The build up on Guam

Washington Post:

People on this faraway island -- a U.S. territory 7,824 miles west of Los Angeles -- delight in calling Guam the "tip of the spear" for its role defending U.S. interests in the Far East.

Although the island is typhoon-plagued and earthquake-prone, cursed with bad traffic, unable to cope with its own garbage and overrun with invasive tree snakes that have eaten nearly all the birds, the Guamanians aren't just blowing smoke.

The Pentagon has chosen Guam, a quirkily American place that marries the beauty of Bali with the banality of Kmart, as the prime location in the western Pacific for projecting U.S. military muscle.

Guam has served as an important U.S. military outpost since World War II. But now the sultry tropical island, about three times the size of the District of Columbia and with a population of 173,000, is set to become a rapid-response platform for problems ranging from pirates to terrorists to tsunamis, as well as a highly visible reminder to China that the United States is nearby and watching.

To that end, U.S. Marines by the thousands and U.S. tax dollars by the billions ($13 billion at last count) are to be dispatched to Guam over the next six years, along with a major-league military kit that includes Trident submarines, a ballistic missile task force, Navy Special Operations forces and Air Force F-22 fighter jets. Nuclear-powered attack submarines and B-2 stealth bombers have already arrived, and preparations are being made to accommodate aircraft carriers.

The peacetime invasion, due to continue into 2014, will balloon the island's population by about 40,000 service people, contract workers and dependents, an increase of almost 25 percent. Real estate prices have jumped, and outside investors are descending on the island. A Chamber of Commerce poll found widespread popular support for the move.

"We can't help but boom," said Jeff Pleadwell, who owns Jeff's Pirates Cove, a beach hamburger joint, and expects his business to prosper. "But the island is going to change radically. Everyone is scared -- of how the Marines will behave. We also worry that life inside the base will be first-world, while outside the fence it is going to be third-world."

All in all, the Marine move is giving many Guamanians -- an extraordinarily patriotic people who fight and die in U.S. wars at rates much higher than on the mainland -- a serious case of the jitters.

"We are proud to be the tip of the spear, but the federal government needs to assist us to make sure that the quality of life outside the military fence line is better, not worse, after the Marines come," said Michael W. Cruz, lieutenant governor of Guam, a colonel in the Guam Army National Guard who has served in Iraq and a point man in local planning for the Marine move.

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Usually the Marines scare the enemy and not their host. Guam is replacing Okinawa as a base in the Pacific.

Guam has beautiful beaches and jungles and in the late 1960s had some of the worst Mexican food I ever encountered. I spent a couple of weeks there after being medivaced from Vietnam. It was mostly an unpleasant experience. The hospital on Guam was built in the late 40s early 50s and was red brick on the outside. It reminded me of government buildings in suburban DC at the time.

The head of the hospital treated patients like they were malingerers. I had to deal with sadistic rehab nurses who tortured me on a daily basis. Fortunately, the commander of the hospital went on leave and my doctor took his place. He had me on a plane to take me to Bethesda Naval hospital the next day and I was in surgery to repair nerve damage three days later.

I did get to talk with B-52 pilots stationed at the Air Force base on Guam, who came over to hustle the nurses at the hospital. Some were nice guys and some were jerks, but they were all interested in talking with someone who had actually seen the results of their "arc light" strikes and watched them from a safe distance.

The strikes were some of the most awesome fireworks I have ever seen. With the new precision bombing, they are unlikely to ever be seen again. They were mainly chewing up jungle and denying space to the communist infiltrators. Those who survived the strikes described being tossed through the air by the concussions. The ones used around Khe Sanh left the hills overlooking the combat base looking like a moon scape. That is the first time these strikes were used as close air support.

Guam is about to become a giant aircraft carrier and troop support area. The troops are likely to get as bored as they do an a ship so the commanders will need to keep them busy preparing and training for war. I suspect that the increased presence will bring new business and hopefully better Mexican food.