Military build-up on Guam to go forward despite opposition

On August 29, 2015, the U.S. Navy signed the Record of Decision (ROD) for the Guam-Marianas Military Build Up despite significant, long-standing opposition to the plan.

When President Obama visited Guam (Guåhan in the Chamorro language) in 2010, most media focused solely on the president’s rhetoric on sustainability and environmental practices within the Pacific. Barely mentioned in news reports was the president’s work to organize official support for the Department of Defense plan to relocate 8,600 Marines from Okinawa to Guam. Along with the troops, the build-up will include the addition of new live-fire training sites, the expansion of Andersen Air Force Base, berthing for a nuclear aircraft carrier, and the creation of a missile defense system on the island.

The ROD allows for:

• The green light on massive base construction and expansion projects set over eight years, including a new Marine Corps Base at Finegayan;

• The taking of more sacred, historically and culturally rich lands at Litekyan and water for military use in Northern Guam;

• The closure of public access to one of Guam’s most pristine places, the Ritidian Wildlife Nature Refuge;

• The clearing of over 1,000 acres of diminishing limestone forests;

• The destruction of some 55 acres of coral reef;

• More war games, weapons testing and arms training over ancestral lands;

• Thousands more troops living and working behind thousands of more feet of fenced off lands;

• An increase in waste left from live-fire training; and

• The expansion of militarization to the rest of the Mariana islands.