Pacific MS (formerly Kubasaki MS, Kubasaki JHS) History
Opened: 1972
Closed: 1980
Pacific Middle School was previously Kubasaki Junior High and Kubasaki Middle School.
There was a sacred pool on the campus of Pacific Middle School. Many Okinawans came there to worship.
According to Bill Bechtel, Pacific Middle School first opened its doors to DoDDS students on 1 September 1964 as Kubasaki Junior High School. The school was previously the home of the 172nd Army Airborne Group who went to Vietnam in 1964. After the Airborne Group left, the Army Engineers turned the facility into a school within 30 days, putting tile on the floors and installing new lights and chalkboards.
At first, the school had 7th, 8th, and 9th graders and was named Kubasaki Junior High School. The enrollment was 1,700. The first Principal was Mr. Tom Baker, and the Assistant Principal was Mr. Bill Bechtel. In the 1965-66 school year, all of the junior high students on Okinawa attended school at Kubasaki Junior High School. The enrollment that year was over 2,000! All of the 7th graders were on double sessions, with the first group going to school from 7:30 to 11:30 and the second group from 12:30 to 4:30. All the students were bussed and over sixty buses were needed each day. The campus was very crowded, and most teachers had around thirty-five students in each class.
Because of the large enrollment in the 1967 school year, the school was broken up into two schools. One, composed of about 900 9th graders, was called the K-9 School (as in “Kubasaki 9”). The other, which had 7th and 8th graders, was called Kubasaki Middle School. In 1972, as other schools opened up on Okinawa, the school became Pacific Middle School. However, all of the 9th graders were still at the K-9 School. Mr. Don Taylor was the first Principal of Pacific Middle School. In 1975, the 9th graders moved to Kubasaki High School and more 6th graders were brought to Pacific Middle School. The 5th graders were added in.
Principals of the school known as Pacific Middle School were Mr. Tom Baker, Mr. Bill Bechtel, Mr. Frank Ecker, Mr. Don Taylor, Ms. Dorothy Wiehe, Mr. Ed Waggoner, and Mr. Dick Randolph. The highest enrollment was in the 1966-67 school year with 2,100 students, and an enrollment of 367 was the lowest. Of the original faculty, the following people were still on Okinawa when the school closed: Mr. Bill Bechtel, Mr. Larry Steele, Mrs. Helen Steele, and Ms. Ursala Barnes. Mr. Masa Yafuso, who was on the very first faculty was also on the last faculty of Pacific Middle School.
Information from dissertation by Harold Clifford Brown, 1981, and historical information provided by Mr. Bill Bechtel in school yearbooks.