Where the political ‘war’ is ending, and they’re getting set for another ‘war’

AGANA, Guam – Today in Guam, as the corny expression goes, is the Moment of Truth. Forty thousand Guamanians are supposed to go to the polls and elect a new governor and lieutenant-governor, plus a whole slew of legislators. What’s significant is that the results will be known in a few hours, not weeks as we, disgracefully, have it at home.

This is virtually a one-newspaper town, so election day will probably be rued mainly by the main daily, the Gannet-owned Pacific Daily News. For the past few days, we’ve seen the PDN inundated with political advertisements ad nauseam and ad infinitum, from, of course, Democratic Party bet for governor, Congressman Robert A. Underwood and his running mate, Senator Tom Ada, who’re battling Republican bets, Sen. Felix Camacho and Kaleo Moylan.

Felix’s dad, Carlos G. Camacho, was the first elected governor of Guam (elected in 1970) as well as Guam’s first delegate to the US Congress, but the handsome and dynamic Camacho goes into the finals today still behind Underwood in the poll surveys. Can he overcome the gap? Camacho, whose attractive wife, Joan Garcia, has a Filipino grandfather (from Orani, Bataan), is counting on the Filipino "swing vote" to boost him to the governorship. There are, as I’ve mentioned, 15,000 registered Fil-American voters here, but Pinoys and Pinays — while remarkably good-natured in Guam in contrast to elsewhere — are notoriously "lazy" about going out to cast their ballots. Should I mention it? There’s got to be hakot galore, like they do back in the old homeland.

For that matter, Felix and Kaleo can’t completely count on the Filipino vote. After all, the wife of Underwood’s runningmate, Senator Ada, is a true-blue Pinay, too, and a daughter of one of the wealthy oldtimers on the island.

What’s been circulated against "Robert Anacletus Underwood, Ph.D", as his enemies call him with a sneer, are quoted from Underwood’s careless earlier writings which seek to tar him with a racial bias. One white paper blares forth: "Robert Underwood has spent his entire career lying to divide the people of Guam – it’s time to stop him!"

Among the quotations is a line purportedly from an Underwood article entitled "A Chamorro Challenge to Statesiders", which goes: "Filipinos and Orientals . . . have not concerned themselves with Guam’s political and social institutions." Another, attributed to an Underwood speech explaining the New Social Order to students at the University of Guam, asserts: "Filipino . . . manipulators, carry knives, stick together, wear tight pants with labels, and are skinny." (Gee whiz, Bob: many Filipinos would like to become skinny, I kid thee not!)

Another Underwoodian underhanded quip: "Filipinos are here to . . . get rich and go back home."

To be fair, Underwood insults white guys from the mainland with equal disdain. In his doctoral "thesis", the white paper insists, Underwood had declared: "There is still a continuing over-representation of white teachers in the secondary schools." Further, in the above-noted "A Chamorro Challenge to Statesiders", Dr. Underwood asserted: "The stateside American refuses to understand that he is essentially an immigrant. He tends to view himself as having a special status."

He even slammed the American military (the white paper claimed), when now Guamanians are trying to woo the US armed forces to come back, since the economy went kaput after the military left Guam and took away their big spending. Underwood’s doctoral thesis had maintained, the derogatory circular reminded its recipients: "The (US) military even attempted to manipulate developments in the Catholic Church." (In the Philippines, Bob, it’s usually the other way around.)

Oh well, Underwood’s "nationalistic" rantings apparently haven’t hurt him. He’s got a lot of support among the native Chamorros. But, as we say in our local lingo, "the ball is round". Today is when Guamanians decide what happens.

As I’ve said, the newspapers and magazines, especially the PDN, will mourn the loss of all that political advertising from the wannabes – the scads of wannabes who wannabe senator, attorney-general et al. By this time, though, Guamanians must be sick and tired of being hammered by all those issues: the lack of water, the problem of waste water, lack of integrity, corruption, you know the rest. One thing is sure: They’re all hoping for change, for something better – and for the military, let’s face it, to come back. Judging from all the sabre-rattling in Washington, DC, they’ll get their wish.

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The US military presence here is definitely growing. A submarine squadron was recently added to the US Naval Forces Marianas. The submarine, USS City of Corpus Christi (if you want to know where Corpus Cristi is, it’s in George Dubya Bush’s Texas) arrived in mid-October to establish the submarine station, and the USS San Francisco is expected shortly. A third nuke sub is scheduled to arrive here by the year 2004 — or sooner.

Andersen Air Force Base has begun humming with activity. Formerly known as the North Guam Air Force Base, it was renamed on October 7, 1949, in honor of Brig. Gen. James R. Andersen, an officer who was reported missing when his B-24 Liberator bomber disappeared on February 26, 1945, on a flight from Kwajalein to Hawaii. In 1951, it became the overseas headquarters of the Strategic Air Command (SAC) with the 36th Air Base Wing as its host unit. The first B-52s were deployed there in April 1964, with KC-135 Stratotankers assigned to support combat operations in Vietnam by allowing bombers and fighters to refuel while in flight. The first 30 bombers were launched from this Guam base on June 18, 1964, to initiate the eight years of bombing runs called, euphemistically, Arc Light Operations.

The influx of bombers, crews and support staff, in those years pushed the base population past 15,000, and by December 1972, just before the Americans "wound down" their presence in Vietnam, the base had more than 150 B-52s. (A total of 729 sorties against North Vietnam were launched from there in just an 11-day period — but 30 days later, the treaty ending the US involvement in Vietnam was signed between the US and Hanoi!

Following the fall of Saigon in 1975, Andersen Air Base became pivotal once more, this time in Operation New Life. It became the destination for thousands of Vietnamese refugees. The refugees made the base their "home" until they could be processed for air-lifting onwards to the continental United States. A total of 109,553 refugees, finally, took off from Andersen for the mainland aboard 518 aircraft.

Andersen was a major support base for the Gulf War of 1991. It assisted in the transportation and deployment of 200 aircraft, 2,200 troops, and 2,212 tons of cargo. Its munitions experts and specialists, in addition, shipped over 75 million pounds of bombs to the Gulf. You can understand now how Andersen must be gearing up anew, just in case Dubya decides to let the United Nations go hang, and order his armed forces to "go get Saddam".

Incidentally, what we hear is that a contingent of British Royal Marines is already here. For what? To enjoy the sights? To warm up in the sauna-steamy climate? Or to be ready to get "inserted" into Baghdad and its environs, in the event that Bush and Blair (Tony) agree to go for broke?

Before I forget: In June 1991, Andersen Base played another important part in the region. When Mt. Pinatubo erupted, more than 21,000 people "and their pets" were evacuated from Clark Air Base to Guam. The evacuation was dubbed: Operation Fiery Vigil.

The base, of course, now belongs to the 13th Air Force (which was transferred from Clark when the Philippine Senate rejected any extension of the US Bases agreement in 1991). The 13th Air Force commander here today is Maj. Gen. Dennis R. Larsen. The commander of the "host" 36th Air Base Wing is Col. Joe Mudd.

In truth, Guam is becoming America’s forward salient in the Pacific – a boon to the Guamanian economy which went bust when the Japanese economic bubble burst in the mid-1970s and those Japanese honeymooners and free-spending business groups and tourists stopped coming.

The commander of the US Naval Forces Marianas is Rear Admiral Patrick W. Dunne, who serves as both the Regional Coordinator for the US Pacific Fleet and as the Joint Commander representative for Guam, Commonwealth of the Northern Mariana islands, the Federated States of Micronesia and the Republic of Palau.

Under him, naturally, is the above-mentioned Submarine Squadron 15, with its three attack submarines home-ported in Guam; the USS Frank Cable (AS40), a submarine tender home-ported at Polaris Port in Apra Harbor here, with its 1,200 crew members providing maintenance and repair to the ships as well as medical care and dental services, laundry, mail and legal counseling to the vessels and submarines in its care. Then there is Helicopter Combat Support Squadron 5, providing CH-56 logistic support capability for the Pacific Fleet.

However, the Americans – Alikabok informs me — believe that the Philippines is even more "basic" to their strategic plans. What does this mean? Are they pressuring our President GMA for "access" – or to actual basing facilities? That remains to be seen.