Valiant Shield

Valiant Shield tests base
Andersen prepares for long-term role in region
By Gaynor Dumat-ol Daleno
Pacific Daily News gdumat-ol@guampdn.com

Andersen Air Force Base roared into action yesterday as the massive exercise Valiant Shield unfolded, testing the base's capability to become a bigger player in helping to keep the nation secure.

Dozens of bombers, fighter jets, tankers and other planes visiting from other U.S. military bases took turns executing air maneuvers using the base for takeoffs and landings yesterday.

And when the exercise ends tomorrow, Andersen is not expected to switch into sleep mode. In a shift from its role as a stopover for transient deployments, Andersen is flexing to be the longer-term home for more military air power and personnel.

Col. Michael Boera, Andersen's commander, described the change as something "along the lines of more permanency."

"We're no longer the 'Sleepy Hollow' base of yesteryear," Boera said.

Besides the previously confirmed plan to make Andersen a hub for Global Hawk reconnaissance planes and an air tanker squadron, the base also will become home to about 150 members of an Air Force engineering squadron called the Red Horse.

The Red Horse squadron at Osan Air Base in South Korea will make Guam home, Boera said. Already, about 30 Red Horse squadron personnel are at Andersen, he added. The timetable for the entire squadron's move was not specified.

Red Horse squadrons such as the one that's moving to Guam are like responders to 911 calls for operations such as building airstrips, building emergency roads for military operations and helping after landslides, tsunamis and other disasters.

In wartime, Red Horse provides aircraft-launch and recovery capabilities wherever the Air Force needs them, according to the Air Force Web site, www.af.mil.

Military spending

Andersen's expected buildup could mean $2 billion to $4 billion in construction activities on Guam, according to Pacific Daily News files.

The Air Force buildup on Guam is expected to complement the expected arrival of about 18,000 members of the U.S. Marines and their families who are relocating from Okinawa.
The Okinawa move alone has been reported, according to a previous military wire service report, to result in much as $15 billion in military spending on Guam over 15 years, at the rate of almost $1 billion a year beginning in about two years.

The Air Force buildup, combined with the Marines' relocation to Guam and other aspects of increased military presence, could mean an additional population of 20,000 to 30,000 on Guam, Boera said.

That could mean an increase of up to 20 percent in Guam's population, which the Department of the Interior said was at 162,000 based on a 2005 Census estimate last year.

The anticipated military buildup on Guam is being discussed in the backdrop of reported potential military threats from China and North Korea.

Guam's location, which significantly cuts U.S. military planes' travel time to potential Asia-Pacific hotspots, has become the key selling point for those who support military buildup on Guam.

Taking advantage of Guam's "cherry location," said Lt. Gen. David Deptula, commander of the Gen. George C. Kenney Warfighting Headquarters in Hawaii, allows U.S. military forces to move in the Pacific "in a matter of hours, as opposed to days, or weeks." Deptula spoke from Hawaii yesterday via live video to a small group of national, regional and local media who gathered at a videoconference room at Andersen.

The ongoing military exercise, which also involves three aircraft carriers, 28 naval ships and about 20,000 service members simulating war scenarios in waters off Guam, is happening as the potential looms for North Korea to test-fire a missile with a reported range reaching the West Coast.

Military officials yesterday declined to talk about the North Korean situation.

In general, Deptula said, the U.S. military has a variety of forces that allows response to "any kind of aggression."

But while many Guam residents support increased U.S. military presence, a group of indigenous residents issued a statement calling for a suspension of American military buildup here.

Increased military presence will make Guam a target of potential adversaries of the United States, according to the I Nasion Chamoru and Guahan Indigenous Collective statement.

Originally published June 22, 2006