Life at the Tip of the Spear

Life at the Tip of the Spear

by Michael Lujan Bevacqua

The Guam Daily Post

December 2, 2015

This week I am giving my students at UOG a questionnaire about risk, threats, fear and safety. The survey is simple, and asks students to consider how often they worry about certain potential man-made or natural disasters. The purpose of this study is to understand the way people on Guam (starting with a sample of UOG students) perceive Guam’s relation to the world and how they see our position in relation to various potential threats and dangers.

Earthquakes and typhoons are common, looming problems, always lurking to the East or in the waters beneath us. Given Guam’s history we also experience recurring worries about war. Although the Spanish-Chamorro Wars have largely faded from conscious memory, I Tiempon Chapones or World War II hasn’t. Rumors of war, saber-rattling between nations still evoke, sometimes very strongly and traumatically memories and images of brutality and occupation. This is so, even if we have come to accept a very different image of the average Japanese person today. They are not taiase’ and malamaña conquerors and would be world rulers, now they are banana boat riding, ABC store shopping economic drivers.

One major concern, which is always there, but often disappears in regularly occurring patriotic hazes, is the inherent dangers in being “the tip of America’s spear.” Or what our status as an unincorporated, but strategically important territory on the edge of Asia means in terms of potential dangers in our lives. The tip of the spear is kept close to the warrior in battle. It can be wielded for defense and offense. It can be a prized and cherished item, which leads to victories, which leads to security, but for whom? In battle, the spear is usually the first thing to get bloodied. It can be broken. It can be used to mow down enemies, slaughter foes left and right. A good spear can keep a warrior safe in battle, but what about the spear itself? Does the warrior or the battle keep the spear safe? When the warrior fights, even if the spear may seem strategically important to him in that moment, it may be something his father passed down to him, possibly won from an earlier opponent in another battle, does he love the spear? Is he fighting to protect the spear itself or his family? His nation? His own interests?

When China dubs a missile the Guam Killer or North Korea boasts of its ability to hit Guam with their missiles, we should ask ourselves these questions. How aware are we of the risks involved with being America’s spear tip in the Western Pacific?

Historian Pedro Sanchez wrote that the World War II shouldn’t have really been a surprise for the Chamorros of Guam. By 1941, Europe was at war. Japan had conquering new colonies in Asia for years by that point. Anyone who know anything about what was happening in the rest of Micronesia would have seen Japan increasing its military presence and preparing for war. Sanchez argued that Chamorros had “blind faith” in the power of the United States, and that as long as Uncle Sam was defending Guam nothing could or would happen to it. Sanchez was in some ways overstating things in order to enhance the idea of Chamorros as helpless victims in order to set up their suffering during the war. But there is an element of truth in his statements, which still rings true today. What does blind faith or blind patriotism achieve for us in today’s world? How does an unrealistic idea of war or of American power keep us safe? How does seeing the United States in an uncritical light, as a crusading liberator for justice and democracy potentially put us in the same position of our ancestors on the even of the Japanese invasion?

One issue that I am interested in studying is the fear or lack of fear around potential dangers in Guam due to our significant military presence. Much attention is given to countries such as China or North Korea or Russia as threats, but how much to we understand or ignore the threats that simply having so much military power and machinery concentrated on this small island might represent? How much attention do we give to the dangers to the environment? The dangers that come with frequent training? The dangers that are involved with the storing of weapons of war, in particular, weapons of mass destruction?

It is this last question that I plan to address this Thursday, December 3^rd at 2 pm in the Dean’s Professional Development in the HSS Building at UOG. I’ll be giving a colloquium presentation as part of the College of Liberal Arts and Social Sciences Dean’s Colloquium Series. My presentation is titled “Confronting Nuclear Legacies and Realities in Guam.” If you are able, come and join the conversation. I’ve included below the abstract for more talk if you’d like to know more:

“The 3/11/2001 tragedy in Japan and the meltdown at the Fukushima Daiichi Genpatsu was the latest reminder of the potential dangers of nuclear energy. Radioactive fallout was carried by wind and water throughout the Tohoku region of Japan, south to Tokyo and even reached the shores of Guam in the Marianas. Although Guam has no nuclear power plants, the use of the island by the United States military has ensured that the risks involved with the weaponization of nuclear energy are always present. This presentation will provide an overview of Guam’s historical relationship to nuclear weapons and also recommendations for how these issues can be more prominently incorporated into public school social studies curriculum. “

Why are We in Guam?

Why Are We in Guam?The United States wants to build a Marine Corps base on the tiny Pacific island.

By Jessica Dweck
SLATE
Posted Tuesday, March 23, 2010, at 5:33 PM ET

Recent reports indicate that a vocal minority in Guam—or Guahan—oppose the construction of a U.S. Marine Corps base on the island. Apparently, concerned citizens doubt that this tiny Pacific landmass has sufficient resources to accommodate the predicted 45 percent increase in population. What are we doing in Guam, anyway?

Keeping an eye on Asia. Thirty miles long and an average of 8 miles wide, Guam is the largest island in Micronesia and the only U.S. territory in the region large enough for a major airport or military base. Located roughly 1,500 miles from Japan and China, 2,500 miles from Vietnam, and 2,000 miles from North Korea and Russia, Guam is a crucial geopolitical nexus in East Asia. The island attained strategic importance during the Japanese Imperial and Soviet eras and remains a convenient base of military operations because of the increasing prominence of China on the world stage and the perennial threat posed by Kim Jong-il's regime. (In fact, this unincorporated territory was supposed to be President Obama's first stop on his postponed trip to Asia.) Another point in the island's favor: It's a territory of the United States with limited self-government, so—unlike our autonomous Asian allies who are getting tired of hosting American military bases—Guam can't kick us out.

The United States acquired Guam from Spain in 1898 after the Spanish-American War. While the island territory was a relatively sleepy coaling station for much of the early 20^th century, the events of WWII—including the attack on Pearl Harbor in Hawaii and Guam's occupation by Japanese forces—precipitated a substantial postwar military buildup that has continued to this day. During much of the Cold War, the United States used the island as a communications and intelligence-gathering center and as a storage facility for B-52 bombers, nuclear missile submarines, and other garden-variety military weapons. Today, Guam also serves as a logistical link to the American base at Diego Garcia, an island in the Indian Ocean.

With Andersen Air Force Base in the north and a Naval base and Coast Guard station in the south, U.S. military installations in Guam form the largest sector of the economy after tourism. Bases blanket nearly one-third of the island, a figure that would rise to over 40 percent with the planned addition of a Marine Corps base, airfield, and firing range. Despite public opposition and government reports cautioning against the planned expansion, a recent poll by the University of Guam reveals that the general population mostly favors the buildup, with 81 percent of respondents predicting a better economy. The U.S. military is such a large fixture in the lives of Guamanians that the territory boasts the largest rate of military recruitment in the United States.

Guam Designated Strategic Seaport

Guam designated strategic seaport
By Agnes E. Donato
Pacific Sunday News
September 20, 2009

As a result, the Department of Defense will include the use of the island's port facilities in its planning for cargo movement during times of military deployments.
While the designation doesn't guarantee federal funding for port projects, it does underscore the need for funding for infrastructure improvement, according to Gen. Duncan McNabb, commander of the U.S. Transportation Command.

"A modernized port will provide additional deployment options for our forces forward and greater flexibility to support humanitarian assistance and disaster relief missions in the Pacific theater," McNabb wrote in a Sept. 17 memorandum to key military officials. McNabb also asked the Department of Transportation consider Guam's expanding military role as it weighs grants and economic stimulus funding for critical transportation projects.

The Military Surface Deployment and Distribution Command made the decision two weeks after McNabb toured the Port of Guam, a news release from the office of Guam Delegate Madeleine Bordallo said yesterday. "Our community will benefit from the strategic port designation," Bordallo said in the release. "The military buildup will increase the volume of traffic at the port and resources will be needed to help the port meet future demand.... This designation will help the port to receive federal funding to modernize port infrastructure and cargo handling."

Monte Mesa, chairman of the port's board of directors, called the designation "a very good validation of our port master plan."

"It highlights the critical need for our port to be developed to a modern, world-class standards," said Mesa.

Gov. Felix Camacho also welcomed the military's decision.

"The recognition of our island's only port as a strategic designation brings great economic opportunities and benefits for Guam," Camacho said in a release. "This acknowledgment will help strengthen the administration, and port management's efforts when applying for funding that will modernize and expand the port in order to prepare it for the military buildup."

About 8,000 Marines, plus about 9,000 of their dependents, are expected to transfer to Guam from Okinawa, Japan, by 2014.

JGPO: No Secret, But Admits to Withholding Information

JGPO: No secrets
But official admits to withholding information
Friday, 22 May 2009 03:19
by Jude Lizama
Variety News Staff

CAPTAIN Ulysses O. Zalamea, deputy director of the Joint Guam Program Office, admitted yesterday that there are components of the master plan for the military buildup that are being withheld from the public but he was quick to clarify that such decision has nothing to do with national security or secrecy.

“We have this massive plan that we are developing, as we are doing the environmental impact statement. We have not fully released the massive plan to the public,” Zalamea said during his presentation on “Guam Strategic Military Realignment Program Update” before the Guam Hotel and Restaurant Association at the Sheraton Laguna Guam Resort yesterday.

Zalamea said the JGPO has identified the items that have not been released to the public, but he stressed that “It’s not because of national security, but because our plan is not complete.”

He said JGPO wants to be cautious with releasing information but “not because we are keeping secrets.”

“If we release a plan that is not complete then we will lead the public to make wrong conclusions and wrong assumptions. We just want to make sure that whatever we release is accurate and correct. At this point, most of the things we’re doing are still in the planning stages,” Zalamea said.

Master plan

JGPO’s “Guam Joint Military Master Plan” involves details of the relocation of Marines and their family members from Okinawa to Guam. It also provides for the establishment of a pier for transient [nuclear powered aircraft carriers], and the positioning of an Army Air and Missile Defense Task Force on Guam.

The plan is to continue to establish an intelligence, surveillance, reconnaissance hub on island, and to continue other Department of Defense programs to improve force readiness and quality of life.

Over $1 billion is projected for fiscal year 2010 buildup.

“We want the community to understand what we are doing because if they don’t know what we are doing, they will be questioning our intent and purposes. If they are informed, then they can make better decisions for their lives,” Zalamea added.

“For us, it’s very important that the people of Guam are aware what we’re doing and what we’re planning to do. When the Marines show up, we’ll be part of the community. We want to be good neighbors,” he added.

Zalamea began his presentation by stating that “careful analysis of assets, capabilities and requirements,” helped the U.S. military to choose Guam as the “preferred location to relocate Marines from Japan.”

Stragetic location

GHRA members also listened to Zalamea’s emphasis on the island’s strategic importance.

“It would take a ship from San Diego traveling at 16kn [knots], 16 days to get to Taiwan, from Hawaii, 12 days, But from Guam, only four days,” he said.

“It would take a C-17 aircraft 13 hours to fly from the west coast to Taiwan, from Hawaii, almost eight hours, but from Guam, three hours and 20 minutes. The strategic location of Guam is very important,” he added.

The island is less than 2,000 nautical miles from locations like Seoul, Korea; Manila, Philippines and Taiwan, whereas it would take approximately 3,778NM to reach Seoul from Alaska, and 5,682NM to reach Japan from San Diego.

By 2014, JGPO forecasts a dramatic increase in active duty members and their dependents from 14,000 to 38,000.

New influxes of active duty members will come by way of 8,000 Marines, a U.S. Army Battalion consisting of 630 AD members, and 240 AD members from the U.S. Coast Guard. A combined total of 10,130 Marines, Army and USCG dependents will add to the island’s population.

“We have monthly meetings with the governor. We brief the senators on a regular basis. We talk to the mayors on a regular basis. On our plan, we are doing something to reach out to the government of Guam and the community in general,” said Zalamea on JGPO’s community outreach efforts.

“I think it has produced a good healthy dialogue, especially with the mayors because they are in touch with what’s going on with the community. They have given us advice on how to proceed. For me, that has been the most beneficial,” he added.

Anderson's Strategic Importance

Andersen Air Force Base's Location Gives U.S. Air Force A Strategic Advantage In The Pacific
Written by Senior Airman John Schondelmeyer
36th Wing Public Affairs, Andersen AFB
Sunday, August 17, 2008 10:18 AM

ANDERSEN AIR FORCE BASE, Guam - B-52 Stratofortressess and other Air Force fighters, tankers and air control aircraft occupy the flightline at Andersen here July 29. The aircraft, deployed from several Air Force bases, are here to promote regional security and stability through three main focus areas: a continuous forward presence; a robust international exercise and training program; and significant joint military training exercises. By maintaining a continuous forward presence and conducting joint exercises, the Pacific Air Force is able to foster improved relations and interoperability with its regional friends and allies.(U.S. Air Force photo by Airman 1St Class Cory Todd)

ANDERSEN AFB, Guam - Andersen is a strategically located, forward main operating base in the Pacific. The constant rotation of Andersen has an impressive roster of aircraft that are housed here throughout any given cycle. In 2008 alone, Andersen has been a temporary home to airborne warning and control system, B-2s, B-52s, F-15s, F-22s, cargo, tankers, and a variety of naval aircraft. The base is postured to support operations across the spectrum of conflicts and provides extraordinary flexibilities for the Pacific command.

Sad, But True

Unpingco: US hasn't changed attitude toward Chamorros
By Mar-Vic Cagurangan
Variety News Staff
June 20. 2007

SENATOR Tony Unpingco, R-Santa Rita, believing that the United States hasn't changed its post-war attitude toward Chamorros, urges the people of Guam to "stand up for our rights."

"Right after the war, there were 250,000 military personnel on island. The landscape and the mood may be totally different now, but the American attitude toward us seems to remain the same," said Unpingco, chairman of the military and veterans affairs committee.

Unpingco said the secret memo that has been kept in confidential file since 1945 "opens up a lot of bad memories."

He was referring to the memo issued on Nov. 21, 1945 by Vice Adm. G.D. Murray, then commander of the Marianas Navy Force, which revealed the United States' apparent condescension toward the island's residents.

Murray stated that "the economic development and administration of relatively few native inhabitants should be subordinate to the real purpose for which those islands are held."

The island's commercial or industrial value and its resources were "of little or no relative importance to the welfare of the United States," he added.

"We're not a piece of property," Unpingco said.

He said the U.S.'s condescending attitude has been evident in the way federal officials ignore Guam's demand for war reparation and the veterans' claims.

"I would like to think that the U.S. policy has changed but the attitude still exists. Most of the Americans in mainland don't know who we are. They don't recognize that we are a part of the United States. They need to be educated about Guam," Unpingco said.

"It irritates you and gets you fired up because of these stupid people. We need to stand up and let them know who we are," he added.

Debbie Quinata, maga'haga of Nasion Chamoru, said the secret memo was consistent with the way the U.S. military is currently making decisions for Guam.

"That's how they see us ― a convenient possession to serve their war. Their only intention is to turn Guam into one big military base," Quinata said.

She described the military officials' scoping meeting on Guam as a farcical "PR job" that is only meant to follow a procedure.

"They pretend to be interested in how the community feels about the military buildup. They pretend to take our inputs when, in fact, whatever we tell them doesn't matter because they have already made the decision," Quinata said.

"They're only holding these meetings to comply with the requirement and complete the paper work. This is almost a comedy," she added.

Quinata also lambasted elected leaders for not showing up at the scoping meetings with military officials. "We elected them to represent us, but where are they?" she asked.

At Monday's scoping meeting at the Hilton Hotel, Quinata said only members of Nasion Chamoru showed up to represent the civilian population.

Secret Military Memo

1945 secret memo reveals US real intention for Guam
By Mar-Vic Cagurangan
Variety News Staff
June 19, 2007

IF THE U.S. government is making military decisions based on its post-war policy for Guam, then the civilian population might not expect too much help from the federal government when 8,000 Marines arrive from Okinawa because the island’s economic development was the least of its concern.

In a secret memo issued on Nov. 21, 1945, Vice Adm. G.D. Murray, then commander of the Marianas Navy Force, stated that “the economic development and administration of relatively few native inhabitants should be subordinate to the real purpose for which those islands are held.”

“Military control of these islands is essential as their military value far outweighs their economic value,” Murray stated in the three-page memo that recommended the Navy’s control of Guam and other western Pacific islands, including American Samoa.

While recognizing Guam’s strategic importance, Murray said the island’s commercial or industrial value and its resources were “of little or no relative importance to the welfare of the United States.”

“From the military stand point,” Murray said, “a contented healthy and loyal native population contributes a strong link in the strength of those lands as bases.”
Murray described the island natives as “simple people, requiring few of our modern luxuries for their welfare and happiness.”

“The characteristics and nature of the majority of inhabitants on these islands are such that the artificial or forced raising of their standard of living to one approaching that of the United States would be detrimental to their best interest and would contribute little to the safety and welfare of the United States,” Murray said.

The U.S. military government on Guam began on June 21, 1898, with the surrender of Spanish troops. By virtue of the Treaty of Peace signed in Paris on Dec. 10, 1898, Spain ceded Guam, along with the Philippines and Puerto Rico, to the U.S.
Guam was invaded by Japan in 1941, and recaptured by the U.S. on July 21, 1944, which is yearly celebrated on island as “Liberation Day.”

Guam’s strategic location, long recognized by the military, remains to be valuable to the U.S. defense system, hence the unabated military expansion on island.

The business sector welcomes the military buildup, which is touted to generate a construction boom, spur business activities and generate thousands of jobs.
With limited infrastructure on Guam, however, local leaders acknowledge that the island is not prepared to accommodate the influx of population that will be transferred from Okinawa.

Local leaders have not received assurance of federal assistance to aid the civilian population with the need for infrastructure developments and increased supply of water and power.

The 2008 Military Construction and Veterans Affairs Appropriations Act passed by the House of Representatives last week appropriates $345 million only for military construction projects that would accommodate the needs of military personnel stationed on Guam.

The 2008 construction budget only covers projects within the Navy base such as the Kilo Wharf extension, the improvement of security of electrical systems, housing and fitness for Navy personnel, upgrade of the Naval Base Guam wastewater treatment plant, and infrastructure development at Northwest Field.

But just the same, Congresswoman Madeleine Bordallo expects the military construction activities to “go a long way in stimulating our economy and new tax revenues from these federal projects will be a significant help to our island once the projects are undertaken.”

Fortress Hubs

David Axe
U.S. is building up forces on strategic islands in the Far East
Aviation Week
April 27, 2007

U.S. Air Force KC-135R Stratotanker angles toward Kadena Air Base from the sea, its four turbofans idling as it flares for landing. A Navy P-3C Orion patrol plane is visible through the bluish smoke as the tanker's tires touch the runway. The P-3C accelerates to its place in a long line of aircraft waiting to take off, including F-15C Eagle fighters and, for the first time outside the U.S., brand-new F-22A Raptor stealth fighters on a three-month deployment from Langley, Va. One by one the fighters roar into the bright blue sky over this Japanese island, heading for an ocean range where they will practice aerial combat and tanking, preparing for the day when they might be ordered to sweep the skies of Chinese or North Korean warplanes as part of the defense of Taiwan or a bombing campaign against Kim Jong Il's nuclear facilities.

Thousands of miles from Okinawa, U.S. ground forces are fighting insurgents in Iraq and Afghanistan, conflicts that have effectively monopolized the nation's deployable land power. But in the Pacific, the Pentagon's focus is on the opposite end of the spectrum of potential conflict: The perceived threats here are large industrial militaries equipped with ships, aircraft and tanks, whose commanders develop strategies for traditional goals like capturing territory. The 300,000-strong U.S. forces arrayed to defeat these threats are, in contrast to those fighting in the war on terror, primarily air and naval.

Coalition forces in Iraq and Afghanistan increasingly promote soft strategies such as reconstruction, humanitarian aid and foreign security-force reform in order to win a conflict with relatively little direct combat. In the Pacific, by contrast, improving U.S. forces means spending big dollars to outfit them with the latest hardware while also expanding the sprawling bases that will serve as "fortress hubs" for future operations in the region. In coming years, Pacific Command is gaining three permanent F-22 squadrons, 16 C-17 Globemaster airlifters, two additional nuclear attack submarines and the first Littoral Combat Ships, in addition to its present forces.

"Arms buildup? I wouldn't use that language," says Air Force Maj. David Griesmer from Pacific Command, which has its headquarters in Hawaii. "There's certainly an acknowledgment that Pacom is half the world. These capabilities need to either go on one side [of the world] or the other. The Asia-Pacific region is growing. It's the way of the future. There's a large amount of economic activity." Plus, he adds, "The six largest militaries are in this area," a reference to China, the U.S., Russia, India, North Korea and South Korea.

To many observers, in fact, the future looks a lot like the past--the Cold War, but with an Asian flair.

Indeed, the linchpin bases for U.S. Pacific strategy are both prizes from World War II to which the Cold War was a grand corollary. Okinawa, Japan's southernmost prefecture and the site of Kadena AB among other U.S. installations, was wrested from Japan during a three-month struggle in 1945, during which at least 200,000 people died. Guam, the other major U.S. hub in the Pacific, was invaded and occupied by Japan between 1941 and 1944. More than 20,000 people died when the U.S. retook the island.

The locations and geographies of the outposts dictate their roles. Despite being crowded and something of a political hot potato, Okinawa's proximity to the Taiwan Strait and the Korean Peninsula--just over an hour's flight to either--and the sheer size of Kadena, one of the largest U.S. air bases in the world, means it is indispensable as a base for short-range aircraft that must react quickly.

At Kadena, alongside 7,000 personnel, the USAF has permanently stationed more than 50 F-15s plus tankers, E-3 Sentry radar planes, HH-60G rescue choppers and Special Forces aircraft, all belonging to the 18th Wing. Elsewhere on Okinawa, the Marines fly F/A-18 Hornet fighters, tankers and helicopters. RC-135 Rivet Joint spy planes and EA-6B Prowler jammers are frequent guests. The Navy's six Pacific Fleet aircraft carriers, including the USS Kitty Hawk (CV-63), homeported in Yokosuka, Japan, are also regular visitors to the area with their Hornets, F/A-18E/F Super Hornets, E-2C Hawkeye radar planes and helicopters. And in a crisis, perhaps hundreds of U.S.-based fighter aircraft would converge on Okinawa.

"Because of our capability to stage forces out of here--this is a huge runway--we do believe we have unmatched air power," says Kadena official John Monroe. "That's probably the most important thing about Kadena."

During testimony before the House Armed Services Committee, then Pacom chief, Navy Adm. William Fallon, and Army Gen. Burwell Bell, commander of U.S. forces in South Korea, seconded Monroe's assessment, announcing that U.S. Pacific forces maintain "overmatch" in the region, especially with regard to aircraft and ships. But Bell conceded that bomb and missile stockpiles were a potentially limiting factor.

That's a view the Air Force shares. Hence its investment in a 6,000-acre munitions storage area adjacent to the Kadena runway, the size of which exceeds that of many air bases elsewhere in the world. "We keep munitions for several types of aircraft because we are going to be a forward staging base," Monroe explains.

The F-22 deployment to Kadena, which began in February, is exercising the base's ability to support visiting fighter units in addition to testing the expeditionary skills of F-22 pilots and maintainers from the 27th Fighter Sqdn., which is part of the 1st Fighter Wing. And the deployment is paving the way for permanent basing of three Raptor squadrons in the region, starting with 18 jets for the Alaska-based 3rd Wing this year.

Many regions might have hosted the new fighter's first foreign deployment. But the Pacific is a perfect fit for the Raptor "because it can travel long distances," Griesmer says. The Raptor's range, while classified, exceeds that of most other fighters.

But 27th Fighter Sqdn. commander Lt. Col. Wade Tolliver says that, more than range, the Raptor's ability to penetrate air defenses--thanks to its speed, stealth and sensors--makes it uniquely qualified for Pacific duty as a trailblazer for all those follow-on forces Monroe describes. "There are a lot of countries out there that have developed highly integrated air-defense systems," Tolliver says. "The United States and its allies are used to going to a place and building up things prior to making an offensive. . . . What we need to do is take some of our assets that have special capabilities--B-2s, F-22s, F-117s--and roll back those integrated air-defense systems so we can bring in our joint forces."

From a training perspective, the Pacific is ideal for fighter pilots due to the high concentration of friendly jets for mock dogfighting, and because of the large number of tankers at Kadena and other bases. "Tanker capability is very important," Griesmer says of the Pacific. "Look at the map and see all the blue." But due to tanker shortages in the U.S. owing to the fleet's advanced age, the fighter pilots that might have to rely on aerial refueling during a Pacific surge find it difficult to keep up that perishable skill. "Normally, we tank about once a week because we're sharing tanking assets with other fighters on the East Coast," says Capt. Chris Gentile from the 27th Fighter Sqdn. But at Kadena, he and the other Raptor jockeys tank almost every day.

Distance, and its perils, define Pacific operations. Kadena's proximity to potential battlefields is an advantage for short-range fighters, but a liability too, since it's within range of North Korea's and China's tactical ballistic missiles. The U.S. Navy has deployed rudimentary sea-based missile defenses in the Sea of Japan in the form of Raytheon SM-3 Standard interceptors on board a handful of the 175 ships in the Pacific Fleet. As a backstop, in August the Army stationed a Lockheed Martin PAC-3 anti-missile battery at Kadena to protect the air base.

Guam, more than 1,000 mi. to the south, is protected from ballistic missiles by its distance, allowing the Army to postpone a planned PAC-3 deployment to the island to around 2012. What's more, while local political opposition has long plagued U.S. forces in Japan, the Chamorros of Guam mostly welcome the 12,000 military personnel on the island. "It may be easier for us to be there, as far as the diplomatic issue is concerned," Monroe says "but if we're in Guam, we're out of the fight" due to the distance.

This distance has shaped the force structure on Guam. For three years, the island's Andersen Air Base has hosted rotations of heavy bombers, tankers and patrol planes from the U.S., all assets with long ranges and long loiter times that mitigate the impact of distance on their operations. In February, the USAF activated the 36th Operations Group on the island to smooth the comings and goings of B-52H Stratofortresses, B-1B Lancers and B-2A Spirits. And this year, the Air Force will permanently station RQ-4B Global Hawk spy drones at Andersen. To support these aircraft plus the three attack submarines that began arriving in 2002, two more submarines that are planned and as many as 8,000 Marines from Okinawa, the Pentagon is investing up to $1 billion in construction over the next decade.

Okinawa and Guam thus fulfill complementary roles in U.S. Pacific strategy-the former as a staging base for short-range fighters, the latter as a safer, albeit more distant, base for bombers, drones and submarines.

Terror Threat for Guam

Report warns Guam, CNMI
Post-9/11 report details terror threat
By Gaynor Dumat-ol Daleno
Pacific Daily News
gdumat-ol@guampdn.com

Guam and the Northern Marianas offer a "ready-made environment" for terror groups to launch attacks on U.S. facilities and personnel, according to a report that assessed security vulnerabilities on the islands in the aftermath of the 9/11 terror attacks.

With the nation's security at stake and the islands vulnerable to terror groups, the report states that "the level of safeguards and federal control" on the islands has not measured up.

A federal government regional security specialist prepared the report five years ago, but it has resurfaced in light of the federal conspiracy case filed earlier last week against Mark D. Zachares.

Zachares, a former Northern Marianas Cabinet official and ex-congressional staffer, said he used his job while still employed in the U.S. Congress to seek a copy of the report at the request of now disgraced lobbyist Jack Abramoff.

Zachares pleaded guilty on April 24 and is cooperating with authorities in the widening investigation into public corruption and Abramoff's lobbying activities. Abramoff has pleaded guilty to corruption and fraud charges.

The prosecution's case against Zachares in the U.S. District Court of the District of Columbia states that he used his various positions as congressional staffer to obtain insider information for Abramoff in exchange for a "steady stream" of gifts from the lobbyist and his associates.

Zachares in plea documents admitted that he accepted $10,000 in two wire transfers, a golfing trip to Scotland that included luxury accommodations, and a $160,000 Gulfstream charter jet service; and $30,000 worth of tickets to sporting events and concerts in the Washington, D.C., area.

Zachares is cooperating with prosecutors and, according to his plea agreement, has to provide "substantial assistance" in the ongoing federal investigation.

The security assessment report wasn't meant to be seen by lobbyists like Abramoff, who at the time was being paid by the Northern Marianas government to fight any federal attempt to take away immigration powers from the CNMI government.

'High-risk environment'
Local immigration control in the CNMI has helped the local economy tap into foreign workers' skills for lower than U.S. minimum wage, but at the same time, CNMI control of immigration has become a loophole in the tight federal screening of foreigners entering other parts of the United States, including Guam, according to previous PDN interviews with authorities.

The 2002 report states if the "high-risk environment is allowed to stand, it will continue to threaten federal and public interests and seriously jeopardize the national security of the United States."

Guam Delegate Madeleine Bordallo last week said: "It is an egregious breach of the public trust for a federal employee to provide a classified government report to a lobbyist for private gain.

"I would not go so far as to say our nation's security was compromised," the delegate said, "but I would say that classified information is classified for a reason."

Since the Abramoff public corruption scandal broke more than a year ago, the Democrats in the U.S. Congress have tightened the House rules, but Democrats say more should be done to "eradicate the corrupt lobbying practices that the Abramoff scandals represent."

Abramoff was paid about $7 million by the Northern Marianas government between 1998 and 2002, according to Zachares' plea documents.

Meissner report
The 2002 security report strongly recommended tighter scrutiny of foreigners entering the islands, in part by applying U.S. immigration law in the Northern Marianas and positioning federal Customs agents at Guam points of entry for passengers and cargo.
The report is labeled "sensitive -- for limited official use only".

R. G. Meissner, a regional security specialist with the U.S. Attorney's Office East District of Virginia prepared the report on April 25, 2002.

The report was prepared at the request of Frederick Black, then-acting U.S. Attorney for the Districts of Guam and the CNMI.

According to the report, Meissner visited both districts in January and February 2002. Meissner said federal law enforcement officials, and a variety of military and territorial officials were consulted.

Previously compiled documents, surveys, reports, newspaper articles and other information pertaining to security-related actions also were reviewed, according to the report.

The CNMI, according to CNMI Attorney General Matthew Gregory, also is "a victim of the Abramoff conspiracy in other ways, not only in the overcharging of lobbying fees, but most significantly in the besmirching of the commonwealth's reputation."

Gregory stated, in a written comment, that the report "is primarily focused on physical security," of federal offices on the islands and emphasizes obtaining additional funding from Washington.

"CNMI immigration is mentioned almost as an afterthought," Gregory stated.

'Single most cause of concern'
The report states that the lack of oversight by federal immigration law enforcers over the screening of foreigners entering the CNMI is "the single most cause of concern" expressed by all federal law enforcement officials who provided input for the report.

Abramoff allegedly used his connections at the Justice Department to suppress the security-risk assessment report, according to a January 2006 statement from California Rep. George Miller and several other Democratic members of Congress.

The report was never acted upon, according to the statement from the congressional Democrats.

"The entire justice system lacks credibility when ... lobbyists are permitted to gain access to information that they cannot legally have," according John Conyers, senior Democrat on the House Judiciary Committee, in the January 2006 joint statement that also included the signature of Bordallo.

The risk assessment report was made at the request of Black, the acting Assistant U.S. Attorney on Guam and the CNMI at the time, according to a Justice Department Office of Inspector General report last year.

Examples cited
Prepared seven months after 9/11, the report lists examples of the presence of certain people or groups on the islands that raise security concerns:

A man who claimed to be Iranian attempted to enter Guam using forged documents, and immediately requested asylum when arrested.
"Federal authorities fear that this individual is from Kabul and has terrorist ties," the report noted.

During a routine discussion between a member of the U.S. Attorney's Office and an official of the Guam airport agency, it was learned that the Guam airport received letters from three different addresses within Iraq.

"Each letter contained a request for maps, posters and promotional materials about Guam and the airport," the security report stated. "The information was compiled and was being readied for dispatch when it was discovered by a supervisor who brought the requests to the attention of higher management. No materials or information were provided."


Al-Qaida concern
Past incidents provide sufficient indication that Guam and the CNMI are being considered as possible targets for terrorist activity, according to the report.
It mentions a "bio-terrorism threat" that was received at several local government locations.

The threat was credited to al-Qaida "as much as one year prior to the 9/11 attacks on the World Trade Center," according to the report.

The identification of possible al-Qaida "cell members and other highly questionable individuals foster additional concern," according to the report.

"Additionally, there is a growing sentiment among federal officials that since the attacks against U.S. sites in Malaysia and Singapore were foiled, Guam and the CNMI have ... been moved up on a list of potential targets in the Pacific. These factors and others create a valid concern," according to the five-year-old security report.

While the report was being prepared, according to Meissner, a federal attorney on Guam was attempting to gather "open-source information" -- for the report -- about bombings in the Philippines.

But in the process of doing the electronic research, according to the report, the federal attorney's anti-hacking software warned that "the online activity was being monitored from a source in Pakistan."


Transnational crime organizations
The report made a host of recommendations, but it's unclear whether the recommendations were ever followed.

Besides beefing up Guam and Northern Marianas border security with federal law enforcers, the report also recommended "continuous on-island oversight of financial transactions ... to curtail the activities of transnational criminal organizations."

The report states there's indication of presence of Japanese, Russian, Chinese and other organized crime groups in the Northern Marianas.

"It would also provide U.S. authorities a means to monitor and prevent a flow of funding to terrorist groups and the countries that sponsor and support their efforts," according to the report.

"The presence of several transnational criminal organizations on Guam and in the CNMI coupled with the lack of federal immigration, customs and interdiction patrols present a critical vulnerability to the federal government and a ready made environment for terrorist groups to perpetrate any number of actions," according to the report.


'Done all they can'
U.S. Attorney Leonardo Rapadas, who covers Guam and replaced Black in the CNMI, said in a written response to e-mailed comments from the PDN: "All matters related to the Abramoff case are being handled by the Task Force from the U.S. Department of Justice in Washington, D.C."

But he said federal efforts on the island continue to be geared toward protecting the islands against security threats.

"We want to assure those who reside on Guam and in the CNMI that federal and local authorities have done all they can to protect their safety," Rapadas said. "Our efforts are continuing, we are at all times seeking to strengthen and improve the defenses against terrorist and national security threats."

Originally published April 30, 2007

Guam: What the Pentagon Forgets It Already Has

Looking for Friendly Overseas Base, Pentagon Finds It Already Has One

April 7, 2004
New York Times
By JAMES BROOKE

ANDERSEN AIR FORCE BASE, Guam - Washed by a southwesterly Pacific breeze, a line of B-52 Stratofortress bombers stand parked on the hot tarmac here, their tails stenciled with "MT," a reminder that they flew here recently from the snows of Minot, N.D.

Away for more than a decade, the B-52's, the United States' largest bombers, are back in Guam, part of a wide-ranging drive by the Pentagon to make this island, an American territory, a "power projection hub" on the edge of Asia.

"We are openly talking about putting a fighter wing there, a tanker squadron there, a Global Hawk group there," Gen. William J. Begert, Pacific Air Forces commander, said by telephone from Hawaii, almost 4,000 miles east of here. The Global Hawk is an unmanned surveillance plane.

"Guam, first of all, is U.S. territory," General Begert said. "I don't need overflight rights. I don't need landing rights. I always have permission to go to Guam. It might as well be California or New Jersey."

Next year, Washington is to decide on a new round of base closings, the first in a decade. Opening the debate, Defense Secretary Donald H. Rumsfeld reported to Congress on March 23 that the military had 24 percent more base capacity than it needed.

Judging by Mr. Rumsfeld's comments after his trip here last November, Guam will be a winner in the base-closing process. This volcanic, 209-square-mile island, with a population of about 160,000, fits the Pentagon's new strategy of creating "lily pads" to allow for the rapid deployment of military muscle.

"Rumsfeld keeps saying, `What about Guam? Let's build up Guam,' " said an American diplomat in Tokyo, where the defense secretary stopped after visiting here.

The Navy loss its base at Subic Bay, the Philippines, in 1992 after the Philippine Senate refused to extend the lease, and American memories of that remain sharp. The diplomat added, "We don't want to be somewhere where they don't want us, where they can throw us out."

At the naval station here, Rear Adm. Arthur J. Johnson, the commander, said the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan had raised Guam's strategic value as the Pentagon realized the usefulness of an all-American outpost in Asia. "We invested huge amounts of money in facilities we could not use when we needed them, for example, Saudi Arabia," Admiral Johnson said. "Places where the U.S. is autonomous have come greatly to the fore."

Military officials here declined to discuss how Guam would fit into an American response to the rapid rise of China. But by moving ships and submarines to Guam, the Pentagon cuts "the tyranny of distance," trimming five days off a Pacific crossing from Hawaii, said Richard Halloran, a military analyst based in Hawaii.

"A lot of these moves are intended to deter China," Mr. Halloran, a freelance military writer, said from Honolulu, where the United States Pacific Command is based. "You are not threatening China, not in any way jeopardizing their security. On the other hand, if China becomes belligerent, you are in position to do something about it, particularly with the submarines and an aircraft carrier."

Carl Peterson, a businessman on Guam, said of Washington's low-key military buildup here: "It just sort of happens. Why disclose it? Why tell the Chinese what you are going to do before you do it?"

Later this year, a new nuclear-powered attack submarine is to arrive here, the third to make Guam its home port since 2002. While Washington debates whether a carrier should come here or to Hawaii, Guam's outer harbor is being dredged and World War II-era wharves are to be repaired for more efficient munitions handling.

["Guam's geo-strategic importance cannot be overstated," Adm. Thomas B. Fargo, the senior military officer in the Pacific, with 300,000 soldiers, sailors and marines under his command, said on March 31 in testimony before the House Armed Services Committee. "Both Navy and Air Force facilities will continue to figure prominently in Guam's increasing role as a power projection hub."]

Across the naval station here, new housing is being built, part of a near- doubling of military spending on the island from levels of a decade ago.

"Guam is no longer the trailer park of the Pacific," Admiral Johnson said of the new military investment. "Guam has emerged from backwater status to the center of the radar screen. This is rapidly becoming a focus for logistics, for strategic planning."

Washington's investment in Guam is most easily seen from the catwalk of Andersen's 13-story air traffic control tower.

Down below, work is under way on an air-conditioned, typhoon-resistant hangar for B-1 bombers, a huge war reserve material warehouse, a new base exchange shopping center, a new fitness and health center and a new base security center. Out of sight, new underground pipes are delivering aviation fuel directly to parking pads for jets, and the first of 60 munitions storage "igloos" are being built. To foil terrorists, workers are drilling water wells on base and burying power lines off base.

"This is by far the largest amount of construction I have seen at any Air Force base in my years in the service," said Capt. David Vandenburg, a 29-year-old Oklahoman who is chief of base development.

Captain Vandenburg's commander, Col. Paul K. White, said that when he was assigned here a year ago he was leery of Guam because of its sleepy reputation. "But this is a very exciting time to be here," he continued. "If bases are closed, the units will have to go somewhere."

Of the Pentagon's new appreciation for Guam, Mr. Peterson said: "Rumsfeld is high on Guam; he was heard asking, `How are we going to do Guam?' They are not showing their hand. But through innuendo and comments that we pick up on, everybody is suggesting there is going to be so much going on here."

While apartments, fitness centers and military support offices are not glamorous, they are essential for increasing what Capt. David M. Boone, a Navy Seabee, calls Guam's "surge capacity." In a military emergency, the island could quickly swell with planes, submarines, and ships.

"The real trick for me is to figure out how many people are going to be living here 10 years from now," said Captain Boone, who has command of military construction on Guam. "It is a moving target."

Guam has been a supply base since Spanish galleons from Manila stopped here to pick up fresh water and food before crossing the Pacific to Acapulco, Mexico. In the late 19th century, the island was a Spanish coaling station; the United States gained control in 1898 after the Spanish-American War. In recent decades, Air Force pilots dubbed Guam "the world's largest gas station."

But it is increasingly being used for military training. The Marines have rented typhoon-damaged structures for urban warfare exercises. Rural warfare training has been conducted in the southern jungles, forests so thick that one holdout Japanese soldier from World War II was captured only in 1972.

About 150 miles north of here, a small island serves as a bombing range. There is also the wide-open sea and the sky above it, with no one to complain about sonic booms.

"In Minot, the nearest bombing range is in Utah, a two-and-a-half hour flight," said Lt. Col. Robert Hyde, a 37-year-old Mississippian who commands the base's new unit of six B-52's. Referring to his training here with the Navy, Colonel Hyde said, "In North Dakota, obviously, you can't work easily with a carrier battle group."

During the Christmas 1972 bombing of North Vietnam, more than 150 B-52's flew from here. On a recent morning, bulldozers and pavers were upgrading the acres of tarmac that make Andersen comparable to a major international airport.

In this treeless landscape, even B-52's look small. In the shade of one the planes' huge, drooping wings, Master Sgt. Ralph Gillikan, a mechanic last stationed at the North Dakota base, surveyed the surrounding sea of concrete and said, "The parking here is good."

Dot on the Map Regains Large Strategic Stature

Dot on the Map Regains Large Strategic Stature
By Tony Perry
Los Angeles Times
January 28, 2003 in print edition A-5

TUMON BAY, Guam – In 1898, an intrepid Navy captain named Henry Glass boldly sailed his warship to this tropical isle and announced to the startled Spanish governor that the United States was taking control. The U.S. and Spain were at war, and the Navy needed Guam as a coaling station to support its fleet.

More than a century later, as the Bush administration threatens war with Iraq, Guam is once again a key factor in America’s ability to project military power in Asia and beyond. If there is an air war, B-52 and B-1 heavy bombers will probably be refueled in midair by planes loaded with jet fuel from three enormous tank farms run by the Air Force here.

And if those planes need more bombs, Guam’s cache of air-to-ground munitions is the largest in the region.

“Lots of things change in this world – weather, politics, economics – but geography doesn’t change,” said Adm. Walter Doran, commander of the Pacific Fleet. “Guam is where it is, and it will always be important to the security of the United States.”

Although the military downplays them, signs of a buildup are everywhere. For months, ships loaded with all the necessities of war – food, fuel, gear and ammunition – have been arriving at the Navy’s turquoise deep-water harbor. From here, beans and bullets are transferred to ships headed for the Persian Gulf.

Marines have trained here for street fighting at the new urban combat center, a complex of 200 buildings where troops learn the skills that may be needed if the U.S. offensive takes to the streets. Pilots from aircraft carriers have done numerous bombing runs on desolate Farallon de Medinilla island 188 miles to the north, the Navy’s only live-fire range in the western Pacific.

Still, for all of Guam’s centrality to the business of war, life appears calm on this self-governing, palm-tree-lined American territory 3,400 miles southwest of Hawaii. There is more talk about the aftermath of Typhoon Pongsona, which hit the island with 180-mph winds on Dec. 8, than there is of an impending war. Questions about a possible war are answered in confident, matter-of-fact tones.

“If the balloon goes up, we’re going to be ready to support a large number of aircraft and people flowing through here,” said Col. Joe Mudd, commander of the Air Force wing on Guam. “That’s what we do here.” That Guam remains central to U.S. military strategy shows how rapidly events have changed from what was anticipated after the Soviet Union disintegrated.

In 1993, the civilian-run Base Realignment and Closure Commission, assigned by Congress to downsize the military for the post-Cold War era, targeted facilities on Guam for a series of reductions and closures.

To many, Guam was seen as a relic of the days when the U.S. needed to be ready to engage the Soviet navy on the high seas. But even as the downsizing was being implemented, a cross-current in military thinking rediscovered Guam’s strategic position – just hours by air from most major Asian capitals – and the value of forward-deployed forces.

The result was that even as some facilities were being closed and the number of military personnel dropped by half, construction of new facilities was approved and new military units were assigned to the island. Guam, for example, will soon become home to a 250-person unit assigned to protect U.S. ships and personnel in foreign ports, a reaction to the attack on the destroyer Cole in Yemen, which left 17 sailors dead.

Since 2000, military construction on Guam has topped more than $300 million, with much more to come. Although nearly all of the projects were approved before Sept. 11, the terrorist attacks on the Pentagon and the World Trade Center confirmed the significance of Guam as a logistic hub, a way to reduce what the military calls the “tyranny of distance” from U.S. bases to the front lines of conflict.

Guam may never again reach the Cold War level when B-52s, ballistic-missile submarines and 10,000 sailors were stationed on this 212-square-mile island. But the idea of Guam as a backwater whose significance is waning has vanished.

“In my mind, Guam is going to be more important in the 21st century than it was at the latter part of the 20th,” said Doran, the fleet commander.

Talk like that is music to the ears of the officials on Guam, where a population of 160,000 is mired in double-digit unemployment. Devoid of manufacturing or agriculture, the local economy is dependent on the U.S. military and on Japanese tourists – for whom Guam is a low-budget alternative to Hawaii.

The U.S. cutbacks and the long slump of the Japanese economy have hit Guam like a punch to the gut.

Much of the island has a tumbledown look that ill fits the lushly green environment and sparkling beaches. Guamanian officials have encouraged the military to consider the island as a perfect spot to stage troops for the nation’s war on terrorism and possible conflict on the Korean peninsula, less than 2,000 miles away. A poll shows that 80% of the public agrees.

“All eyes should be on Guam after 9/11,” said the territory’s new U.S. congresswoman, Madeleine Bordallo. “Guam is not just the past. It is America’s future.” Bordallo has made military expansion her top priority. As Guam’s only representative, Bordallo has a vote in committee but not in the full House.

Support for the military may be higher in Guam than anywhere in the world where the U.S. has a base. Each year, Guam celebrates Liberation Day to commemorate the landing on Asan Beach by Marines in 1944 that ended a brutal occupation by Japanese forces.

Only after weeks of some of the bloodiest fighting of World War II were the Japanese routed and the native Chamorros freed from concentration camps and hiding places in the densely forested mountains. After the liberation, Fleet Adm. Chester Nimitz made Guam his headquarters for the final year of war.

In a report circulated in Congress, the Guam Chamber of Commerce noted that Guam is “a slice of America in the Western Pacific

The Navy has stationed two attack submarines at Guam, with a third on its way. The Marines say that the urban warfare center is superior to those at Camp Pendleton and at Camp Lejeune, N.C. And at Guam’s Andersen Air Force Base, the 66-million-gallon fuel tank system is the largest the Air Force runs anywhere in the world.

The system, still not complete, has already paid dividends. During the first two months of the U.S. offensive against the Taliban government in Afghanistan, the base provided 21 million gallons of fuel for warplanes.

“We did a year’s worth of fuel in two months,” said Maj. Robert Gibson.

Not all the military investment in Guam involves planes and ships. In 1997, with the approval of Congress, the Department of Defense opted to begin its own school system for the children of 4,000 sailors and 2,000 Air Force personnel.

Dissatisfaction with the local schools had long been a major complaint of personnel assigned here. And so with a massive airlift of materials and manpower by Air Force C-5 cargo planes, the military set about renovating buildings for its system, which now has two elementary and two middle schools and one high school.

At Guam South Elementary-Middle School, students seem untouched by their parents’ preparations for war. But their young lives have been changed in ways they cannot see. Since Sept. 11, the school has adopted a code-word system to warn teachers of potential trouble. Navy police are on alert to respond. As the most remote piece of America, Guam lives with a daily sense of vulnerability.

“Sept. 11 left a deep mark on this island, no doubt about it,” said school principal William Hall.