Leaving for Okinawa

I am traveling on this trip with my friend Jill Bramlet from Wheatland, Wyoming.  Have any of you ever read the Skippy John Jones books?  Remember the sister named Jilly Boo?  Well, that's what I like to call my friend:-)

We are leaving Casper to travel to Okinawa, Japan where we will be conducting an AdvancED accreditation visit for Kubasaki High School.  The high school is on an American Marine base called Camp Foster.  The United States has had troops on Okinawa ever since 1945 when the Japanese were defeated in the Battle of Okinawa by United States forces.  American bases overseas have American schools, so they are very much like schools stateside.  These schools are part of what is called DoDEA--Department of Defense Education Activity.  That agency, DoDEA, oversees all the military schools oversees at all of the US bases.  DoDEA contracts with AdvancED to send in teams of educators to check on how the schools are doing to make sure the students are getting a good education.  The schools in Fremont 1 in Lander are accredited by the same agency.  Jill and I are the leaders of the team to visit Kubasaki High School

Okinawa was not always part of Japan.  Okinawa was taken over by Japan and then later by the United States during World War II.  Now Okinawa is part of Japan, but the United States has a very large number of troops stationed there.

I am posting this from Denver International Airport (DIA).  We flew here from Casper, and now we have a 12-hour flight to Tokyo.  Then we switch airplanes for a three-hour flight to Okinawa.

I will try to blog regularly while we are gone and share some information about the schools and the country.