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Hello everyone, welcome back again with us in another episode of Military TV. Today we
want to discuss about “Island of Guam” and why is it important to the U.S?
Let's start with the history Guam, like the other Mariana Islands, was
settled by the second quarter of the 2nd millennium BCE by an Indonesian-Filipino people. Archaeological
research shows that by 800 CE they had developed a complex society that erected elaborate stone
pillars, which served as supports for communal houses. Guam is situated about 1,300 mi east
of the Philippines, about 1,100 mi north of Papua New Guinea, 4,000 mi west of Hawaii
and 2,100 mi southeast of North Korea! The island lies on about the same latitude as
Bangkok, Thailand. It is the southernmost island of the Marianas Island Arc, a submerged
mountain range that extends 1,550 mi from Guam in south to near Japan. The chain of
islands stretches along the Mariana Trench, a deep depression in the ocean floor and the
deepest part of the world's oceans. Ferdinand Magellan probably landed on Guam
in 1521. Spain officially claimed the island in 1565 but did not attempt to conquer it
until the latter part of the 17th century. After an uprising in 1670 and 25 years of
intermittent warfare, the Spanish subdued the population with considerable bloodshed.
Diseases introduced by the Europeans, particularly smallpox and influenza, also played an important
role in the decimation of the population. Typhoons in 1671 and 1693 caused further destruction
and loss of life. Guam remained a Spanish possession until 1898, when, in the course
of the Spanish-American War, the U.S. warship Charleston steamed into Apra Harbor and bombarded
the old fort. Guam was ceded to the United States, and Spain sold the other islands of
the Marianas to Germany in 1899. From that time until 1950 (except for the period of
its occupation by the Japanese during World War II) the governor of the island was a naval
officer appointed by the president of the United States.
During World War II the Japanese landed on Guam just after the Pearl Harbor attack and
occupied the island by December 12, 1941. Allied forces retook Guam by August 10, 1944.
It was a major air and naval base for the squadrons of bombers that attacked Japan near
the end of the war. Under the jurisdiction of the U.S. Navy, it was made a territory
that was administered by the U.S. Department of the Interior. Various offices within that
department have administered Guam, and the Office of Insular Affairs has had responsibility
since 1995. Guam remains the site of major U.S. naval and air bases; about one-third
of the land in Guam is owned by the U.S. armed forces. During the Vietnam War, the Air Force
sent 155 B-52 bombers to Andersen to hit targets in Southeast Asia. Guam was also a refueling
and transfer spot for military personnel heading to Southeast Asia. Many refugees fleeing Vietnam
were evacuated through Guam. In the 1970s Guam gradually began to move
toward representative self-government. That’s why the island of Guam in the western Pacific
Ocean in Micronesia is playing a growing role in the contested, troublesome, near-peer competition
environment. The Defense Department is investing more into the military facilities of this
U.S. territory, including adding networking and bandwidth solutions; joint all-domain
command and control; and intelligence, surveillance and reconnaissance solutions as well as additional
U.S. forces. The measures will add key communications and advanced capabilities to the island as
well as increase the military’s power projection abilities.
Furthermore, Guam also serves as a major military base for the United States, with U.S. Air
Force and Navy installations occupying some 29 percent of the island's total land area.
It is also a major hub for submarine communications cables between the western United States,
Hawaii, Australia, and Asia. In 2006 the United States and Japan settled on a framework agreement
that would transfer some 8,000 U.S. Marines and their dependents from Okinawa to Guam.
The multibillion-dollar plan was to be completed by 2014, but it quickly stalled amid questions
about the environmental impact of the move as well as Department of Defense considerations
regarding the U.S. force posture in the Pacific. A revised plan was released in 2015 that reduced
the number of relocated Marines to 5,000 and had a projected completion date in the mid-2020s.
For your information, with an area of only 544 square kilometers, the current population
of Guam is 169,980 as of Monday, April 26, 2021, based on Worldometer elaboration of
the latest United Nations data. In other words, Guam was an important asset
in the Pacific during the Vietnam War, as a base for B-52 bombers headed for missions
in Southeast Asia. It was also used as a transit point for evacuating Vietnamese refugees.
And now, let's have a look at the U.S. military's role on the island, which became a U.S. territory
in 1898. There are two major bases on Guam: Andersen
Air Force Base in the north and Naval Base Guam in the south. They are both managed under
Joint Base Marianas. The tourist district of Tumon, home to many of Guam's hotels and
resorts, is in between. The naval base dates to 1898, when the U.S. took over Guam from
Spain after the Spanish-American War. The airbase was built in 1944 when the U.S. was
preparing to send bombers to Japan during World War II.
Today, Naval Base Guam is the home port for four nuclear-powered fast-attack submarines
and two submarine tenders. Anderson Air Force Base hosts a Navy helicopter squadron and
Air Force bombers that rotate to Guam from the U.S. mainland. It has two 2-mile long
runways and large fuel and munitions storage facilities. Guam is strategically located
a short flight from the Korean peninsula and other potential flashpoints in East Asia.
Seoul is 2,000 miles to the northwest, Tokyo is 1,500 miles north and Taipei is 1,700 miles
west. Because Guam is a U.S. territory, the U.S. military may launch forces from there
without worrying about upsetting a host nation that may object to U.S. actions.
The naval base is an important outpost for U.S. fast-attack submarines that are a key
means for gathering intelligence in the region, including the Korean peninsula and the South
China Sea where China has been building military bases on man-made islands. In addition, the
U.S. military began rotating bombers the B-2 stealth bomber as well as the B-1 and B-52
to Andersen in 2004. It did so to compensate for U.S. forces diverted from other bases
in the Asia-Pacific region to fight in the Middle East. The rotations also came as North
Korea increasingly upped the ante in the standoff over its development of nuclear weapons.
In 2013, the Army sent a missile defense system to Guam called Terminal High Altitude Area
Defense, or THAAD. It's designed to destroy ballistic missiles during their final phase
of flight. A THAAD battery includes a truck-mounted launcher, tracking radar, interceptor missiles
and an integrated fire control system. Because that reason, Guam become a strategic location
on the globe. Thanks for watching, and as always if you
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