CAMP FOSTER, Okinawa — The American Red Cross and 3rd Dental Battalion will begin accepting applications Monday for their semiannual, no-cost dental assistant training course.

The basic-skills course will offer 40 hours of classroom training followed by 500 hours of chairside assistance, said Leslie Stanley, Foster Red Cross field officer coordinator.

Each participant will receive a certificate documenting the training, Stanley said.

Though it’s "something that you would have to pay for in the States," it’s being offered free here, she said. Applications for the course can be turned in to the Camp Foster Red Cross in Building 5674, and the course will start in March.

For more information, call DSN 645-3800 during normal duty hours.

Schwab sports center to host soccer tourneyCAMP SCHWAB, Okinawa — The Camp Schwab Athletics Sports Center will host a six-on-six soccer tournament Feb. 7-8 on Camp Schwab.

Teams must register by Sunday at any Marine Corps Community Services athletics facility, according to a news release. A coaches meeting will be held at 6 p.m. Tuesday at the sports center office in Building 3450.

The tournament is open to U.S. servicemembers and civilians and Okinawan athletes.

"We encourage some local Japanese teams to come out and play," Devin Novak, the Camp Schwab sports coordinator, said.

For more information, call DSN 625-2654.

Marines suspected in alleged assault on manOKINAWA CITY — Okinawa police Wednesday referred three Marines to the Naha District Public Prosecutor’s Office on suspicion of assaulting an Okinawa man in December, according to a spokesman for Okinawa prefectural police.

The three Marines, in their 20s, are assigned to Camp Schwab. Police would not release their names but said the three are suspected of attacking a 22-year-old Okinawa man Dec. 13 in a parking lot in the Misato district of Okinawa City.

The man told police that earlier in the morning, he found a U.S. servicemember’s car parked in his leased space, and he parked his car behind it, blocking it. When he returned about an hour later, the three Americans, who appeared upset, attacked him, according to the police report. The man told police one of them punched him in the nose and the other two attempted to mug him.

The man sustained injuries that required medical treatment, the police said.