To maintain a presence in the Pacific region, Marines have come up with a plan to reduce the footprint, returning more than two-thirds of the land occupied by Marines to the Okinawans. In the process they will also draw down troops on the island by nearly half, from the current 20,600 to 11,500.
Those Marines will be redistributed to Darwin, Australia, Hawaii, mainland United States and Guam, according to the most recent version of the DPRI, which was obtained by Marine Corps Times through a records request.
The plan calls for 1,300 to go to Darwin, 2,700 to Hawaii and 4,100 to Guam. An additional 1,200 global source Marines from mainland United States will be added to Darwin numbers as will another 600 to Guam.
Current plans expect Marines to begin arriving in Guam by 2024, with 2,500 there by 2026 and the full 5,000-Marine force to be in place by 2028.
The ground element going to Guam is a Marine regiment.
But the Marines have questions on how the Marines get to the fight from Guam. Although that issue of how they'd get to the fight is nothing new if they remained on Okinawa--unless the fight is assumed to take place on Okinawa. So this really isn't an argument against the move as it is a general issue of moving the Marines from wherever they are.
I'm satisfied with this move although I'd like more bases to give us depth in the Pacific.
UPDATE: American relations with Pacific island nations are important.
Although I think their worries about rising sea levels are basically a tactic to get aid.
But given the importance of keeping them on our side, I don't care how the aid is justified.
