PNC :: Guthertz Says Military Should "Stretch and Spread" Guam Buildup

PNC :: Guthertz Says Military Should "Stretch and Spread" Guam Buildup

Thursday, 28 January 2010

Guam - Senator Judi Guthertz says the military buildup is too large and happening too quickly for the island of Guam to handle.

The senator says that the military once considered a 10% increase in population due to military expansion as the maximum possible without disrupting the local community. The buildup will bring over 40 thousand new people to Guam consisting of 21 thousand new activity duty personelle along with over 19 thousand of their dependents. This is not counting the temporary workforce that will come to Guam during the construction phase. Today the senator offered a solution she has coined as the stretch and spread strategy. Senator Guthertz says "I am reccomending to stretch out the relocation for the military buildup and have the marines move over a period of eight years to Guam instead of only two years."

The senator is also reccomending that futenma be moved to Tinian and Goat island in the CNMI. Since the entire Futenma air base consists of 4,000 marines she further reccomends that Guam only receive 4,000 marines or half of what was originally planned. Guthertz's stretch and spread strategy will be presented to the Japanese government, various federal entities, the US Congress and even the whitehouse.

Written by : Clynt Ridgell