Guam won't host as many Marines or dependents:
Under the new plan, 5,000 Marines and 1,300 dependents would move to Guam from Okinawa, Japan. The old plan included 8,600 Marines and 9,000 dependents.
The leaner buildup stems from a revised agreement between the U.S. and Japan in 2012. Some of the Marines will go to Australia and Hawaii instead of Guam.
Am I safe in assuming that the reduction is based on leaving more Marine air units on Okinawa and sending the rest elsewhere? I draw this conclusion from the fact that we've been in long discussions with Japan on a moving an air base on Okinawa and from assuming that an air unit of older pilots and support personnel would have more dependents than a Marine ground combat unit with lots of young privates.
Some of the Marines who won't be based on Guam will be used for the Australia deployment slowly being increased (up to a battalion, in time)--so does this mean that Marines already scheduled to go there will get air support?--and others will go back to Hawaii.
I hate news stories that simply report numbers. I'd rather read about specific units. But that rarely happens in the news since units are a meaningless description for most casual readers.
