Photo courtesy of Andersen Air Force Base ()
Anderson Air Force Base has had a lot of exciting history over the years. There have been many typhoons Andersen has been through. There were many wars that Andersen helped out with. Andersen has had many different types of planes take off from its runways. There are a lot of things that happened on Andersen AFB over the years that have shaped it into what it is today.
The worst typhoon that Guam most recently had was Typhoon Mawar. However, Guam also had many others including; Typhoon Pongsona, Typhoon Karen, Typhoon Tip, Typhoon Mangkhut, Typhoon Yutu, Typhoon Bolaven, and Typhoon Paka. Some of them did a lot of damage, but others did not. Some of the typhoons broke gates, windows, and even took off roofing of the houses. This caused flooding that went into the housing which caused mold and ruined carpets. Typhoons have caused a great deal of damage to Andersen like; shutting down schools, having to rebuild, commissary freezers were broken, and gas pumps did not work. However Andersen worked hard to get through each typhoon.
Andersen’s origin began on Dec. 7, 1941 when Guam was attacked by Imperial Japan in the battle of Guam, three hours after the attack on Pearl Harbor. On December 10, The United States Of America surrendered Guam to the Japanese. During the war about 19,000 Japanese soldiers and sailors were deployed to Guam. Guam established Air Bases to launch B-29 Superfortress against the Japanese Home Islands. During an allied assault on Okinawa, some groups of the 314th Bomb Wing attacked airfields, so the Japanese sent out planes against the invasion force. The retaking of Guam by the US and the push to end the war allowed for the influx of more than 200,000 US military personnel into Guam. This was just one of the many wars that the military has been a part of, but one of the worst.
There are many planes that have been to Andersen AFB. This includes; the B-36, B-47, B-50, B-52, B-29, KC-97, B-17, and KC-135. They are all planes that were here and have taken off from Andersen. In the begining of World War II, four men stood at a drafting table, drawing lines on a blueprint. Those lines would be the runways that would later become Andersen AFB. In 1945, the runways were almost complete and that's when Andersen started to do bomber deployments in 1951.
Andersen Air Force Base got through all of these situations. A lot of people helped out including military and civilians. They did this all so they could continue to keep America safe. Andersen has changed due to these, which have made Andersen Air Force Base what it is today.
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