With the Pentagon eager to reduce US troop deployments in both Korea and Japan while still maintaining a strategic presence in Asia, the US island territory of Guam is becoming more and more important to US military planners who are scheduled to redeploy 8,000 Marines from the Japanese island of Okinawa to Guam. Besides the Marines other US military deployments to the island such as missile defense units are also scheduled.

With such an increases in forces the obvious question being asked is whether this small Pacific Island can support it:

However, it is questionable whether Guam, already a bristling US stronghold that is only 48 kilometers long and 19 km wide at its widest point, can handle the new troops. The US military already occupies nearly 30 percent of the island. Successive reports by the General Accounting Office (GAO) the investigative arm of Congress — the latest one produced in May, have seriously questioned whether the US can meet the agreed deadline of moving the Marines.

In all, the active-duty and dependent presence on the island is expected to leap from 14,000 to nearly 40,000, effectively increasing the island’s population by 23%. It is as if Hong Kong were suddenly asked to taken in an additional 1.6 million people. (...)

The GAO outlines in considerable detail Guam’s relatively weak civilian infrastructure, which cannot support such a massive influx without considerable help. The military buildup alone would require that the commercial port double its current capacity simply to accommodate construction materials that need to be imported.

“Guam’s highways may not be able to bear the increase in traffic associated with a military buildup, and its electrical system may not be adequate to deliver the additional energy needed. Its water and waste water treatment systems are already near capacity, and its solid waste facilities face capacity and environmental challenges even without the additional burden associated with the projected increase in U.S. forces,” maintains the GAO.

The increase in soldiers and their families will of course be a logistical challenge but will bring much money and jobs to Guam. If more roads and facilities need to be constructed who is going to build them? Citizens on Guam of course. There will be plenty of positive long term economic impact for the citizens on the island as well because of the increase in jobs on US military bases for the locals.

Currently US forces stationed in both Japan and Korea provide thousands of jobs to the citizens of those countries. The redeployment of forces to Guam will mean Americans will be working these jobs while still maintaining a strategic position in the Pacific.

Besides the strategic, political, and economic reasons for the expansion of the US military on Guam, personally I hope the expansion happens because I would love to be stationed in Guam, even if it means it may be a little crowded.