In 1938, Pan American Airways established a seaplane base, and Wake Island was used as a commercial base for several years. Given the potential military value of PAA's base development, on November 13, Chief of Naval Operations Admiral William H. Standley ordered a survey of Wake by USS Nitro and on December 29 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. By August 31 the southwestern eyewall of the storm passed over the island, with winds well over 185 miles per hour (298 km/h),[8] driving a 20 ft (6 m) storm surge and waves directly into the lagoon inflicting major damage. [101] On April 23, 1998, the Marshall Islands government notified all countries with which it has diplomatic ties that the claims of the Kingdom of EnenKio are fraudulent. [citation needed], Subsequently, the island has been used for strategic defense and operations during and after the Cold War, with Wake Island serving as a launch platform for military rockets involved in testing anti-missile defense systems and atmospheric re-entry trials. Sakaibara was executed by hanging in Guam on June 18, 1947, while Tachibana's sentence was commuted to life in prison. During the test, a THAAD system on Wake Island detected and destroyed a short-range target simulating a short-range ballistic missile that was launched by a C-17 transport plane. The inscription on the rock can still be seen and is a Wake Island landmark. Together, these islands create a 12-mile long coastline. On February 1, 1923, Secretary of Agriculture Henry C. Wallace contacted Secretary of Navy Edwin Denby to request Navy participation and recommended expanding the expedition to Johnston, Midway and Wake, all islands not administered by the Department of Agriculture. The surrender was of American troops to those of Japan. Fish and Wildlife Service, however, will not begin until the existing management agreement between the Secretary of the Air Force and the Secretary of the Interior is terminated. The second launch, on February 11, reached apogee at 1.2 miles (1.9 kilometers) and was a failure. A Magnificent Fight: Marines in the Battle for Wake Island by Robert J. Cressman. Typhoons occasionally pass over the island. The proclamation assigned management of the nearby waters and submerged and emergent lands of the islands to the Department of the Interior and management of fishery-related activities in waters beyond 12 nautical miles from the islands' mean low water line to the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA). Off-load hydrants are also used to pump gasoline and JP-5 fuels to the storage tanks on Wilkes. [41] 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 (see below). "[74][75][76], In June 1979, the original Wake Island fighter aircraft unit now nicknamed the "Wake Island Avengers", the United States Marine Corps attack squadron VMA-211, landed their A-4 fighter jets at Wake. Wake Atoll was claimed by the United States in 1898, with formal possession established in 1899. Wetmore named the southwest island for Charles Wilkes, who had led the original pioneering United States Exploring Expedition to Wake in 1841. Unfortunately, the gig, commanded by the captain, was lost at sea. At the same time, the THAAD system and the destroyer both launched missiles to intercept a medium-range ballistic missile, launched by a second C-17. Since Wake Island appeared to have neither food nor water, the captain and his 12-man crew quickly departed, crafting a makeshift sail by attaching a blanket to an oar. [80][81], On October 1, 2002, administrative control and support of Wake Island was transferred from the U.S. Army to the U.S. Air Force's 15th Wing, an aviation unit of Pacific Air Forces based at Hickam Air Force Base in Hawaii. Posted by Richard on September 15, 2002. One notable visit occurred in December 1906 when U.S. Army General John J. Pershing, later famous as the commander of the American Expeditionary Forces in western Europe during World War I, stopped at Wake on USAT Thomas and hoisted a 45-star U.S. flag that was improvised out of sail canvas. The submerged and emergent lands at Wake Island comprise a unit of the Pacific Remote Islands Marine National Monument. The USASSDC had been operating on Wake since 1988 when construction of Starbird launch and support facilities was started. The atoll is to the west of the International Date Line and in the Wake Island Time Zone (UTC+12), the easternmost time zone in the United States, and almost one day ahead of the 50 states. The original plans included the Philippines' Subic Bay and Guam as refugee processing centers, but due to the high number of Vietnamese seeking evacuation, Wake Island was selected as an additional location. Generally, the road network is suitable for low-speed, light-duty use only. Wake Island, about halfway between Midway and Guam, is an atoll consisting of the three islets of Wilkes, Peale, and Wake. "[31], In 1923, a joint 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. From October 10 to November 21, 1996, military units assigned to Operation Marathon Pacific used facilities at Wake Island as a staging area for the repatriation of another group of more than 113 Chinese illegal immigrants who had been interdicted in the Atlantic Ocean near Bermuda aboard the human smuggling vessel, the Xing Da. As relations between the United States and Japan declined steadily in the late 1930s, the American navy devoted more resources to the Pacific, and tiny Wake Island, located in the middle of the Pacific Ocean, was a key base. [citation needed], On February 14, 1941, President Franklin D. Roosevelt issued Executive Order 8682 to create naval defense areas in the central Pacific territories. In 1567, Mendaña and his crew had set off on two ships, Los Reyes and Todos los Santos, from Callao, Peru, on an expedition to search for a gold-rich land in the South Pacific as mentioned in Inca tradition. Large numbers of fish were killed by the oil spill, and personnel from the FAA and crewmen from the ship cleared the area closest to the spill of dead fish. History of Wake Island The island was first discovered in 1568 by a Spanish explorer who named it "San Francisco".A British ship captained by Samuel Wake re-discovered it in 1796; his name actually stuck.The 1840 United States Exploring Expedition led by Charles Wilkes with naturalist Titian Peale gave their names to the smaller islands. [14], In 1823, Captain Edward Gardner, while in command of the Royal Navy's whaling ship HMS Bellona, visited an island at 19°15′00″N 166°32′00″E / 19.25000°N 166.53333°E / 19.25000; 166.53333, which he judged to be 20–25 miles (32–40 kilometers) long. The 36 remaining crew members managed to make landfall on Wake Island, where they endured five months of great hardship, disease and starvation. [citation needed], On October 19, 1940, an unnamed typhoon hit Wake Island with 120 knots (220 km/h) winds. On October 16, a 30 feet (10 m) Castor-Orbus rocket was destroyed by ground controllers seven minutes after its launch from Wake. They chose to meet at Wake Island because of its close proximity to Korea so that MacArthur would not have to be away from the troops in the field for long. [citation needed], Although Wake is officially called an island in the singular form, it is actually an atoll composed of three islets and a reef surrounding a central lagoon:[3], Wake Island lies in the tropical zone, but is subject to periodic temperate storms during the winter. [72][73], On March 20, 1978, Undersecretary James A. Joseph of the U.S. Department of the Interior reported that radiation levels from Operation Crossroads and other atomic tests conducted in the 1940s and 1950s on Bikini Atoll were still too high and those island natives that returned to Bikini would once again have to be relocated. [77], On November 3 and 4, 1985, a group of 167 former American prisoners of war (POWs) visited Wake with their wives and children. [62], With the end of hostilities with Japan and the increase in international air travel driven in part by wartime advances in aeronautics, Wake Island became a critical mid-Pacific base for the servicing and refueling of military and commercial aircraft. On April 8, 1866, after 13 days of frequent squalls, short rations and tropical sun, the longboat reached Guam. [38], The second expedition of North Haven arrived at Wake Island on February 5, 1936, to complete the construction of the PAA facilities. The relief fleet, en route, on hearing of the island's loss, turned back. [citation needed] The commander may issue permits or registrations, appoint peace officers, impose quarantines, issue traffic regulations, commission notaries public, direct evacuations and inspections and carry out other duties, powers, and functions as the agent of the general counsel on Wake. The name is sometimes attributed to Captain William Wake, who also is reported to have discovered the atoll from the Prince William Henry in 1792. John B. Orem flew to Wake to assess the situation, and by September 13 the Navy tugs USS Mataco and USS Wandank, salvage ships USS Conserver and USS Grapple, tanker USS Noxubee, and USCGC Mallow, arrived from Honolulu, Guam and Subic Bay in the Philippines, to assist in the cleanup and removal of the vessel. All aircraft operations and servicing activities are directed from base operations, which is manned Tuesday through Saturday 8 am – 4 pm. "As far as I know, it wasn't sent at all. As a result of this survey, Wake Island was designated as a National Historic Landmark (NHL) on September 16, 1985, helping to preserve sites and artifacts on the atoll associated with WWII in the Pacific and the transpacific aviation era prior to the war. [92], Transportation on Wake Island is provided by contractor or government-owned vehicles. Wake's location allows for a safe launch and trajectory over the unpopulated ocean with open space for intercepts. [84][85], The 611th Air Support Group (ASG), a U.S. Air Force unit based at Joint Base Elmendorf-Richardson in Anchorage, Alaska took over control of Wake Island from the 15th Wing On October 1, 2010. Gregory J.W. Since the date – October 2, 1568 – was the eve of the feast of Saint Francis of Assisi, the captain named the island "San Francisco". [17][18], The Spanish governor of the Mariana Islands, Francisco Moscoso y Lara, welcomed and provided aid to the Libelle shipwreck survivors on Guam. [39][40] The village on Peale was nicknamed "PAAville" and was the first "permanent" human settlement on Wake. On July 27, 1923, USS Tanager, a World War I minesweeper, brought the Tanager Expedition to Wake Island under the leadership of ornithologist Alexander Wetmore, and a tent camp was established on the eastern end of Wilkes. The airfield can be used, however, by commercial aircraft for emergency landings. The objective was to test the ability of the Aegis Ballistic Missile Defense and THAAD Weapon Systems to defeat a raid of three near-simultaneous air and missile targets, consisting of one medium-range ballistic missile, one short-range ballistic missile and one cruise missile target. Sherwood Picking reported that from "a strategic point of view, Wake Island could not be better located, dividing as it does with Midway, the passage from Honolulu to Guam into almost exact thirds." The atoll receives little rainfall, which may explain the absence of inhabitants when it was first sighted (1568) by the Spanish explorer Álvaro de Mendaña. A MILS installation, consisting of both a target array for precision location and a broad ocean area system for good positions outside the target area, was installed at Wake as part of the system supporting Intercontinental Ballistic Missile (ICBM) tests. The Battle of Wake Island resulted in the capture of more than 1,600 U.S. troops by the Japanese. The test involved a Terminal High Altitude Area Defense (THAAD) system built by Lockheed Martin, two AN/TPY-2 radar systems built by Raytheon, Lockheed's Command, Control, Battle Management, and Communications system, and USS John Paul Jones guided missile destroyer with its AN/SPY-1 radar. [97][98] The Kingdom of EnenKio is not recognized in any international forum as a sovereign state, nor does any internationally recognized state recognize it. Battle Of Wake Island summary: The Attack of Pearl Harbor and the Battle of Wake Island were simultaneous and Wake Island finished on December 23, 1941. After the U.S. forces surrendered the Japanese captured almost all of the people on the island, which were mostly civilian co… However, as of 2017, there are approximately 100 Air Force personnel and American and Thai contractor residents at any given time. "[24], On June 23, 1902, USAT Buford, commanded by Captain Alfred Croskey and bound for Manila, spotted a ship's boat on the beach as it passed closely by Wake Island. "The wreck of the Libelle and other early European visitors to Wake Island". Naval personnel and about 1,221 civilian workers from the American firm Morrison-Knudsen Corp.[citation needed], On December 8, 1941 (December 7 in Hawaii, the day of the attack on Pearl Harbor), 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. After three weeks with a dwindling water supply and no sign of rescue, the passengers and crew decided to leave Wake and attempt to sail to Guam (the center of the then Spanish colony of the Mariana Islands) on the two remaining boats from Libelle. On February 6, 1904, Rear Admiral Robley D. Evans arrived at Wake Island on USS Adams and observed Japanese collecting feathers and catching sharks for their fins. "Den Tod vor Augen: Die unglückliche Reise der Bremer Bark LIBELLE in den Jahren 1864 bis 1866". The U.S. Navy established a submarine blockade instead of an amphibious invasion of Wake Island. In 1949, the CAA upgraded the runway by paving over the coral surface and extending its length to 7,000 feet. By signing up for this email, you are agreeing to news, offers, and information from Encyclopaedia Britannica. [90], On June 24, 1972, the United States Air Force assumed responsibility for the civil administration of Wake Island pursuant to an agreement between the Department of the Interior and the Department of the Air Force. [34], 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. The first launch, on January 28, 1993, reached apogee at 240 miles (390 kilometers) and was a success. On 11 January 1944, Wake Island got underway and steamed, via the Panama Canal, to Hampton Roads, Virginia, arriving at Norfolk, Virginia on 26 January. Air Force personnel on Wake and the Air Force Systems Command (AFSC) Space and Missile Systems Organization (SAMSO) provided support to the Army's Advanced Ballistic Missile Defense Agency (ABMDA). The Jung Sheng had left Canton, China en route to the United States on June 2 with 147 Chinese Illegal Immigrants, including 18 "enforcers", and 11 crew on board.

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