Sgt. Maj. Joy Kitashima will become the first female Marine to fill the senior enlisted role in a Marine expeditionary force when she takes up her new responsibilities next year at Camp Courtney.
Denny Tamaki said he wrote the commander of III Marine Expeditionary Force to ask that U.S. troops on Okinawa remain on their installations, despite the end of a three-week COVID-19 confinement order.
Last week, governor asked III Marine Expeditionary Force commander Lt. Gen. James Bierman Jr. to stop flying in new personnel. He also requested that all Camp Hansen workers be tested for the virus, and that U.S. personnel be barred from leaving the base.
A cluster of new cases emerged among newly arrived Marines in a rotational unit, according to Marine Corps Installations Pacific on Friday. Neither the Marines nor the Japanese government has commented publicly on whether the cluster included omicron cases.