Camp H. M. Smith

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Camp H. M. Smith is a United States Marine Corps installation on the Hawaiian island of Oahu. It is the headquarters of Marine Forces Pacific as well as the United States Pacific Command and Special Operations Command Pacific.

Camp H. M. Smith, the location of the headquarters of the Commander in Chief, U. S. Pacific Command and the commander Marine Forces Pacific, is on Oahu’s Halawa Heights, at an elevation of about 600 feet above Pearl Harbor, near the community of Aiea. On June 8, 1955, the camp, originally the Aiea Naval Hospital, was renamed in honor of the late General Holland McIntyeire "Howlin’ Mad" Smith of World War II Fame, the first commanding general of the Fleet Marine Force Pacific.

An Act of Congress on 17 March 1941 had approved purchase of the site, then a sugar cane field, for a Navy Hospital. Work commenced in July and progressed rather slowly. Following the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor on Dec. 7, construction of the planned 1,650 bed facility was rushed to completion. With Admiral Chester W. Nimitz in attendance, the hospital was commissioned on Nov. 11, 1942, but continued expansion was necessary.

Throughout World War II, the Aiea Naval Hospital served as a stopping off place for thousands of wounded sailors and Marines on their way home from the War in the Pacific. Hospital activity peaked following the bitter battle for Iwo Jima in February and March, 1945, when 5,676 patients received medical care simultaneously.

On June 1, 1949, the hospital was deactivated and Army and Navy medical facilities were consolidated at what is now the Tripler Army Medical Center. In 1950, the Territory of Hawaii began negotiations to obtain the Aiea facility for a tuberculosis sanitarium.

In 1955, however, the Marine Corps selected the site as the home of the Fleet Marine Force Pacific. The first Marines took up residence in October 1955; the headquarters staff placed the camp in full operation just two weeks before its dedication on January 31, 1956.

In October 1957, Camp Smith also became the headquarters for the Commander in Chief, U. S. Pacific Command, who formerly shared the headquarters of the Commander in Chief, U. S. Pacific Fleet at Makalapa, near Pearl Harbor. Both commands were headed by the same officer until 13 January 1958, when a separate officer was named to serve as Commander In Chief, Pacific Fleet. In July, 1992, FMFPac was further designated as the component command, "Marine Forces Pacific." In April, 1994, Marine Corps Base Hawaii assumed operational responsibility for Camp H.M. Smith.

In 1941, the investment for the 220 1/2 acres of Camp Smith land, in "fee simple" (a Hawaiian real estate term for owning both the land and the buildings), was $912,000, and improvements cost an additional $14 million. Camp Smith today consists of 220 acres at Camp Smith proper, 137 acres at Puuloa Rifle Range in Ewa Beach, and 62 acres in Manana Housing. Camp Smith is unique in that it’s the only Marine Corps installation that supports a unified commander (CinCPac).

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