East Asia and the Pacific

The Korean Peninsula

Historical significance

North Korea invaded South Korea on 25 June 1950. China and the Soviet Union backed the North, and the United Nations Command, led by the United States, backed the South. The war saw the first large jet aircraft battles. Combat ended with the armistice of 27 July 1953, which created a 4-kilometre-wide Demilitarized Zone along the front line, but no peace treaty was ever signed. [1]

Forces deployed

• Osan Air Base (K-55), Pyeongtaek: the 839th Aviation Engineer Battalion, joined by the 840th and 841st, began laying its runway on 9 July 1952. [2] Today it hosts the headquarters of Seventh Air Force, the air component of US Forces Korea and Combined Forces Command, and the 51st Fighter Wing, the Air Force’s most forward-deployed permanently based wingWing GlossaryJoint terms: 1. An Air Force unit composed normally of one primary mission group and the necessary supporting organizations. 2. A fleet air wing is the basic organizational and administrative unit for naval-, land-, and tender-based…, with about 48 A-10A-10 Thunderbolt II AircraftThe Warthog: a straight-wing, armoured close air support jet built around the 30 mm GAU-8 cannon.s and F-16F-16 Fighting Falcon AircraftA single-engine multirole fighter: fly-by-wire, 9 g, and the US Air Force's main strike and SEAD aircraft.s. [2]
• Kunsan Air Base: home of the 8th Fighter Wing, “The Wolf Pack”, with about 45 F-16sF-16 Fighting Falcon AircraftA single-engine multirole fighter: fly-by-wire, 9 g, and the US Air Force's main strike and SEAD aircraft., and of the Republic of Korea Air Force’s 38th Fighter Group. With Osan it is one of the two major Air Force installations of US Forces Korea. [3]
• Camp Humphreys, Pyeongtaek: a US Army garrison with Desiderio Army Airfield, the busiest US Army airfield in Asia, and the 2nd Combat Aviation Brigade. The headquarters of US Forces Korea and the United Nations Command moved there by 2018, and by around 2020 it had become the largest US overseas military base. [4]

Mariana Islands

Historical significance

The United States took the Marianas from Japan in the summer of 1944: Saipan from 15 June to 9 July, Guam from 21 July to 10 August and Tinian from 24 July to 1 August. [5] When the Japanese fleet sortied against the landings, it was decisively beaten in the Battle of the Philippine Sea on 19–20 June, the “Great Marianas Turkey Shoot”, losing carrier and land-based aircraft it could not replace. [5] The US then built and enlarged airfields on Saipan, among them Isely FieldSaipan International Airport AirfieldThe Japanese Aslito Field captured in June 1944 and rebuilt as Isely Field for B-29s against Japan, now the Northern Mariana Islands' civil airport., and on Tinian, from which B-29s bombed the Japanese home islands until the end of the war, including the atomic attacks on Hiroshima and Nagasaki. [5]

Forces deployed

1944. The Fifth Fleet’s Task Force 58 had 15 carriers, 7 battleships, 11 cruisers, 86 destroyers and more than 900 aircraft, and the amphibious force landed over 127,000 Marine Corps and Army troops. [5]

Today. Joint Region Marianas manages the US bases on Guam and the Northern Marianas. [6]

• Andersen Air Force BaseAndersen Air Force Base AirfieldGuam's bomber base: B-29s against Japan, B-52s over Vietnam and today the forward base for the heavy bombers in the Western Pacific.: one of the Air Force’s four bomber forward operating locations, and with Diego Garcia one of two in the Asia-Pacific region with forward bomber beddown support. [6]
• Naval Base Guam, on Apra Harbor: home of Submarine Squadron 15 and the home base of dozens of Pacific Fleet and Seventh Fleet units. [7]
• Marine Corps Base Camp Blaz: activated on 30 September 2020 as Marines move to Guam from Okinawa. [6]
• Farallon de Medinilla, an island about 150 miles north of Guam, is a naval bombing range. [6]