Leatherneck Magazine

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In 1959, shortly after arriving for duty at the then-Kaneohe Bay Marine Corps Air Station, the Ki-lauea-Iki volcano showed Hawaii just what an enraged Madam Pele, their legendary goddess of fire, could do.

Tethered by gunners’ belts in our HRS-model helicopter, our combat cor-respondent/photo team took some great shots of an active volcano throwing molten rock 1,400 feet into the air. We vowed that we would return to the Big Island of Hawaii if ever we heard the volcano was once again active. Forty-eight years later, we made it, this time using the Space-Available flying perk to help finance the trip.

Last fall, our friend, retired Marine Jack Lewis, who lives on the Big Island, told us that lava was about to damage some of his property. We knew it was time to go. The March 2004 Leatherneck presented a “how to” article on Space-Available travel, titled “Space-A, The Greatest Perk.” In the article there was information on how retired Marines could take advantage of military hops to virtually every clime and place. An-

Story and photos by Jack T. Paxton

other enticement was the Kilauea Military Camp. Available to active-duty and retired military and their families, KMC is located within spitting distance of the Chain of Craters in Volcanoes National Park.

We began planning our trip by checking Kilauea Military Camp’s online Web site: www.kmc-volcano.com. A telephone call assured us that October would be an ideal time to book one of the recreation center’s cabins.

The Navy flight schedule out of Jacksonville, Fla., two hours from our Central Florida home, looked favorable for a flight to Naval Air Station North Island, Calif., adjacent to San Diego. North Island’s schedule also showed frequent flights to Oahu’s Hickam Air Force Base and Marine Corps Base Hawaii at Kaneohe Bay. Trends, however, can also prove fickle.

The week prior to our reservation at KMC, no flights were forecast out of NAS Jacksonville. North Island was a different story. “Get here next Wednesday and we’ll get you to Oahu,” we were told. Fortunately, Southwest Air-

lines offers great senior one-way rates from Orlando to San Diego, so we made it. Within two days, we were on an Air Force C- 17, en route to Hickam AFB. We had called ahead for lodging at Hickam, and on arrival, we were given a comfortable two-bedroom suite.

Lewis, who has a permanent home on the Big Island of Hawaii, had told us previously that a new carrier, GO Air, was causing a major fare war among other carriers. Our round trip for less than $200 proved him right. After an early-morning 45-minute flight from Oahu to the Big Island, we landed in the brilliant sunshine at Hilo.

Our car rental agent gave us directions to KMC, which were simple: “Go to the main road, turn left and go straight uphill 28 miles. You’ll run right into it at 4,028 feet.”

Volcanoes National Park charges each car $10 for use of the park. The ranger offered us a senior rate of $10, also good for life at any National Park.