Talk:Marine Corps Air Station Kaneohe Bay

Merge into Marine Corps Base Hawaii

I appreciate that MCAS Kaneohe Bay is technically a separate facility from Marine Corps Base Hawaii, which is the overall name for all Marine Corps installations in Hawaii, but there doesn't seem to be enough information to warrant a separate article. The information in this article is overwhelmingly historical information about the geographic location, not the actual airfield. I believe it would make more sense to merge the two and simply create an "MCAS Kaneohe Bay" section within Marine Corps Base Hawaii. Palm_Dogg (talk) 21:59, 9 January 2011 (UTC)

I have to disagree. Other than thier proximity, the two installations are unrelated. When K-Bay was designated a full MCAS, it severed the chain of command from the MCB completely. bahamut0013^words_deeds 13:40, 10 January 2011 (UTC)

So is MCAS Kaneohe Bay *just* the airfield? I've been stationed at MCBH for four years and have never seen any indications/signs that the airfield was a seperate facility. I pulled open the official website, which mentions the new designation of Kaneohe Bay as an MCAS in May 2009, but gives no indication that it is seperate from MCBH. A contemporary news article on the switch fails to indicate that MCAS is a seperate facility. Even the MCAS website is a subpage of MCBH (As opposed to, say New River Air Station which is next to Camp Lejeune) and gives the mission statement as "To maintain and operate airfield facilities of Marine Corps Base Hawaii..." Palm_Dogg (talk) 22:11, 10 January 2011 (UTC)

A separate designation implies the separation, in addition to having thier own chain of command. The website issue may be a matter of convenience on the legacy websites, since neither of them have yet transitioned to the marines.mil domain like most units have begun doing in the last year or so. And the news article you offered doesn't indicate a subordinate status either. And New River was never a subordinate command of Lejeune as far as I know, it was an auxiliary of Cherry Point until it split off many years ago.

But for sake of argument, say you were right, and MCAS KB is a subordinate of MCB Hawaii. It still doesn't justify a merge. For one, look at the consistancy of other articles: Marine Corps Air Station Camp Pendleton is a separate article from Marine Corps Base Camp Pendleton, Quantico's air facility is likewise, Roberts Army Heliport is separate from Camp Roberts, California, Naval Auxiliary Landing Field San Clemente Island is separate from Naval Base Coronado, Twentynine Palms Strategic Expeditionary Landing Field is seperate from Marine Corps Air Ground Combat Center Twentynine Palms, Coast Guard Air Station San Diego is seperate from San Diego International Airport (even though they share all facilities)... and those are just a fraction of examples from just California. The requirements for an article on an airport/airfield are unique enough from a non-aviation military installation that merging them would require some pretty solid consensus (if you want to try at Wikipedia:WikiProject Airports and Wikipedia:WikiProject Military history/Military aviation task force), and a lot of finesse in actually doing the work, then starting on the mountain of other facilities that would need merged. bahamut0013^words_deeds 15:08, 11 January 2011 (UTC)

I yield to your point on the airfields. I made a similar posting on Naval Air Station Kaneohe Bay about merging it either into MCBH or MCAS Kaneohe Bay if you have an opinion (might make more sense to move it into MCAS Kaneohe Bay). Thanks! Palm_Dogg (talk) 18:45, 11 January 2011 (UTC)

OK, thanks for the heads up, cuz that one makes sense. bahamut0013^words_deeds 20:52, 11 January 2011 (UTC)