Camp HM Smith
Camp HM Smith ( Camp Smith ) is a base of the US Marine Corps in Halawa Heights Aiea (Hawaii) , O'ahu , Hawai'i . It serves as the headquarters for the Fleet Marine Force Pacific (FMF Pacific), the US Indo-Pacific Command , its Special Operations Command and the Marine Corps Forces Pacific . Camp Smith, the former Aiea Naval Hospital , was named on June 8, 1955 in honor of General Holland M. Smith , the first commanding general of FMF Pacific .
history
By resolution of the US Congress , a cane sugar field was acquired by the US Navy in March 1941 to build a naval hospital there. Construction work began in July of the same year and progressed rather slowly. After the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor on December 7, 1941, construction work was accelerated to complete the planned 1,650 bed facility. In the presence of Admiral Chester W. Nimitz , commander in chief of the Pacific theater , the hospital was officially put into service on November 11, 1942. However, extensions were still necessary.
During World War II , ʻAiea Hospital served as an interim facility for wounded Sailors and Marines en route from the Pacific theater back to the United States. After the bloody fighting for Iwojima in February and March 1945, the hospital reached its maximum capacity with a permanent occupancy of 5,676 patients.
On June 1, 1949, the hospital was decommissioned and the medical facilities of the US Army and the US Navy merged to the Tripler Army Medical Center . In 1950 negotiations began with the municipality to build a sanatorium for tuberculosis sufferers on the Aiea area . Five years later, in 1955, the US Marine Corps decided to use the area as the headquarters for the Fleet Marine Force Pacific . The first Marines were stationed there in October 1955 and the headquarters staff occupied the camp two weeks before the official commissioning on January 31, 1956. In October 1957, the headquarters of the US Pacific Command was moved to Camp Smith, which had previously been the facility in Makalapa near Pearl Harbor with the headquarters of the US Pacific Fleet . Until January 13, 1958, the commander of the US Pacific Fleet was also the commander of the US Pacific Command , until two separate commanders, Harry D. Felt and Maurice E. Curts, took over these tasks. In July 1992, the Fleet Marine Force Pacific was also classified as a component command Marine Forces Pacific . Two years later, in April 1994, Camp Smith was annexed to Marine Corps Base Hawaii .
See also
Web links
- History of the base (English)
Coordinates: 21 ° 23 ′ 6.9 " N , 157 ° 54 ′ 34.3" W.