Empty Pacific islands offered for training

[cec]

Empty Pacific islands offered for training




The Associated Press
Posted : Tuesday Oct 9, 2007 7:14:58 EDT

HAGATNA, Guam — The Central Pacific island nation of Palau is interested in offering some of its uninhabited islands for training, said Marine Maj. Gen. David F. Bice, executive director of the Joint Guam Program Office.
The U.S. military plans to move 8,000 Marines and their dependents to Guam from the southern Japanese island of Okinawa over the next decade.
It also plans to build an Army missile defense facility and a new wharf and accommodations for visits by aircraft carriers and their escort ships.
The projects are expected to almost triple Guam’s military population from about 14,000 to as many as 40,000 in the next several years, according to a recent U.S. Government Accountability Office report.
“It will benefit the other islands as Guam becomes a transportation hub,” Bice said.
Palau is about 800 miles southwest of Guam and 500 miles east of the Philippines.



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