Guard’s Global Reach, Capabilities Support National Defense Strategy GUAM
By Air Force Master Sgt. Erich B. Smith National Guard Bureau | DEC. 5, 2022
BARRIGADA, Guam – Mientras mas megai libidtaña, mas megai babaña.
This Chamorro proverb (translation: “the more liberty, the more license”) speaks to the indigenous peoples of the Mariana Islands chain that includes Guam and serves as a watchword for the Na- tional Guard Soldiers and Airmen charged to make it so. A tiny island 6,000 miles from the United States mainland, Guam sits at the epicenter of the Indo-Pacific theater of operations – an area of burgeoning strategic significance to the U.S. “Sometimes, the smallest places are huge, strategically,” Senior Enlisted Advisor Tony Whitehead told Guam National Guard Sol- diers and Airmen during a town hall at the Guam National Guard Readiness Center last week. “This place and the people here play a vital role in our National Defense Strategy. You are what makes this place special.” The senior enlisted advisor to the chief of the National Guard Bureau, Whitehead recently visited the 210-square-mile island, an area roughly three times the size of Washington, D.C., where 1,500 Guam Guard members call home. That number represents the highest percentage of National Guard personnel per capita for any state or territory, said Army Command Sgt. Maj. Celso Leonen, the Guam National Guard’s senior enlisted leader. “Eighty percent of Guam families or more are represented in the Guam National Guard. We’re such a small community, everyone is related to each other,” Leonen said. He has served with the parents of many current Guam National Guard members, watching their offspring grow up in the Guard. Guam Guardsmen carry a lineage and legacy of defending their home island. Guam’s location as the westernmost U.S. territory makes it a target. In December 1941, the day after the attacks on Pearl Harbor, Hawaii, Guam was attacked and subsequently occu- pied by Japanese forces through 1944. Thousands of Guamanians died. Every July 21, Guam celebrates Liberation Day to mark the day U.S. service members landed on Guam to begin the fight to end the occupation.
Whitehead said. He met with Guam Guard personnel across the island to witness firsthand their capabilities and talk with the people who make it happen. On the island’s northern point, he visited Soldiers with the Guam Army Guard’s 1224th Engineer Support Company. This small compa- ny has a big responsibility, as its members provide around-the-clock security to protect key air defense assets critical to Guam’s defense. mind-blowing,” she said. “It’s a lot of weight to carry on your shoul- ders to know we’re guarding something so important to the defense of Guam. But it’s also so rewarding.” In addition to homeland defense missions, the Guam Guard has also been integral in supporting island residents during the COVID-19 pandemic. Its Joint Task Force 671 provided testing and vaccinations across the island, issuing more than 200,000 vaccine doses within a population of roughly 160,000 citizens, including many in sparsely populated villages. However, Guam’s importance to the National Guard extends far from the island. Guam has a well-established trilateral partnership with the Hawaii National Guard and the Republic of the Philippines as part of the Department of Defense National Guard State Partnership Pro- gram. The Guam Guard is also closely connected with neighboring islands in the Mariana Islands archipelago. Guam Soldiers and Airmen have deployed the world over in support of U.S. theater operations since 2002. As recently as 2021, Guam Guard members mobilized to support the 59th Presidential Inaugu- ration, Operation Inherent Resolve, and Operations Allies Refuge and Allies Welcome. The Guam National Guard’s 254th Air Base Group at Andersen Air Force Base conducts civil engineering and security forces missions. It also recently established the 254th Space Control Squadron to pro- vide a defensive space electromagnetic warfare capability. This will add further strategic relevance and bring more full-time Active Guard and Reserve billets to the Guam National Guard.
The National Guard’s community-based force brings unique advantages in homeland defense that is especially evident here,
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