Backtalk: Airmen need no reminders of Guam’s location, significance

[unhappycamper]

Airmen need no reminders of Guam’s location, significance
By Robert F. Dorr

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.

~snip~

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.


Rest of article at: http://www.airforcetimes.com/community/opinion/airforce_backtalk_guam_031008/