Statue of Liberty by the sea | RADIO DJ: Guam's only Rock station. 105.1FM. Rock... | 00:00 |
Aircraft on tarmac | MARK CORCORAN: To understand Guam you first have to leave it. | 00:18 |
Pilot briefing/ Boarding aircraft in the rain | SOLDIER: The safety gear you do have to wear it it's slightly uncomfortable. When you get in the plane it's not like your normal airliner, it's much less comfortable and dark. | 00:25 |
Corcoran on plane | MARK CORCORAN: We hitch a very damp ride 300 kilometres out into the vast Pacific -where Pax Americana -- the American peace -- has reigned for more than half a century. | 00:39 |
| SOLDIER: The airplane will touch down you'll hear the hook hit the flight deck. | 00:55 |
Plane lands on aircraft carrier | MARK CORCORAN: We're about to land on the most potent symbol of American power. | 01:00 |
| SOLDIER: You are going from about 120 to zero in about a second and a half or two. | 01:06 |
| MARK CORCORAN: Delivered into the strange hazardous world of a nuclear-powered aircraft carrier The USS John C. Stennis. | 01:10 |
Planes take off from carrier/ Crews in different coloured shirts | Music | 01:19 |
| MARK CORCORAN: There's purpose in this colour coded chaos. Red shirts load the missiles. Brown push the planes. And Yellow calls the shots. | 01:36 |
| Music | 01:46 |
| FLIGHT DECK COMMANDER: It is extremely dangerous, we are working a lot of aircraft in a small area and | 01:53 |
Flight Deck Commander | it's easy to get blown down by the jet exhaust, or prop wash, or get sucked up by an intake so there is a lot of things out there that you've got to be aware of. | 01:59 |
Plane landing and taking off from carrier | Music | 02:08 |
| MARK CORCORAN: The ship has just ended a 6 month deployment to the Gulf, launching missions into Afghanistan and Iraq. The 90,000 tonne Stennis serves just one purpose -- to impose Washington's will, through the power of its 68 combat aircraft. | 02:13 |
| MARK CORCORAN: What does the US carrier symbolise when an American battle group shows up? CAPTAIN BRADLEY JOHANSON: This is a demonstration | 02:32 |
Johanson. Super: CAPTAIN BRADLEY JOHANSON | that the United States of America is present. And we are here as a partner nation, an ally, an organisation that is committed to seeing through our commitments to sow stability and security throughout the globe. | 02:44 |
Pilot checks plane | MARK CORCORAN: No one on this carrier will openly discuss it, but the US is deeply concerned by events a few hours flying time over the horizon. | 03:04 |
| China is undergoing a huge military modernisation program, challenging America's absolute control of these sea lanes. | 03:18 |
Crews prepare planes | This year the Pentagon warned the US Congress that China's rapid build up was altering the military balance in East Asia - particularly in the flashpoints of Taiwan and Korea. | 03:32 |
Plane takes off | America's response? This war game, code named Valiant Shield - bringing together the Stennis and two other aircraft carrier strike groups. 30 ships in all. | 03:47 |
Johanson. Super: CAPTAIN BRADLEY JOHANSON | MARK CORCORAN: So when you see three carriers together, what message are you trying to put across there? | 04:03 |
| CAPTAIN BRADLEY JOHANSON: An amazing commitment (laughs), because that's a lot of power. | 04:09 |
| MARK CORCORAN: China take notice? | 04:14 |
| CAPTAIN BRADLEY JOHANSON: I suspect so. | 04:16 |
Meagan and colleague move missile | MARK CORCORAN: Several decks below the bridge, 20 year old Meagan Saunders helps deliver Washington's show of strength. | 04:21 |
Saunders. Super: | PETTY OFFICER MEAGAN SAUNDERS: I joined when I was seventeen, and this is the only branch of the military my parents would sign for. | 04:31 |
Crews work on planes | MARK CORCORAN: On this high-tech ship a surprising number of jobs still rely on old fashioned muscle power. | 04:38 |
| Meagan Saunders says being one of five hundred women on board makes life tougher but there is little time for contemplation. | 04:47 |
Saunders | MEAGAN SAUNDERS: We have to be better, we have to pull our weight. | 04:56 |
| MARK CORCORAN: See anything on this deployment that surprised you? | 05:01 |
Super: | MEAGAN SAUNDERS: The amount of ordinance that we dropped a lot and the pilots come back with footage from the bombings when they go over to Iraq. | 05:04 |
| MARK CORCORAN: Do you think about where the bombs are going? At the other end? | 05:14 |
| MEAGAN SAUNDERS: Yeah, its kinda scary though, I don't know, I don't want anybody to get hurt, but innocent people to get hurt, but, it's kinda cool. | 05:16 |
Recreational shots | RADIO DJ: Guam... Guam...Radio 105.1FM... | 05:24 |
Navy Police patrol boat. Supply ship in background | MARK CORCORAN: Even aircraft carriers eventually head for port and that's why Guam matters. | 05:33 |
| Music | 05:40 |
| MARK CORCORAN: With the world preoccupied by Iraq and Afghanistan, Washington is quietly preparing to transform this sleepy backwater into a 21st century fortress at a cost of 16 billion US dollars. | 05:43 |
| CAPTAIN LEE : To tell you the truth this is the largest, I should say, | 06:01 |
Lee. Super: | move or transfer of forces dollar wise in the history of the military, and if you look at the US this is the edge. So as we say in Guam this is where America's day begins and this is where our defence begins. | 06:05 |
Corcoran walks with Lee | MARK CORCORAN: Navy Captain Bob Lee has the job of selling the build-up to the world. He says there'll be new facilities for nuclear submarines and a permanent aircraft carrier base all to be built on the third of the island controlled by the military. | 06:18 |
| 8,000 US Marines are coming from the Japanese island of Okinawa. Japan's Government, contributing 6 billion US dollars for the move. | 06:38 |
Lee. | CAPTAIN LEE Here we're closer to, you know, the Pacific Rim we have countries to the you know we have China to Thailand to anywhere over here where we can get there two to three days by ship and two three four hours by air. | 06:50 |
Mass of aircraft moving around Andersen air base | Music | 07:02 |
| MARK CORCORAN: Guam's air base is packed with aircraft here for the war games. Soon they'll return on a more permanent basis. | 07:10 |
| Music | 07:18 |
Construction site | MARK CORCORAN: Construction has already begun. Eventually 15,000 workers will arrive to build Fortress Guam. | 07:25 |
Aircraft moving around Andersen air base | In one sense Guam has seen it all before. After recapturing the island from the Japanese during the Second World War, American aircraft took off from these same runways to bomb Japan. | 07:34 |
B-52 bombers | During the Vietnam War, these now aging B-52 bombers launched their relentless air campaign from here. Now it's all happening again. | 07:49 |
| Music | 08:00 |
Lee. Super: | CAPTAIN ROBERT LEE: Well currently we have about 14,000 Department of Defense members here, that is military and family, we expect around 40,000 around the year 2014. So this is a massive increase, it's about 25% of the islands population, so we are very aware of the social impacts this can have and in our planning process we are considering all that. | 08:03 |
Corcoran with Ballendorf in museum | PROF. BALLENDORF: Now right over here we have displays of ships that are important to the history of the island. This is a most accurate model in the world of Magellan's Victoria. | 08:26 |
| MARK CORCORAN: History Professor Dirk Ballendorf says the Spanish first stepped ashore here nearly 500 years ago. | 08:43 |
Ballendorf. Super: | PROF. BALLENDORF: But the Spanish established a colony precisely because of Guam's strategic importance. | 08:51 |
Model of sailing ship | MARK CORCORAN: The Americans took possession in 1898, and apart from a few years of Japanese occupation, have been here ever since. | 08:58 |
Ballendorf. | PROF. BALLENDORF: Certainly China's military posture, and the money that China spends on its military is of concern to our military leaders, correctly so, because they are spending apparently on an offensive-type military and they are becoming very large. | 09:06 |
Guam highways and high-rise | Music | 09:27 |
| MARK CORCORAN: Guam is a slice of middle America in the Pacific. 170,000 people living on an island, two thirds the size of Singapore. | 09:36 |
Guamanian faces | Music | 09:45 |
| MARK CORCORAN: Guamanians are a blend of the original indigenous people, the Chamorro plus Filipinos, Mexicans and mainland Americans. | 09:53 |
Beach/ Lifestyle shots | Music | 10:03 |
Ballendorf. Super: | PROF. BALLENDORF: The other islands of Micronesia are sovereign. They have their sovereignty. Guam doesn't. | 10:16 |
| MARK CORCORAN: Why not? Why won't the United States relinquish sovereignty here? | 10:22 |
| PROF. BALLENDORF: Well it's too strategically and militarily important. This is a very important piece of real estate. | 10:25 |
| MARK CORCORAN: And while Guamanians are US citizens, they can't vote in American Presidential elections. | 10:34 |
| PROF. DIRK BALLENDORF: If you want to define not being able to vote for President as being second class -- and many do -- then we are second class citizens. | 10:43 |
‘Welcome Home Troops' Banner | MARK CORCORAN: Despite widespread resentment over their status, the islanders are fiercely patriotic. Nearly everyone here has been in the military or is related to someone who has. | 10:56 |
Family praying | And they've borne more than their share of losses. 12 have died in the Middle East with dozens more wounded, suffering casualties ten times higher than the national average. | 11:14 |
Photos. Jesse Castro | MARK CORCORAN: 22 year old Jesse Castro was killed in Iraq last December. Every week his widow Theresa leads family prayers in the carport. | 11:29 |
Theresa Castro. Super: | THERESA CASTRO: You know he was really good at assuring me that everything would be OK. I guess we never really knew the extent of how bad it really was out there. | 11:42 |
| We have one son, Jesse junior. He was born November 21st | 11:50 |
Photo. Jesse Castro | Baby J was 12 days old when Jesse passed away and so he never got a chance to see him. | 11:55 |
Theresa with Baby J | He heard him on the phone, he would call often so that he could hear the baby, and he made sure he could call me when I was in the delivery room and stuff like that So he was really good, he called as often as he could | 12:00 |
Photo. Jesse Castro | MARK CORCORAN: The war in Iraq had already started when Jesse Castro joined the army in 2003. THERESA CASTRO: I think a lot of it has to | 12:14 |
Theresa Castro. Super: | do with it's a way of them getting off the island and exploring the world so a lot of them, also join to support their families, support their children and their wives and I guess it's kind of like a way to get out. | 12:21 |
Theresa and family look at photos | MARK CORCORAN: Despite her loss, Theresa Castro, joins the majority of Guamanians in supporting the build up. | 12:36 |
| THERESA CASTRO: I think it's good for Guam's economy. It helps boost up a lot of jobs and opportunities for families here to make money as well. | 12:43 |
Baby J | MARK CORCORAN: She doesn't want her son to join the military when he grows up, but accepts it's the destiny of so many of Guam's young men. | 15:52 |
Theresa Castro | THERESA CASTRO: You know, it's sad that his Dad's not going to be around to help raise him, but you know his sister, Jesse's sister, his Mum, his aunts, uncles, cousins; my sisters , brothers, you know they're all here for us. | 13:00 |
Rain falling |
| 13:15 |
| MARK CORCORAN: Typhoons, earthquakes and centuries of colonisation have erased most but not all symbols of the indigenous Chamorro culture. RUMBO BENAVENTE: They are a pillar | 13:23 |
Corcoran walks with Benavente in rain | of a latte hut. MARK CORCORAN: Rumbo Benavente is an activist with the Chamorro Nation movement. | 13:34 |
| He says these giant latte stones were the foundations of ancient Chamorro buildings. | 13:41 |
Benavente explains latte stones | RUMBO BENAVENTE: You put it on, you anchor the hut, so when there is a portion of earthquake, it somehow just work itself out. | 13:47 |
| MARK CORCORAN: Earthquake proof? | 13:54 |
| RUMBO BENAVENTE: Yes. | 13:55 |
| MARK CORCORAN: Rumbo claims a third of the islanders are ethnic Chamorro. As a former soldier, he isn't calling for independence or for the military to be expelled. He just wants to be consulted. RUMBO BENAVENTE: They are the colonisers, we are been colonised. | 13:56 |
Benavente. Super: | And that you know trying to survive here and, you know, to me, we could survive with the United States or any country on this island as long as they have respect towards the indigenous people. | 14:10 |
Tourist development | MARK CORCORAN: The military aren't the only visitors to Guam. Less than 4 hours flying time from Tokyo, the island is a haven for Japanese tourists. | 14:27 |
Corcoran walks with Benavente on beach to construction site | RUMBO BENAVENTE: We have to make sure that we don't forget where we came from. | 14:37 |
| MARK CORCORAN: Any remaining vestiges of Chamorro culture are being swept away. Burial sites and latte stones displaced for hotel rooms. | 14:40 |
| RUMBO BENAVENTE: The Latte stones actually a long time ago they were all over this place about probably a quarter of a mile in and so on, and right now what they are digging up there is a lot of remains probably 2,000 years old. | 14:51 |
Tahitian dancing/tourists/ night time | Music | 15:08 |
| MARK CORCORAN: Few on the island, apart from the activists, are complaining. At night the tourist strip transforms into a Pacific Islands theme park complete with imported Tahitian dancers, up-market duty free shopping and Elvis. | 15:20 |
| After the military, tourism has been the island's biggest earner generating 35% of the economy, providing 20,000 jobs. | 15:43 |
| But there's been a slump in visitor numbers and many locals believe the military will be their economic salvation. | 15:56 |
USS Stennis. Night | MARK CORCORAN: Out on the Stennis there is colour and movement of a very different kind. | 16:12 |
Combat Direction Center | In the Combat Direction Center, the eyes of the ship reach far over the horizon, with the aid of surveillance satellites. | 16:24 |
| They've tracked an uninvited player in the war games. | 16:34 |
| The Russians have sent two nuclear bombers on an epic 13 hour flight to Guam. It's the first such mission since the end of the Cold War. | 16:39 |
| But the Americans tell us none of this at the time, nor do they reveal that military confrontations with China are becoming increasingly common. | 16:51 |
Ballendorf. Super: | PROFESSOR BALLENDORF: You know, when the pilots take off from these carriers, they fly over near the border, near the Chinese border, and they tell me, they say oh, the Chinese always come up to meet us and we are always playing these little cat and mouse games up there, every time. So there is, you know, for those people that are involved on the frontline of this, that is a very serious thing. I'm sure our pilots, they're going to confront these Chinese pilots and they're very, very thoughtful about that and I think the Chinese pilots are equally thoughtful. But that is happening all the time! | 17:05 |
Fighter jets in sky |
| 17:50 |
| MARK CORCORAN: Even those supporting the build up worry that their island may become a greater target in a new Cold War. | 17:56 |
Military communications installation | Their fears only heightened by news that Guam will be soon host a missile defence shield capable of destroying targets 120 kilometres out into space. | 18:04 |
Lee. Super: | CAPTAIN ROBERT LEE: The Ballistic Missile Defense Group they are building the new system, so it's called a theatre high air altitude defence it's one of those that when something happens you won't know it because it's way out in space. So it's just another missile defence and it's not just for Guam it's a regional thing. | 18:17 |
Benavente. Super: | RUMBO BENAVENTE: Now they say don't worry about it people of Guam, we will protect you. What if there's a hundreds of nuclears are coming over here, would you stop all of them at once? Or you probably miss and remember one nuclear bomb would probably wipe out the whole northern side of the whole island. | 18:33 |
Protesters outside meeting hall |
| 18:51 |
Police with dogs | MARK CORCORAN: Washington faces a tough battle in winning local hearts and minds. | 18:58 |
| Confusion over the military's intentions has led to the first Congressional hearings on the island since the 1970's. | 19:05 |
Protestor | PROTESTOR: I served for 31 years, and this is what I get back! | 19:13 |
Rumbo at protest | MARK CORCORAN: Rumbo is here but prefers to leave the heckling to his more vocal Chamorro Nation comrades. | 19: |
Captain Lee at protest | Captain Lee whose last big job was running the military's community relations in Baghdad finds himself accused of stage managing the event. | 19:29 |
Protestor to Lee | PROTESTER: You need to respect the Chamorro people! CAPTAIN ROBERT LEE: Yes, sir. PROTESTER: But yet you have just also said that the decision has been made by the Japanese Government and the US Government and this is going to happen no matter what we say! CAPTAIN ROBERT LEE: Well they've made an agreement on the relocation. PROTESTER: That's right ! They ! They! They've made an agreement. CAPTAIN ROBERT LEE: Right. But we are all Americans! PROTESTER: So this is useless! PROTESTER: No, no, no American citizenship was shoved down my throat. Don't, don't say that to me. | 19:39 |
Congressional hearing. Bordallo addresses hearing | MADELEINE BORDALLO: Many of our own sons and daughters have served and continue to serve proudly and honourably in the United Stated armed forces today. | 20:06 |
| MARK CORCORAN: Inside, debate over the tip of the spear is more measured, as local politicians and bureaucrats talk through the implications. | 20:14 |
| MADELEINE BORDALLO: The United States Marine Corps and the navy have had a long and storied history on Guam. | 20:22 |
| MARK CORCORAN: Democrat Congresswoman, Madeleine Bordallo is Guam's representative on the panel. | 20:24 |
Bordallo with Lee and Guam journalist | Just as Guam residents can't elect the President, Madeleine Bordallo has no real vote, only observer status in Congress. But this doesn't dampen her enthusiasm for the military's plans. MADELEINE BORDALLO: I am very optimistic | 20:34 |
Bordallo. Super: | about this build up. Guam, you know, our economy is suffering and we do have the tourism industry, but we need additional revenues you know to provide services for our growing community. | 20:51 |
Stennis crews walking around on board | Music | 21:06 |
| MARK CORCORAN: While America's army has been exhausted by the long Iraq conflict, the powerful Navy and Air Force, having played only a secondary role there remain fresh and motivated. And it's these men and women who'll be pivotal in any confrontation in the Pacific. | 21:16 |
| Music | 21:34 |
| MARK CORCORAN: America's strategy on Guam is about deterrence preparing for war to prevent a war. And while no serving officer mentions China by name, the message is clear. | 21:39 |
| CAPTAIN ROBERT LEE: We're the United States and we are a powerful force no matter where we are. | 21:53 |
Lee. | We are investing in Guam, we are investing in the United States to come back here and it is no secret that the United States wants to let people know that we are proud of who we are and take a look, take a look at us. | 21:57 |
Cemetery | Music | 22:10 |
| MARK CORCORAN: Perhaps more than most Americans the people of Guam understand history and the sacrifice of war. THERESA CASTRO: He was buried here at the Veterans Cemetery. It's really nice where he's buried | 22:15 |
Theresa Castro | because he's up on top of the hill, he overlooks the whole cemetery. | 22:27 |
Castro family at cemetery | MARK CORCORAN: They've sent their fathers, husbands and sons to fight and die in foreign lands. THERESA CASTRO: Some of the others that passed away as well not so long after Jesse, there are | 22:35 |
| four of them in the same area. So it's really nice they are all together. | 22:46 |
Child at grave | Music | 22:50 |
| MARK CORCORAN: Now they stand by the flag as fiercely loyal Americans while quietly praying that their island home doesn't become a battlefield of the 21st century. | 22:57 |
Credits: | Reporter: Mark Corcoran Camera: Peter Curtis Editor: Garth Thomas Producer: Ben Bohane | 23:21 |