CAMP FOSTER, Okinawa — The Green Line, the bus system that services all Marine Corps camps here, is extending its hours to include a Red Eye shuttle.
The Red Eye will run weekends from midnight to 5 a.m. — the Friday night-Saturday morning and Saturday night-Sunday morning liberty period, said Garrison Mobile Equipment operation officer Thomas L. Ramer.
The shuttle will be the only way some Marines can travel between bases after hours, he said.
A recent change in the liberty order necessitated the late-hours weekend schedule, Ramer said.
The old order required that Marines in a red-card liberty status, a restricted liberty usually assigned to junior Marines, be on their quarters base by midnight. The new liberty policy requires that red-card holders be on a base — any base — by midnight.
However, the change presented a problem. After midnight, a Marine on a base other than his own could not take a taxi or other transportation to get home because that meant leaving the base.
Under the new order, the Red Eye is considered “being on a base,” he said.
The Red Eye shuttles, which seat 60, will not make the same stops as the Green Line. Instead, the service has one stop on each base near a facility that is open after hours.
However, Ramer said, Marines need to remember Green Line and the Red Eye shuttle “are a privilege not a right.”
Any misconduct on the late-night shuttle service could lead to senior enlisted leader or officers monitoring the Red Eye or even ending the service, Ramer said.
For the new Red Eye Shuttle schedule, go to www.okinawa.usmc.mil and click on the Green Line link.