Airmen need no reminders of Guam’s location, significance - Army Community - Army Discussions - Army Times

Airmen need no reminders of Guam’s location, significance

When the Air Force lost a B-2A Spirit bomber in Guam on Feb. 23, news outlets saw a need to remind readers where Guam is.

“A U.S. territory 3,700 miles southwest of Hawaii,” The Associated Press explained helpfully.

Another news report seized upon the B-2A crash as a reason to recount the Pacific island’s occupation by the Japanese during World War II, its liberation by a U.S. invasion force and its role as a B-52 Stratofortress base during the Vietnam conflict.

Lt. Gen. Loyd S. “Chip” Utterback, commander of 13th Air Force, probably doesn’t need lessons in Guam’s geography or history.

Guam is “an exciting story,” Utterback said. For decades after the Vietnam War, Guam was known to airmen “mostly for stopovers and exercises — but that’s changing.”

Today, Andersen Air Force Base in Guam has its own operations group, is home to constant deployments by bombers and tankers, hosts fighter units on four-month duty stints, and is swarming with Navy and Marine Corps aviation activity. The RQ-4 Global Hawk unmanned aerial vehicle is slated to begin operations on Guam next year.

Once a backwater to many airmen, Guam is the “tip of the spear” of U.S. force projection in the Pacific, Utterback said.

According to a handbook published by the territory, the burgeoning military presence is overtaking tourism from Japan as the main driver of Guam’s lagging economy. With more airmen at Andersen than at any time since the Vietnam War, and 8,000 Marines — plus family members — scheduled to transfer to the island, Guam’s population of 173,000 may increase by as much as 25 percent.

Utterback’s headquarters is in Hawaii, but Guam is clearly the center of his world. Guam will bulk up with additional forces and launch strikes if the U.S. is ever forced to fulfill its treaty commitment to defend Taiwan.

Utterback and other U.S. planners are focused on a rapidly emerging China that is building a blue-water navy and a world-class air force. Chinese pronouncements make it clear Beijing wants greater influence in Asia and the Pacific.

“China makes me think a lot,” Utterback said. “Their military expenditures are growing. China’s ‘fourth generation’ fighter capabilities are formidable.”

Asked about the new Chinese Chengdu J-10 fighter, Utterback said, “As a fighter, pilot that’s not the airplane I want to go up against.”

Chinese officials have made it clear they are not happy about the growing U.S. military presence on Guam.

Although most Americans may know little about Guam, other than its place in World War II history, airmen are well-aware of its growing importance to the national security mission. No longer a way station on the way to somewhere else, Guam is now a destination in itself — an essential link in the defense of the Pacific.

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The writer, an Air Force veteran, lives in Oakton, Va. Dorr is co-author of “Hell Hawks,” a history of an American fighter group in World War II. His e-mail address is robert.f.dorr@cox.net.