HAGÅTÑA (The Guam Daily Post) — The public may differ on whether the coming Guam Defense System is long overdue or an unwelcome escalation, but many took the chance to question military officials during a series of open house meetings this week.
Higher-ups from the Missile Defense Agency and the Army, the two Department of Defense entities working together to build the 360-degree integrated missile defense system, were on island this week to answer questions and provide information on the project.
Work will continue over the next year as the agency and the Army move through the process of getting an environmental analysis done on 2,000 acres of property that could host the first-of-its-kind system.
Three open house scoping meetings for the environmental analysis brought military officials to Tumon, Dededo and HÃ¥gat this week. Besides the chance to ask questions about the impact of the system, residents also could provide comments.
The Guam Daily Post talked to residents who attended the open house Thursday at the Micronesia Mall in Dededo.
"There's still a lot of unknowns," said Mike Gawel, who also attended the first meeting Wednesday at the Hilton Guam Resort & Spa in Tumon.
Gawel, a resident of Yigo, said he lives next door to the newly built Skaggs Urban Combat Training Complex, formerly Andersen South, and has seen what kind of rapid change military construction can bring to an area. His location also gives him a big interest in what happens with the missile defense system – the Skaggs complex is being eyed as one of the sites for the new project.
"I think we're waiting for a lot more information," he told the Post.
Final details about the project – including its exact footprint and whether one site will host a missile launcher, radar array or command and control center – are pending the final analysis by the Missile Defense Agency, the Post reported. Residents won't find out or be able to comment until a draft environmental impact statement is released some time early next year.
"Which of the individual facilities will be where? We don't really know," Gawel said. "And that will determine what the impact of that site is. ... I wonder whether they need to use all of those, say 19 to 20 sites, or if they can combine some of that ... to like maybe the radar and command stations in the same site?"
Besides that, he had questions about what impacts the missile defense system would have on housing, and what tourists might think of it.
"I don't know if they can analyze that and come up with some answers," he said.
'We needed this 10 years ago'
Dave Lotz, also of Yigo, said he was likewise left with a lot of questions.
"We just need an awful lot more information for the people to begin to digest," said Lotz, who attended the meeting to get up to speed about the new system.
"This should have been here 10 years ago; we needed this 10 years ago," he said. "(The) biggest threat is the missile attack on Guam. DOD put in, Congress put billions into the Marine Corps base, which would serve no defensive purpose for Guam."
Though he wanted to learn more before submitting an official comment on the project, Lotz said, "we've got to look critically, we have to be assertive on our island, and we need our own independent viewpoint."
But Lotz, a local historian, said he did provide one tip to the military officials manning a table on historic preservation at the open house: "They'd better involve the public, and don't rely on the Guam (State Historic Preservation Office) to involve the public."
He pointed to the handling by the military and the local SHPO of historic remains unearthed during the construction of Marine Corps Base Camp Blaz in recent years, and the controversy that arose out of it.
"I hope we all recall that," Lotz said. "They're going to catch a lot of flak because of resentment that the Marines left."
'They are making us a target'
And indeed, a group of protesters from local activist group Prutehi Litekyan: Save Ritidian arrived outside the open house Thursday to express opposition to the missile defense project.
Protesters Maria Sol Duenas Marques and Aleandra Sablan said they were opposed to Guam becoming a "first-strike community" should conflict with China erupt.
"By adding more defense systems, they are making us a target in war, a target in a war that we do not want to be in, a target in a war for a country that doesn't give us the same rights as the people in the mainland," Sablan said.
Marques also took issue with the way the new system was being sold to the local community.
"The way that they propose it is as if war is inevitable, and that our only option is to be doing these developments," Marques said. "Diplomacy is definitely an option."
Sablan said the installation of the new system wasn't something that made her feel safer. She pointed to World War II and the history of conflict on the island.
"Being part of the younger generation, I don't want my friends, I don't want my family, I don't want to grow up in a war zone," she said.
Both put down their signs at one point to go inside and listen to the information being presented and to submit formal comments.
'Something we need to address'
Yona resident Rick Torres said he believes the missile defense system was something that was important to bring to Guam.
Missile defense, he said, was something that was overlooked in previous phases of the military buildup.
"So now it's like, hurry up, because we're in this condition of readiness," Torres said.
He did feel, however, that whether such a system would be good or bad for Guam was up for discussion.
"(I'm) just saying, eventually our protection is going to be something we need to address," he said. "Today or the future."
