Wake Atoll

Stats
It is 1,501 miles (2,416 kilometres) east of Guam, 2,298 miles (3,698 kilometres) west of Honolulu and 1,991 miles (3,204 kilometres) southeast of Tokyo. It is one of the most isolated islands in the world and the nearest inhabited island is Utirik Atoll in the Marshall Islands, 592 miles (953 kilometres) to the southeast. The island is also claimed by the near by Marshall Islands.

Motto: "Where America's Day Really Begins".

Population: About 94 people live on the island and access to it is restricted for security reasons.

Overview
Wake Atoll is small, sandy Pasific Island that is a an unorganised (run by an pointed governor not an elected council), unincorporated territory (not officaly part of the USA proper) that was claimed by U.S. on January 17, 1899.

Pre-1935


Wake Island was first encountered by Europeans on October 2, 1568 by Spanish explorer and navigator Álvaro de Mendaña de Neyra in 1567, but it had been visited for centuries by passing Marshall Islanders.

On December 20, 1841, the United States Exploring Expedition, commanded by Lieutenant Charles Wilkes, U.S.N., arrived at Wake on the USS Vincennes and sent several boats to survey the island and described the island for the first time.

Some ship wrecks occurred between the 1840s and 1900s.

Commander Edward D. Taussig of the USS Bennington tooks formal possession of Wake Island for the United States with the raising of the flag and a 21-gun salute on January 17, 1899.

Japanese feather poachers arrived between the 1904 and 1935.

Hector C. Bywater recommended 1921 establishing a well-defended American fueling station at Wake Island in order to provide coal and oil for United States Navy ships engaged in future operations against Japan.

A joint 1923 expedition by the then Bureau of the Biological Survey (in the U.S. Department of Agriculture), the Bernice Pauahi Bishop Museum and the United States Navy was organized to conduct a thorough biological reconnaissance of the Northwestern Hawaiian Islands, then administered by the Biological Survey Bureau as the Hawaiian Islands Bird Reservation.

1935-41
Juan Trippe, president of the world's then largest airline, Pan American Airways (PAA), wanted to expand globally by offering passenger air service between the United States and China, but it would need to island-hop, stopping at various points for refueling and maintenance such as Wake Island. They got permision to act in 1935.

The, U.S. Navy military planners and the State Department were increasingly alarmed by the Empire of Japan's expansionist attitude and growing belligerence in the Western Pacific. Japan had began to develop harbors and airfields throughout Micronesia in defiance of the Washington Naval Treaty of 1922 which prohibited both the United States and Japan from expanding military fortifications in the Pacific islands, which angerd and frighntend te USA badly.

Chief of Naval Operations Admiral William H. Standley ordered a survey of Wake by the USS Nitro and on December 29, 1934, President Franklin D. Roosevelt issued Executive Order 6935 which placed Wake Island, and also Johnston, Sand Island at Midway and Kingman Reef, under the control of the Department of the Navy. In an attempt to disguise the Navy's military intentions, Rear Admiral Harry E. Yarnell then designated Wake Island as a bird sanctuary.

The USS Nitro arrived at Wake Island on March 8, 1935 and conducted a two-day ground, marine and aerial survey, providing the Navy with strategic observations and complete photographic coverage of the atoll. Four days later on March 12, 1935, Secretary of the Navy Claude A. Swanson formally granted Pan American Airways permission to construct facilities at Wake Island.

To construct bases in the Pacific, Pan American Airways (PAA) chartered the 6,700 ton freighter SS North Haven which arrived at Wake Island on May 9, 1935 with construction workers and the necessary materials and equipment to start to build Pan American facilities and to clear the lagoon for a flying boat landing area.

On June 12, the North Haven departed for Guam, leaving behind various PAA technicians and a construction crew. The atoll's encircling coral reef (like many others in the Pacific) prevented the ship from entering and anchoring in the shallow lagoon itself. The only suitable location for ferrying supplies and workers ashore was at nearby Wilkes Island; however, the chief engineer of the expedition, Charles R. Russell, determined that Wilkes was too low and at times flooded and that Peale Island was the best site for the Pan American facilities.

On August 17, 1935, the first aircraft landing at Wake Island occurred when a PAA flying boat, on a survey flight of the route between Midway and Wake, landed in the lagoon.

In 1937, Wake Island became a regular stop for PAA's international trans-Pacific passenger and airmail service with two scheduled flights per week, one westbound from Midway and one eastbound from Guam. Pan American Airways "Flying Clippers" would use the island as part of the route to Guam.

Wake Island is credited as being one of the early successes of hydroponics, which enabled Pan American Airways to grow vegetables for its passengers, as it was very expensive to airlift in fresh vegetables and the island lacked natural soil. PAAville remained in operation up to the day of the first Japanese air raid in December 1941, forcing the U.S. into World War II.

World War 2


On December 8, 1941, the day of the attack on Pearl Harbor (December 7 in Hawaii, which is on the other side of the International Date Line), at least 27 Japanese Mitsubishi G3M "Nell" medium bombers flown from bases on Kwajalein in the Marshall Islands attacked Wake Island, destroying eight of the 12 Grumman F4F Wildcat fighter aircraft belonging to United States Marine Corps Fighter Squadron 211 (VMF-211) on the ground. The Marine garrison's defensive emplacements were left intact by the raid, which primarily targeted the aircraft.

In the aftermath of the battle, most of the captured civilians and military personnel were sent to POW camps in Asia, though some of the civilian laborers were enslaved by the Japanese and tasked with improving the island's defenses.

The Japanese-occupied island (called by them Otori-Shima (大鳥島) or "Big Bird Island" for its birdlike shape) was bombed several times by American aircraft; one of these raids was the first mission for future United States President George H. W. Bush.

On September 4, 1945, the Japanese garrison surrendered to a detachment of United States Marines under the command of Brigadier general Lawson H. M. Sanderson. By this time the American government and military had resolved it would never lose such a strategic island ever again, which lead to the American government getting sum-what paranoid about Soviet and Red Chinese intrigues in the Western Pacific region, especially on Guam, Tinian Island and Wake Atoll.

1945-1949
With the end of wartime hostilities with Japan and the increase in international air travel driven in part by war-time advances in aeronautics, Wake Island became a critical mid-Pacific base for the servicing and refueling of military and commercial aircraft. The United States Navy resumed control of the island and in October 1945, 400 Seabees from the 85th Naval Construction Battalion arrived at Wake to clear the island of the effects of the war and to build basic facilities for a Naval Air Base.

The air base was completed in March 1946 and on September 24, 1946, regular commercial passenger service was resumed by Pan American Airways (Pan Am). The era of the flying boats was nearly over so Pan Am switched to longer range, faster and more profitable airplanes that could land on Wake's new coral runway. Other airlines that established transpacific routes through Wake included British Overseas Airways Corporation (BOAC), Philippine Airlines and Transocean Airlines. Due to the substantial increase in the number of commercial flights, on July 1, 1947, the Navy transferred administration, operations and maintenance of the facilities at Wake to the Civil Aeronautics Administration (CAA). In 1949, the CAA upgraded the runway by paving over the coral surface and extending its length to 7,000 feet.

Korean War
In June 1950, the Korean War began with the United States leading United Nations forces against North Korea. In July, the Korean Airlift was started and the Military Air Transport Service (MATS) used the airfield and facilities at Wake Island as a key mid-Pacific refueling stop for its mission of transporting men and supplies to the Korean front. By September 1950, 120 military aircraft were landing at Wake per day.

On October 15, 1950, U.S. President Harry S. Truman and General Douglas MacArthur met at the Wake Island Conference to discuss progress and war strategy for the Korean Peninsula. They chose to meet at Wake Island because of its closer proximity to Korea so that General MacArthur would not have to be away from the troops in the field for long.

During 1953, the last year of the war, more than 85% of the air traffic through Wake was military aircraft or civilian contract carriers supporting the Korean war effort. Military use had soared and civil use had nearly died off.

Post-Cold War
President George W. Bush declared the submerged and emergent lands at the atoll as a unit of the Pacific Remote Islands Marine National Monument in 2009.

Air base and airport
Airfield (IATA: AWK, ICAO: PWAK) noe is primarily used as a mid-Pacific refueling stop for military aircraft and as an emergency landing area.

The 9,800-foot (3,000 m) runway is the longest strategic runway in the Pacific islands as of 2014.

Missile base
Located south of the airport runway is the Wake Island Launch Center, a Reagan Test Site missile launch facility operated by the United States Army Space and Missile Defense Command and the Missile Defense Agency.

Also see

 * 1) Bikini Atoll
 * 2) MASH Units
 * 3) Vietnam War
 * 4) Dustoff crews
 * 5) Midway Island
 * 6) Johnston Atoll
 * 7) 1950–1953 Korean War
 * 8) Trust Territory of the Pacific Islands

Links

 * 1) http://www.wikiwand.com/en/Wake_Island
 * 2) https://www.gpo.gov/fdsys/pkg/GAOREPORTS-OGC-98-5/content-detail.html
 * 3) http://archives.chicagotribune.com/1935/07/07/page/70/article/whats-new-in-world-of-airplanes-and-air-transportation/index.html