Okinawa’s Camp Butler is Marine Corps Ground Installation of the Year

CAMP FOSTER, Okinawa — The Pentagon has recognized the Marine Corps’ sprawling network of Okinawa bases as the Corps’ ground installation of the year for improving Marines’ quality of life far from home.

Marine Corps Base Camp Smedley D. Butler received the 2026 Marine Corps Installations Excellence Award for Ground Installation of the Year, according to a Feb. 13 administrative message.

The camp — eight primary Marine Corps camps, two major training areas, one air station and the Ie Shima Auxiliary Airfield — was recognized for its modernization efforts, energy savings, quality-of-life investments and maintenance response, according to previous camp commander Col. Marc Walker.

The Pentagon awards the Commander in Chief’s Annual Award for Installation Excellence to one installation from each service branch and the Defense Logistics Agency.

A private bedroom in the new barracks at Camp Hansen, Okinawa, is shown shortly after the complex opened on June 5, 2026. (Keishi Koja/Stars and Stripes)

Marine Corps Air Station Yuma, Ariz., which received the Air Station of the Year award, was the Marines’ overall installation of the year, according to a Defense Department news release June 4.

Modernization projects throughout Butler totaled $90 million in fiscal 2025, including water and electrical infrastructure improvements to all bases on the island, Walker told Stars and Stripes on June 15 at his office on Camp Foster.

“Most of the bases were built by the [U.S. Army] Corps of Engineers after World War II,” he said. “And so, there’s still original infrastructure out there that we’ve prepared and we fixed and modernized.”

A new “mega warehouse” is under construction on Camp Foster to replace aging facilities on Camp Kinser, he added. A new dental administration facility is also being built on Foster.

Camp Hansen recently broke ground on a modernized barracks complex that will soon house 1,096 Marines. The facility includes private bedrooms, kitchens, a parking garage, wash stations for equipment and a half-size football field for recreation.

Col. Marc Walker, commander of Marine Corps Camp Butler and Headquarters and Support Battalion, Marine Corps Installations Pacific, at his office on Camp Foster, Okinawa, on June 15, 2026. (Brian McElhiney/Stars and Stripes)

Okinawa is home to more than 18,000 Marines, sailors and their families, according to the Marine Corps Installations Pacific website.

Eleven more updated barracks at Hansen are planned, and Camp Foster will break ground on its own modern barracks “within the next year,” Walker said.

In the last year, the camp restored mess halls at Camps Hansen and Schwab. In March, the III Marine Expeditionary Force Support Battalion received the Best Active Field Mess for fiscal year 2025 as part of the Maj. Gen. W.P.T. Hill Awards for Food Service competition, according to a III MEF news release April 1.

“We send those Marines to the Culinary Institute of America, so they’re top performers,” Walker said. “We want to make sure those Marines have good food.”

Camp Butler also saved $3.9 million on energy in 2025 and reduced consumption by 15% over the previous year, according to installations command spokeswoman 1st Lt. Kelsey Enlow. Maintenance was completed at a 36% faster rate than in 2024 at facilities, barracks and family housing.

The recognition helps to attract “key leaders out here with their families,” Walker said.

“When you do things this far out, one, it creates a draw,” he said. “When you’re seeing quality of life, folks that are focused on improving energy efficiency, caring about what people eat, caring about safety, they’re seeing a constant level of investment.”