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 enjoyed
this video don't forget to Like, Share, and Subscribe for other awesome videos!