The U.S. military wants to build a series of firing ranges on the Pacific island of Guam overlooking the remnants of an ancient settlement. Fearing the move will adversely affect the historically significant site, the National Trust for Historic Preservation and two local organizations, the Guam Preservation Trust and We Are Guåhan, have sued the Department of Defense to stop construction of the ranges.

 

The testing grounds would be situated on bluffs above Pagat, which once belonged to Guam’s indigenous people, the Chamorros. Dating back to 700 AD, the area features caves, a limestone forest and stone pillars that may have once been a part of structural foundations or burial monuments used by Chamorro society. The firing ranges would force the closure of Pagat to visitors.

 

Building of the ranges is part of a large relocation of American service personnel and their families to Guam from the island of Okinawa, where rapes and other crimes by U.S. sailors forced the Pentagon to take action to calm public anger.

-Noel Brinkerhoff

 

Guam under Fire (by Arin Greenwood, National Trust for Historic Preservation)

Guamanians Fight Plan for U.S. Firing Ranges (by Purna Nemani, Courthouse News Service)

Guam Preservation Trust et al. v. U.S. Navy (U.S. District Court, Hawaii) (pdf)