US Air Force Base in Okinawa Boosts Oil Recovery Capacity

United States Air Force Kadena Air Base in Okinawa, Japan, is the second largest air base in the world.  It is the hub of airpower in the Pacific and home to the Air Force's largest combat wing, the 18th Wing, and a variety of associate units.

Defense Logistics Agency (DLA) is the Department of Defense's largest logistics combat support agency, providing worldwide logistics support in both peacetime and wartime to the military services as well as several civilian agencies and foreign countries.  At Okinawa, DLA is also responsible for offloading all aviation fuels from the tanker vessels moored along the beautiful shoreline.

Okinawa, a tropical paradise within an easy flight from most Asian countries, is one of Japan’s a premier snorkeling and diving destinations because of its unique coral reefs and abundant sea life. 

Helping to protect this scenic shoreline in the event of an oil spill, DLA recently acquired a Lamor Rapid Response Multi Skimming System.  The skimming head can be outfitted with brush, discs or drum modules or a combination of both.  It has a high capacity GTA 70 Archimedes screw pump fitted with 80m of floating hydraulic and oil transfer hose to a skid based reel all powered with a diesel/hydraulic power pack and a radio remote control for all operations.  This compact kit can be either secured to the deck of one of DLA’s response vessels or fixed from the pier and operated in conjunction with their containment boom.

44 students from the USAF Base were on hand in February for the two-day operations, maintenance and strategy training program, which was conducted by Dan Beyer, General Manager of Lamor USA and Mathias Lindroos, Project Director of Lamor Finland. 

“It’s great to see the enthusiasm of all the students in really wanting to know and understand all aspects of the LMS Oil Recovery System.  We have supplied Lamor response technologies to the Petroleum Association of Japan (PAJ) and the US Navy, so it’s good to know that in the event of a major spill there will be many experienced responders trained to operate the Best Available Technology (BAT) on the market, Dan Beyer stated.

“It was a pleasure working together with all the students and finding genuine interest in the system. With their effectiveness if they ever have a spill, I’m convinced that they will have it contained and cleaned up in no time,” Mathias Lindroos concurred.