Military leaders meeting this week in Waikiki said training in Hawaii remained central to U.S. readiness in the Indo-Pacific as state land leases used by the Army, Navy, and Air Force approached expiration.
At the Association of the U.S. Army’s annual Land Forces Pacific Symposium, U.S. Army Pacific Commander Gen. Ronald Clark told the Honolulu Star-Advertiser, “Our efforts to protect the homeland, which is our responsibility, really starts here. The ability to be able to train in Hawaii is paramount for the readiness of not just the United States Army but the joint force.”
The military’s leases on state lands used for multinational training exercises and weapons testing were set to expire between 2029 and 2031. The Army’s leases expire first, in 2029.
The Army obtained its leases in 1964 for $1 on former Hawaiian crown lands, also known as ceded lands. Those lands were seized after the overthrow of the Hawaiian monarchy in 1893 and became part of the public land trust under the 1959 Admission Act.
At a House Armed Services Committee hearing last month, Rep. Jill Tokuda, D-Hawaii, asked Adm. Samuel Paparo, who leads U.S. forces in the Pacific from Camp Smith, whether Native Hawaiian groups and the Office of Hawaiian Affairs had “had a seat at the table.” Paparo replied, “I think we can work harder at it.”
Last year, the Army said it planned to renew its lease at Pohakuloa Training Area on Hawaii island, but on Oahu would seek to lease only 450 acres at Kahuku and vacate the rest of the state-owned parcels.
The state-owned parcel at Pohakuloa, about 22,750 acres, lies between two federally owned tracts that together total 132,000 acres. Army officials have called the leased land “the connective tissue” of the training area.
The state considers its Pohakuloa parcel a conservation district, and the Department of Land and Natural Resources concluded military use was “not consistent” with that designation. Last summer, the Board of Land and Natural Resources rejected the Army’s environmental impact statements on lease renewals.
Soon after, Army Secretary Dan Driscoll said he hoped to expedite the process, and Green said Pentagon officials told his staff they were considering using eminent domain. A bipartisan congressional conference committee later removed Senate language that would have allowed the military to take “mission critical” lands in Hawaii, and said the Army lacked authority to use eminent domain without first exhausting other options.
Testifying Tuesday before the Senate Armed Services Committee, Driscoll said, “What we’ve tried to do is balance out fairness to the local population with this idea and this commitment from me that we, the United States Army, must maintain this land. We need it for our training, we need it to be ready for the Indo-Pacific.”