U.S. uniformed services...

 anti-aircraft

Anti-aircraft warfare

NATO defines air defence as "all measures designed to nullify or reduce the effectiveness of hostile air action." They include ground and air based weapon systems, associated sensor systems, command and control arrangements and passive measures. It may be to protect naval, ground and air forces...

 battery

Artillery battery

In military organizations, an artillery battery is a unit of guns, mortars, rockets or missiles so grouped in order to facilitate better battlefield communication and command and control, as well as to provide dispersion for its constituent gunnery crews and their systems...

 located adjacent to the camp. That unit used to conduct live-fire

Ammunition

Ammunition is a generic term derived from the French language la munition which embraced all material used for war , but which in time came to refer specifically to gunpowder and artillery. The collective term for all types of ammunition is munitions...

 exercises once a month. For the new arrival, 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

Camp McTureous

Camp McTureous is part of Marine Corps Base Butler in Kawasaki village, Uruma City, Okinawa, Japan.Located in the western part of Agena district of Uruma City, Camp McTureous, is equipped with family residential facilities, sports facilities and an elementary school.The camp is named in honor of...

 are stationed on Camp Courtney. Camp Courtney is surrounded by Okinawan restaurants, and shopping. The Michael Brown Okinawa assault incident

Michael Brown Okinawa assault incident

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

occurred just outside the base on 2 November 2002.