ANCHOR TO WESTWARD

[Music] [Applause] at the Navy Department in the spring of 1938 Navy and Army top strategists the Joint Board met to consider further the development of the basic war plans of the United States well informed about the already powerful war machines of Germany and Japan the board turned its attention to a most important project in the Pacific the defense of the island of Guam if Guam could be fortified and developed as a naval and air base the Japanese would lose a large percentage of their fleet should they attempt to invade it in Tokyo other strategists were putting finishing touches to their plans for the conquest of the Pacific plans in which both admirals and generals agreed that Guam like Pearl Harbor in the Philippines would have to be neutralized before further advances could be made possible but when these meetings took place one like many another now familiar place in the vast Pacific was thought of by most of the American public as only a faraway South Sea Island a clipper stop on the run to Hong Kong since 1898 when Spain surrendered the island for the Navy Guam had been ruled by a series of naval governors whose administration was both paternal and benevolent its defenses had never consisted of more than a few hundred United States Marines whose rifles were the islands principal defense against invasion under the Navy the island prospered but the roadstead remained in much the same condition it was when Magellan discovered Tuam in 1521 and claimed it was feign age old traditions were a reminder of the centuries when Guam and its native tomorrow's had been under Spanish rule [Applause] it was not until 1854 that the United States took notice of the island when Commodore Matthew calibrate Perry from aboard his flagship in transit to his historic audience with the Japanese Mikado submitted reports to the Secretary of the Navy saying the island is well watered supporting much livestock and the natives are friendly the harbor is exposed to storms from the southwest and the holding ground is bad there are coral heads in the roadstead [Music] under American rule the years rolled quietly by until 1938 when the cable station relayed to Washington's news of further Japanese aggression in China the island routine was not disrupted as usual the weather station tested the winds and the information was duly noted for the trans-pacific Clippers but in Washington had hearings before congressional committees the Navy began testing the winds blowing from Capitol Hill high on the list of bases the Navy knew were essential for the defense of the nation was almost forgotten Guam time and again the importance of the Navy's minimum requirement for Guam only five million dollars merely to improve the harbor and seaplane facilities was testified to by Admiral William Leahy but from Tokyo anxious to keep Guam defenseless came a well-timed propaganda blast Japan would consider any move to strengthen Guam as an unfriendly act it would be like pointing a gun at a neighbor's door naval spokesmen like Admiral Harold Stark found they could speak only in vague terms of what they knew to be an immediate and essential need take Guam for example its value from a commercial aviation standpoint is very great and its value from a strategic standpoint in the future relations of the United States may be even greater but in early 1939 when Guam's native leaders heard the news that Congress had defeated the proposal to spend any money at all to defend the island they as well as the Navy resigned themselves to the fact but the island was doomed or just over the horizon to the north in the other islands of the Marianas and southeast would in the Caroline's the Japanese had secretly developed naval and air bases from which qualms feeble defenses could be blasted into rubble on December 10th 1941 within five three powers Guam became a Japanese island [Music] with Guam removed as a threat to their advance the Japanese within six months in well time and long plan thrusts had spread their power eastward to Midway and South to New Guinea and the very gates of Australia [Music] to the officers and men of the Pacific Fleet fighting against tremendous odds with what little they had the magnitude of the task facing the Allies was all too obvious they knew that the defeat of Japan must be thought of in terms of the vast Pacific distances which could only mean years of fighting step-by-step back up the ladder of Island bases leading to Tokyo such new techniques as the hazardous refuelling of ships while underway at high speed were only part of the answer to the problem of increasing the range of the fleet [Music] the final answer depended upon the face of supplies to bring the implements of war in all their myriad variety as near as possible to the cutting edge of battle to extend the striking force of the fleet and to support the ground and air forces from the fast paces far behind the lines to the supply dumps to be established at each of the ever extending chain of advance bases material must be fought forward a massed and made ready for the next step according to schedules which were an integral part of the Navy's logistical plan into these drawing stockpiles went the products of America's farms and factories produced by the millions of workers on the homefront to construct these bases men who knew how to build were needed within the Navy an organization of base builders was created and went to work they were the construction battalions the Seabees whose motto became can-do already disciplined by their crafts and skills they needed only a veneer of military training through the Navy service schools over a quarter of a million men went to learn the essentials of another trade the trade of the Navy of which they were now an integral part as with all Navy men they must be indoctrinated and prepared for what would come since their jobs would take them to the combat zone they had to learn something of gunnery and how to survive the sinking of a ship at sea besides learning self-preservation with the rest of the Navy they were briefed on their own newly developed and complex construction and repair machines for most Seabees learning to handle the Navy's all-purpose pontoon was part of their training from these steel buses they could make almost anything appear a ramp a float or a self-propelled part [Music] climax of their training period was a simulated landing on a hostile Beach hardly had the war started when the first of the construction battalions were on their way soon to be followed by unit after unit each filling its place in the overall plan of strategy to build airfields and docks and hospitals roads and gun emplacements on many an island base thousands of miles from home [Music] as the long haul started up the ladder to Tokyo the Seabees proved their worth time and again they landed with the Marines and soldiers went to work to build each Island into a base for further advance then by mid 1944 it was the turn fort wall [Music] in a matter of hours after the Marines and soldiers hit the island the Seabees began under fire to bring their heavy equipment ashore and to take the first steps which were to turn devastated Guam into a gigantic advance space they began to remake the face of Guam moving mountains clearing the ground and one of the greatest construction jobs the world has ever seen [Music] while the wreckage was being cleared away thousands of bewildered tomorrows streamed back to the lowlands from their hiding places on the hills the rehabilitation of these gentle people whose nearly three years of slavery had been climax by battle was high on the Navy's priority list [Music] they're demolished homes were rebuilt with modern materials but according to traditional design our first importance when an island is taken is the clearing of the land for air strips so that plans for the all-important air operations may proceed according to schedule [Music] jungles and forests began to give way before the bulldozer in the cat teams of engineers cramped over Guam surveying thousands of acres for five great airfields every 24 hours hundreds of thousands of cubic yards of bombs earth and rock were shifted so essential was speed but even the enemy's inferior equipment was pressed into service and the all-purpose pontoon became a sprinkling machine to make the airfields ready for their first flame construction crews raised hundreds of the familiar Quonset huts and put a roof over 113 acres of storage space besides administration buildings hangars hospitals and living quarters for almost two hundred thousand men more than 40 million gallons of fuel must be on-hand for ships and planes prefabricated storage tanks shipped out in sections were assembled and the job was done one of the first problems how to move the daily average of 33,000 measurement tons of cargo before permanent harbour installations could be built was solved by temporary pontoon piers meanwhile a breakwater was started and channels were people so that the harbor could provide safe Anchorage for ships of every type packages of dynamite thousands of tons of it went overboard to blast out the coral head [Music] as the work went on the men of the construction battalions began to make themselves comfortable in their own mess Falls they consumed fair share of the tons of foodstuffs which were eaten every day on Guam on their time off they harness the Northeast trade winds and put them to work washing their laundry occasionally they took time off to have a little fun when war correspondents like the much-loved only pile came to Guam they reported that it had become the most modern of naval bases our anchor to westward then the five star flag of the commander-in-chief of the Pacific Ocean areas was raised over his new advanced headquarters the Guam Admiral Nimitz saw was a triumph for the construction battalion at the busy brand-new port ranks of ships were discharging their quotas of men and supplies for the battles to come on other islands ahead the wounded from Palau Divo Jima and later from Okinawa were being brought to Guam by ship and air Guam's medical facilities could hardly be duplicated even in a city the size of Pittsburgh five large Hospital dispensaries and clinics over 10,000 beds the vast storage area had spread out according to well-laid plan items for the fleet were stored close to the port area those for the Army near their airfields from drums of paint to candy bars every type of equipment every least spare part was accessible to fill requisitions and at a moment's notice ammunition 120,000 tons for the ground forces bombs for b-twenty nines and shells for navy ships and planes the Seabees had constructed over 200 miles of heavy duty fuel lane highway most of it paved with a specially developed surfacing mixed in their own plants out of crushed coral rock and asphalt as the road building progressed the increase in traffic kept pace and traffic cops made their appearance at the busy intersection while speed limits regulated the flow of traffic on the open highways which linked the island's different activities but of all Guam's installations the most important and most spectacular were its five airfield criss crossed by a pattern of mile-long runways and taxiways they were the hub of all aerial activity in the western Pacific area and some of them handled more planes in one day than LaGuardia Field New York handles in one week by mid 1945 within one year of the landing 'whom had become an arsenal build to the very limits of its 225 square miles a great central assembly point on which thousands of men and machines and their supplies were being prepared to move further on so the ultimate assault on the homeland of Japan then with such secrecy that only few knew about it the latest information came through to Admiral Nimitz and the mission was started on August 6 1945 a b-29 took off for Japan carrying the end product of years of Allied research which has cost billions of dollars one bomb which changed the course of the war and of civilization itself [Music] next day the world read for the city of Hiroshima had been wiped off the face of the earth [Music] back on Guam in one of the little churches built by the Seabees the tomorrow's held a service within sight of the graves of hundreds of Americans their prayers were of thanks for their deliverance from the Japanese and for the coming of peace now for the first time in nearly three years the natives could resume their peaceful way of life but be free from fear and from want and look forward with confidence to the future today many of the men of the construction battalions who did so much to make this victory possible building and fighting site by site with soldiers sailors Coast Guardsmen and Marines all over the world will remain in the Navy as a permanent arm of the service [Music] others are returning to their home with their skills and proficiencies increased to add their abilities to the sum total of the nation's production for peace [Music]