Good Riddance

I'm sure my fellow Marines won't be particularly heartbroken to hear that DoD is handing 10,000 acres of the Northern Training Area on Okinawa back to the Japs. Welcome to it, I say.

NTA is colloquially referred to as a "cold jungle." It consists of many miles of overlapping ravines with near-vertical slopes. It's all covered in thick jungle growth and is always wet. Traversing even a mile in that terrain is an endurance contest of Herculean proportions. During the winter months, the night temperatures can drop into the 30s. It is a thoroughly miserable place, even by the standards of Asian jungles.

I have many fond memories of my time in the Corps. Training exercises in NTA are not among them.