by Ronna Sweeney, KUAM NewsSunday, July 20, 2008 Subscribe to Ronna's newsfeed
The Okinawa Prefectural Assembly may have made realigning troops in Japan a bit more difficult. According to an article recently appearing in Stars and Stripes, the Assembly passed a resolution on Friday demanding the United States and Japan scrap plans to replace Marine Corps Air Station Futenma with a new airport being built on Camp Schwab.The resolution cited several environmental reasons for opposing the airport including the rare dugong that lives in Oura Bay. Both governments regard the Futenma Relocation Plan as the key to a 2006 agreement to realign troops in Japan. Once Marine air operations are moved to the new airport, as reported nearly 8,000 U.S. Marines and their families would move to Guam.