From the air, Tinian looks like a green patch in the blue Pacific. Just six miles wide and seven miles long, you can drive across it in under an hour. Yet, it’s big enough to hold a World War II-era airbase, the legacy of the atomic bombs that ended the war, and now, a U.S. military build-up that includes airfield expansion and training ranges.
Tinian resident and local hotel owner, Deborah Fleming, drove me up to North Field during my 72 hour-visit to the island. It’s the site of several runways north of the island built during World War II, including the airstrips used by the B-29 bombers that dropped atomic bombs on Hiroshima and Nagasaki.
Today, those runways are being refurbished under the U.S. military’s Agile Combat Employment, or ACE, doctrine – a strategy that involves dispersing forces across the Pacific to reduce vulnerability and increase operational flexibility.
“It alerts me. Something is imminent,” Fleming said when she saw more jungle being cleared in North Field. “But it’s better to be prepared.”
Fleming recalls being a child when her father and other Tinian residents debated whether to lease land to the U.S. military to build a base. “The promise was that they would build schools, hospitals. My elders’ main interest was school,” she said.
That promise was part of a broader agreement between the U.S. and the founding leaders of the Commonwealth of the Northern Mariana Islands (CNMI), formed in 1975. Under the Covenant that governs CNMI’s relationship with the U.S., the federal government retains control over defense and foreign affairs while the Commonwealth controls internal matters. As part of that deal, the U.S. negotiated to lease two-thirds of land on Tinian for 50 years.
Military historian Don Farrell, who is based on Tinian, said the U.S. military presence has brought in a significant amount of federal funding, but little of it goes to community development.
“The people of Tinian are seeing approximately, a total of $1 billion dollars in [Department of Defense] contracts for construction projects here,” Farrell said. “We have seen virtually nothing in the way of federal funding to support, help develop the island of Tinian for the people of Tinian. That is causing some friction. But not causing civil disobedience or anything like that.”
In an email response to KPRG, Joint Region Marianas (JRM), which oversees military installations for all Department of Defense (DoD) projects in the region, said, “there are no plans for the Department of Defense to construct medical facilities or a hospital on Tinian at this time.”
JRM added that the Naval Facilities Engineering Systems Command (NAVFAC) Marianas real estate team is “preparing a lease amendment to accommodate the return of about 30 acres of land for a future landfill within the Atgidon military lease area on Tinian.”
In 2015, the Defense Department proposed the creation of a CNMI Joint Military Training Facility, or CJMT, which would have served as a training ground for thousands of troops relocating from Okinawa to Guam’s Marine Corps Base Camp Blaz.
A blueprint of the plan included ripping out a reef to practice amphibious landings, high hazard impact training like shootings and bombings, ship-to-shore launches using howitzers, and live bombing of Pagan Island – a volcanic island north of Tinian.
The proposal sparked widespread opposition.
“The Tinian’s Women’s Association, Guardians of Gani, […] Pagan Watch, The Center for Biodiversity – we pulled together and sued regarding the military build up here,” said Fleming, who was a spokesperson for one of the four community groups. The case made it to the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals. The groups lost.
“I don't believe we lost,” Fleming said, adding that the result of this lawsuit led to the scaling down of CJMT. “There’s not going to be a multi-spectrum bombing range here. Now, it’s going to be a firing range. More small scale.”
Still, the military presence is expanding. At North Field, vegetation clearing is underway, and austere military landings are already taking place.
A second airfield – the Divert Airfield, near Tinian’s commercial airport – is expected to be completed by 2027. It will provide an alternative landing site for the U.S. Air Force if Guam’s Andersen Air Force Base becomes unavailable or unusable.
Tinian Mayor Edwin Aldan said the military build-up has brought major change to the island.
“The impact on this military build-up has brought the economic base for Tinian Island hundred folds in taxes and job opportunities,” Aldan said, who was a former police officer for the island home to just about 2,000 people and has a minimum wage of $7.25. U.S. military contractors are offering more than twice that amount for starting wage ($17.25 to be exact).
Aldan said that’s a lot of money for locals with little to no work experience. But there are concerns about sustainability.
“I just want to make sure that when [the military] leave, we got something behind to sustain ourselves, which is tourism,” said Aldan.
Right now, that’s a challenge. Most hotels on Tinian are fully booked for the next two to three years due to military-related activity.
“We’re having trouble and problems in trying to make the tourists stay for longer – three, four days – because all of these rooms are taken,” Aldan said.
The build-up has also caused a housing crunch. Before 2018, a two-bedroom home would cost around $80,000. Today, Aldan said, a one-bedroom can cost as much as $180,000.
“The demand was huge. The supply was limited,” said Alan Perez, financial advisor to the mayor. “Prices have gone up considerably.”
Fleming has seen it firsthand. “It’s hard on the locals, and even the contractors. There’s just no housing,” she said. “It’s extremely expensive.”
While some people might see it as a problem, Aldan believes the benefits of the build-up outweigh the challenges, adding that it’s creating job opportunities for people and helping the economy.
Historian Don Farrell agrees – to a point. He notes that most residents have no direct say in what happens on the island.
“The people of Tinian don’t have direct access to decision makers,” he said. “That’s all in Saipan through the Commonwealth Bureau of Military Affairs. They talk, but they don’t communicate with us either. So, we usually don’t know what’s happening, as far as the military is concerned, until something happens, and we get some kind of a public information release. So everybody here is essentially in the dark.”
To Farrell, the military build-up remains a federal matter. “We are outside of the loop and communications.”
Still, Deborah Fleming remains clear-eyed about the geopolitical context.
“Honest to God, I’d rather be an American than under Chinese or even Russia,” she said. “Because there’s due process. You have the freedom to speak. You’re guaranteed the right to speak. That’s important for self-preservation, for the preservation of our community, our culture, our thinking.”
