An Overview of the Military Build-up

Due in large part to Okinawa’s frustration with the domineering presence of U.S. military personnel and the crimes associated with their existence on the island, the Japanese government has decided to foot a large portion of the bill that has been appropriated for the move of 8,000 marines and their 9,000 dependents from Okinawa to Guam by the year 2014. (1) According to the Marianas Variety (Guam Ed.),   this build-up is estimated at about $15 billion and Japan  is paying for more than $6 billion of that cost. The build-up however, does not only encompass military personnel and their families, but thousands of construction workers and other civilian Defense Department employees. The decision to transfer troops from Okinawa to Guam occurred in 2006, following an agreement that was struck between the Bush administration and the Japanese Government. (2) The transferring of the Marines from Okinawa to Guam is only one part of the larger agreement named “United States-Japan Roadmap for Realignment Implementation” or “2006 Roadmap,” to consolidate American troops in Okinawa and reduce the burden of the military presence on Okinawan soil. (Click here to read about the “2006 Roadmap” agreement).

The U.S. Government Accountability Office (GAO), however, often tells a different story.  In a letter dated  April 9, 2009 to Congressional Committees with the subject “High-level Leadership Needed to Help Guam Address Challenges Caused by DOD-Related Growth,”  the GAO claims that the build-up is part of an effort “to improve the U.S. military’s flexibility to address conventional and terrorist threats worldwide.” (3) Similarly, Secretary of State, Hillary Rodham Clinton seemed to believe that this build-up was part of the “U.S. commitment to modernize” the U.S.’s “military posture in the Pacific.” (4) This viewpoint obviously fails to mention the struggles that the citizens of Okinawa have experienced in an attempt to remove U.S. military personnel from their island. “It took more than a decade for the Clinton and Bush administrations to negotiate agreements with Japan to reduce the U.S. military presence on Okinawa, including relinquishing a Marine Corps airfield on the crowded southern end of the island.” (5) Essentially, this removal has taken a long time in materializing, despite the growing disapproval of the U.S. military presence in Okinawa. Therefore, while strengthening the military’s strategic positioning in the Pacific may be a by-product of this move- it was certainly not its main intention.

This build-up is so immense that “military members and their families would create roughly a 14 percent increase in Guam’s current population of 171,000.” (6) An increase this substantial in such a short period of time would affect any community, but on the relatively small island of Guam, it will most likely be disastrous. A great deal of this concern has been reflected by a GAO report that speaks about the uncertainty of the move due to the “capacity of Guam’s infrastructure” or lack thereof. (7) In addition to this population increase, there is a need for “an estimated 22,000 additional construction workers” (8) due to the massive amount of construction work that needs to be done in order to support this build-up. 
The build-up not only includes the move of U.S. Marines to Okinawa, but extensive plans to improve the infrastructure logistics and waterfront capabilities of Andersen Air Force Base and Naval Base Guam. (9)  These projects are listed below:

• The  Navy plans to enhance its infrastructure, logistic capabilities, and waterfront facilities to support transient nuclear aircraft carrier berthing, combat logistics force ships, submarines, surface combatants, and high-speed transport ships at Naval Base Guam.
• The Air Force plans to develop a global intelligence, surveillance, and reconnaissance strike hub at Andersen Air Force Base by hosting various types of aircrafts, such as fighters, bombers, and tankers, and the Global Hawk system, which is a high-altitude, long-endurance unmanned aerial reconnaissance system
• The Army also plans to place a ballistic missile defense task force on Guam with approximately 630 soldiers and 960 dependents. (10)

"Building Up" to the Build-Up

Below are excerpts from the background information on the military build-up presented by Brian J. Lepore (Director of Defense Capabilities and Management), in his testimony before the Committee on Energy and Natural Resources, U.S. Senate. It is information that helps to contextualize the military build-up and how such a plan ever came into existence.

The massive military move to Guam is therefore inextricably bound to the relocation plans in Okinawa, which is important in understanding how our islands are being affected by a larger military agenda within the Pacific as part of USPACOM’s (U.S. Pacific Command) mission and vision which claims to “promote security and peaceful development in the Asia-Pacific region.” (12) Below are more of the costs associated with promoting the build-up. These numbers will help one gain a better understanding of the scope of such an immense transfer and how many millions of dollars are being requested to ensure that all military personnel are being taken care of. Such large amounts of money speak to the intensity of this transfer and  the way in which the landscape of the Marianas will be forever changed. Keep in mind that these dollars are all being poured into projects that pertain solely to the care of military personnel, not the residents of Guam or the island’s civilian infrastructure.

• As part of the Pacific Fleet’s (PACFLT) request for $632 million for its “FY08 warfighting MILCON (Military Construction) program,” $234 million will be for construction on Guam
• As part of the Pacific Air Forces’ (PACAF) $112 million request to Congress, $10 million of that budget will go to “Guam utility infrastructure upgrades at Northwest Field”
• PACLFT also needs:
•  $67 million to replace 73 units and improve 34 units on Guam
• $45 million for a new fitness center on Guam
• And $182 million for a new hospital and associated satellite clinics to handle the current and projected military population on Guam (13)

Recently, concerns raised by members of U.S. Congress include important decisions such as “who should be able to qualify for military housing contracts and construction jobs on Guam, whether sufficient training facilities within and around Guam can be ready on time to meet a realignment deadline of 2014, and whether Guam’s civilian infrastructure will even be ready for the impact of a population explosion as Marines start arriving as early as next year.” (14)

Summary

• The Department of Defense (DOD) plans to move 8,000 Marines and their estimated 9,000 dependents from Okinawa, Japan to Guam by 2014
• Total Cost for Military Build-Up: over $13 billion (not including the estimated costs of all other defense organizations that will be needed to support the additional military personnel and dependents on Guam)
• Increase Guam’s current population of 171,000 by an estimated 25,000 active duty military personnel and dependent s (or 14.6 percent) to 196,000 (not including defense civilians and contractors-which includes an estimated 15-20,000 construction workers to support development)
• The government of Japan is expected to contribute about $6.1 billion towards the cost of the Marine Corps move
• An extensive transformation of both Air Force and Naval infrastructure, logistics and waterfront capabilities will take place

• **IMPORTANT NOTE: The build-up and its impacts are separate from the activities and impacts that occur under what the U.S. military has entitled the “Marianas Islands Range Complex” (MIRC):
• According to the MIRC EIS/OEIS Website, the Marianas Islands Range Complex encompasses the entire CNMI and is used “to conduct operations, training, research, and development and test and evaluate military hardware, personnel, tactics, munitions, explosives, or electronic combat systems.”
• The MIRC’s costs and impacts are separate from the relocation of the Marines from Okinawa but are just as important in assessing the impact of the military on the Mariana Islands. 
• The MIRC is used for a variety of detrimental activities including the use of air, land and sea to conduct training activities that have substantial impacts on the environment because they include the use of ordnance, hazardous materials and so forth.
• Please take a look at the MIRC website and download the Environmental Impact Statement (EIS) for more information about how this training is already affecting your environment. Pay close attention to the potential effects that each military activity will have on the environment. (i.e. the release of hazardous materials, deposition of unexploded ordnance (UXO),  potential release of asbestos-containing materials, etc.)

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