Marines Blowing Up Tamuning

Recently the Marines on Guam decided to practice detonation tactics in Tamuning! For those of you who don't know Guam, Tamuning is hardly the place that you would commonly associate with military training exercises, its an urban area right beside Guam's tourist district Tumon.

After hearing the explosions echo from nearby the old Guam Memorial Hospital, which is near the current Guam Memorial Hospital, a member of I Nasion Chamoru had this to say:

At around 3:00 PM or a little after, my watch, today August 13, Sunday, there was a tremendous explosion coming from the direction of Tumon Bay. I was at the Harmon Cliffline. I was about a mile away from the explosion, but it was loud. I can imagine the noise it made at the GMH with all the people at the hospital. I understand the explosive training by the Marines was to take place at the old GMH area with all those old buildings still there in disrepair.

My question is who in the hell permitted the Marines explosive training to take place there? The GMH and the residential areas are so close to the old GMH area, you have just got to bean idiot of a leader to have approved this training there.

The area belongs to the Chamorro Land Trust. Was there a permission from CLT for the Marines to use the area? Did the Mayor of Tamuning know and approved the training explosion to take place? Did the Marines submit a Section 106 compliance notification, as required by federal law, to Guam Historic Preservation Office for this training?

The Military here on Guam has a lot of areas under their control to accommodate the Marines for such training. They control 1/3 of Guam, for crying out loud. This is a health and safety issue. An environmental issue. People could have been hurt by the very loud explosion. This explosive training could have taken place at Andersen South, or at South Finegayan, or at Northwest Field, or at Orote, Naval Station. Why Ipao Point? To show off?

If this administration have anything to do with this, it was a really bad decision, for lack of a better word. The people of Tamuning and GMH is owed an apology. If it was the fault of one of the directors, it's indicative of the lack of intelligence and common sense of some in this administration. If the HomeLand Security's knew and allowed this training to take place to show off to the public the capabilities of the Marines, they are so naive and irresponsible.

Comments

Yvonne said…
Does the Governor of Guam have any say in this matter or can the military just peruse their way around Guam and do anything they want?

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