APA to resume flights to the islands
Asia Pacific Airlines will resume flying on May 5, with a flight that leaves Honolulu heading for Pago Pago in American Samoa and continuing to Majuro – arriving there on May 8.
Federal Aviation Administration officials will also be on the flight for a “check ride” on pilots on the first leg of the flight to Pago Pago, according to Adam Ferguson, president of APA.
“We’ve been working really hard and really fast to get this accomplished,” he said. Ferguson also thanked the FAA for its efforts to get the airline back in the air and certify its pilots.
APA will then bring back cargo flights to all destinations, which include Palau and the Federated States of Micronesia “around the middle of the month,” Ferguson said, speaking by phone from Hawaii.
COLA decrease on the cards for Guam military and Guam Guard
On May 2, the U.S. Department of Defense released addition information on Cost of Living Allowances “for this year” and their potential effect on personnel on-island. The adjustments are based on the National Defense Authorization Act for fiscal 2023, DoD said.
“The Overseas Cost-of-Living Allowance is an allowance that ensures our service members who are assigned to a permanent duty station outside the contiguous U.S. (OCONUS) (i.e., foreign countries, U.S. territories, Alaska, and Hawaii) maintain the same level of purchasing power as service members stationed in CONUS locations — not less purchasing power, but not more either,” the department said in a release.
The comments in bold are the department’s.
The Overseas COLA rate pays a differential to military personnel outside the U.S. mainland for the increased cost of buying the same non-housing goods and services as are bought in the mainland. Based upon changes in the cost-of-living data and currency fluctuations, those rates increase or decrease over time, the release said.
Based on the new NDAA legislation, the department will not implement the OCOLA decreases based on cost-of-living data all at once. Any decrease based on cost-of-living data will be implemented in 50% increments on two separate dates — during the May 15 and Nov. 15 pay periods. The release said the department would provide notification to “combatant commanders and overseas points of contact, whenever possible, at least 30 days prior to the implementation of the first 50% reduction to ensure affected service members have time to financially prepare.”
For the May 15 pay period reductions, those individuals were notified of the new rates prior to March, the release said.
The Department updates rates based on an assessment of three primary data sets, the release reiterated. These include The triennial Living Pattern Survey, which measures where personnel shop and the proportion of shopping that occurs on a military installation, such as at commissaries and exchanges, at local community outlets, and from online purchases; and the annual Retail Price Schedule, which measures the cost of a 150-item market basket of non-housing goods and services e.g., groceries and clothing, the release said.
“Local differences in costs for utilities and housing are accounted for separately through the housing allowance — from the outlets where Service members indicate they shop; and annually …,” the release said.
According to Journal files, U.S. military personnel in Guam and Hawaii were told they may lose more than half of their cost-of-living allowances — hundreds of dollars per month in many cases.
The complicated system, for example, for an E-6 with 10 years of service and three dependents could indeed mean a cut of hundreds of dollars, depending on location, whether currency fluctuations come into effect, and more, according to information prepared by the U.S. Department of Defense. In another DoD example, an E-4 based in Oahu with three years of service and two dependents is also looking at decreases in 2023, but the example assumes an increase in monthly net income from the previous year.
James C. Moylan, Guam’s delegate to Congress, expressed his own concern on May 4, also saying that cuts will affect members of the Guam Army Guard and the Guam Air Guard, as well as military personnel on the island.
According to a March 29 release, James C. Moylan, Guam’s delegate to Congress; said he had asked U.S. Secretary of State Lloyd J. Austin III regarding the news that Guam (and Hawaii) cost of living allowances would be slashed. Austin said at the time one of his assistant secretaries was reviewing the waiver request submitted by Rear Adm. Benjamin R. Nicholson, which would take the OCOLA levels back to the amounts provided prior to March 15. Moylan spoke with Austin at a House Armed Service Committee hearing on the fiscal 2024 Department of Defense budget.
Joint Region Marianas in Guam, said in a Facebook post on March 20 that it was “working closely with Indo-Pacific Command to advocate for an appeal of the new Overseas Cost of Living Allowance (OCOLA) Adjustment Policy for Guam.”
Active-duty personnel in Guam were faced with a 66% decrease, and the regional command said in the Facebook post that strongly encouraged personnel and their families to prepare.
The U.S. military provides a tool for its personnel to calculate what their Overseas COLA will be – based on locality, years of service and pay grade.
Guam economic diversification 3D initiative proceeding
ASTRO America is launching May 3 a Guam Additive Manufacturing roundtable series “to connect with key individuals and discuss the barriers, business opportunities, and benefits of an initiative underway to determine the viability” of local industrial 3D printing industry in Guam, according to a release from the organization.
On April 27 (CHamoru Standard Time) ASTRO America and the Guam Economic Development Authority released a Baseline Additive Manufacturing Readiness Report “highlighting that Guam has the basic building blocks for establishing a high-tech manufacturing sector on the island.” The initiative is now in its planning implementation phase and being discussed publicly for the first time,” ASTRO America said in the release, which it sent out.
GVB board waits for legislative approval of nominees, staff continue with work
Gerald S.A. Perez, vice president of the Guam Visitors Bureau; told the Journal that while the board awaits legislative confirmations of its final members, that poses no operational problems for GVB’s leadership and staff.
On March 8, during a special board meeting, the board discussed the appointment of its 12th director. According to GVB, on March 11, Carl T. C. Gutierrez, president of GVB asked the Office of the Attorney General to issue an opinion on selection of the 12th director.
Despite advice from its legal counsel that 11 board members were needed to appoint the 12th member, the board met on March 23 to discuss that selection and selected Monty D.M. Mesa, general manager of Guam Premier Outlets and Tumon Sands Plaza, according to GVB. Mesa is also a director of the Guam Travel & Tourism Association.
On April 27, the GVB board – following a motion by Mesa, voted to open a search for a general manager and legal counsel rather than conduct performance evaluations of Gutierrez and Joseph B. McDonald, legal counsel. According to the board minutes and recording, no performance evaluation of management had been conducted since 2009. On April 28 the Attorney General’s Office issued its opinion and confirmed GVB legal counsel’s opinion that the law requires 11 directors to select the 12th director, thus according to GVB making the appointment of Mesa illegal.
While the board awaits legislative confirmations, Perez told the Journal, “Operationally it’s not affecting GVB, because we continue to function … it’s business as usual.”
The GVB board is scheduled to meet on May 11.
Editor’s Note regarding the attached letter from Rear Adm. Benjamin R. Nicholson:
Sources give different figures for Guam’s square land total. For example, these vary from 210 square miles (CIA World Fact Book) to 212 square miles (Guam Territorial Land Use Plan 1994 and various land use plans thereafter; U.S. Census Bureau) to 217 miles (Britannica), and often include the word “approximately.” Variances may be due to reclamation and what specifically is included. Guam Business Magazine and the Journal have variously used 210 square miles and 212 square miles when including that statistic with other statistics from a particular source.
The Public Affairs Office of Joint Region Marianas confirmed that the definition used by the Department of Defense and the Navy is 212 square miles.
Department of Defense land holdings in 1950 was estimated at 58% of Guam. DoD land control decreased because of the Guam Excess Land Act of 1994, and Base Closure and Realignment Commission recommendations, which restructured military resources and land use around the nation.
In May 1994, the Territorial Land Use plan said, “According to the Bureau of Planning, the federal government controls 32 percent of the island's total land area as military reservations.”
The 2009 Draft Environmental Impact Study for the Guam and CNMI Military Relocation said the “United States Government” held “approximately 35%” of Guam’s land, according to a 2009 report from the Guam Bureau of Statistics and Plans. The study also refers to U.S. government holdings of land in Guam as “approximately one third,” a figure frequently used. The 2010 Final Environmental Impact Statement for the relocation discussed the “proposed increase in federal land” to accommodate the relocation.
In 2011, in the confirmation of the “net negative” agreement letter from Robert O. Work, U.S. under secretary of the U.S. Navy to Gov. Edward B. Calvo, a background note included reference to a Naval Facilities Engineering Command Marianas Defense Policy Review Initiative Land Inventory study “for the purpose of identifying all military land holdings and their current requirements and identify opportunities and recommendations for future use.” The study included all land owned by the DoD on Guam. This amounted to a total of approximately 36,331 acres of land at that time, of which 36,264.88 acres was Department of Navy held and 66.12 acres was Department of the Army held. The total DoD land holdings constituted approximately 27% of the total land area of Guam, the study said, though no list of properties held was included.
Since then, 609 acres have been returned to the Government of Guam, the admiral wrote in his submission.
The Public Affairs Office of Joint Region Marianas confirmed that at this time, “The Department of Defense holds approximately 35,622 acres of land on Guam.”
The 2011 net negative agreement between Robert Work, U.S. under secretary of the Navy and Gov. Edward B. Calvo does not refer to submerged lands.
The Public Affairs Office at Joint Region Marianas clarified to the Journal that the definition used for submerged land that Nicholson referred to is, “Submerged lands are defined as lands permanently or periodically covered by tidal waters up to but not above the line of mean high tide and seaward to a line three geographical miles distant from the coastlines, as defined under the provisions of Public Law 93-435 of 5 October 1974, 88 STAT.1210 (HR 11559, 93rd Congress).”
Nicholson refers to the Department of Defense’s Office of Local Defense Community Cooperation in his letter and a potential grant for a new hospital for Guam.
According to Journal files, Guam and the Northern Mariana Islands received one community cooperation grant each in 2020, for which application must be made by the potential recipient.
One of them went to the Municipality of Chalan Pago-Ordot, which was awarded $3.51 million to “undertake a $6,506,426 project to construct a Multipurpose Recreation and Emergency Center to support military families on Guam.”
One of the essential elements the projects needed to progress was the approval of a local military command.
The Guam project received the endorsement of Capt. Jeffrey M. Grimes, then commander of Naval Base Guam and Major Gen. Esther J.C. Aguigi, then commander of Guam’s National Guard.
The NMI project saw a grant of “$335,000 to the Commonwealth Bureau of Military Affairs, Tinian, Commonwealth of Northern Marianas Islands, to enhance utility infrastructure in support of life, health, and safety for service members rotating on/off the island of Tinian from Joint Region Marianas.” The grant was for deficiencies in the utility infrastructure — specifically road work on roads 205 and 206 and was part of the road improvement project in partnership with the Office of the Governor, the Office of Mayor Edwin P. Aldan and the Naval Construction Regiment. Rear Adm. John Menoni, then commander of Joint Region Marianas, alerted the NMI Bureau of Military Affairs to the opportunity, according to Journal files.
And also …
Naval Facilities Engineering Systems Command Pacific announced the award of a $106.89 million “firm-fixed price task order” to the Core Tech-HDCC-Kajima LLC Joint Venture on April 26 for the construction of an embarkation facility at Apra Harbor at Naval Base Guam, to be used for “embarkation and debarkation by the Third Marine Expeditionary Force,” according to a May 4 release from NavFac Pacific, which made the award. The contract is funded by the Government of Japan through what is known as mamizu money. See www.mbjguam.com for prior awards to this JV.
IT&E will be performing roadside work in Guam from May 15 to July 30 in the following areas:
IT&E told the Journal, “The work being done is to increase capacity and for overall upgrades to infrastructure.” mbj
Asia Pacific Airlines will resume flying on May 5, with a flight that leaves Honolulu heading for Pago Pago in American Samoa and continuing to Majuro – arriving there on May 8.
Federal Aviation Administration officials will also be on the flight for a “check ride” on pilots on the first leg of the flight to Pago Pago, according to Adam Ferguson, president of APA.
“We’ve been working really hard and really fast to get this accomplished,” he said. Ferguson also thanked the FAA for its efforts to get the airline back in the air and certify its pilots.
APA will then bring back cargo flights to all destinations, which include Palau and the Federated States of Micronesia “around the middle of the month,” Ferguson said, speaking by phone from Hawaii.
COLA decrease on the cards for Guam military and Guam Guard
On May 2, the U.S. Department of Defense released addition information on Cost of Living Allowances “for this year” and their potential effect on personnel on-island. The adjustments are based on the National Defense Authorization Act for fiscal 2023, DoD said.
“The Overseas Cost-of-Living Allowance is an allowance that ensures our service members who are assigned to a permanent duty station outside the contiguous U.S. (OCONUS) (i.e., foreign countries, U.S. territories, Alaska, and Hawaii) maintain the same level of purchasing power as service members stationed in CONUS locations — not less purchasing power, but not more either,” the department said in a release.
The comments in bold are the department’s.
The Overseas COLA rate pays a differential to military personnel outside the U.S. mainland for the increased cost of buying the same non-housing goods and services as are bought in the mainland. Based upon changes in the cost-of-living data and currency fluctuations, those rates increase or decrease over time, the release said.
Based on the new NDAA legislation, the department will not implement the OCOLA decreases based on cost-of-living data all at once. Any decrease based on cost-of-living data will be implemented in 50% increments on two separate dates — during the May 15 and Nov. 15 pay periods. The release said the department would provide notification to “combatant commanders and overseas points of contact, whenever possible, at least 30 days prior to the implementation of the first 50% reduction to ensure affected service members have time to financially prepare.”
For the May 15 pay period reductions, those individuals were notified of the new rates prior to March, the release said.
The Department updates rates based on an assessment of three primary data sets, the release reiterated. These include The triennial Living Pattern Survey, which measures where personnel shop and the proportion of shopping that occurs on a military installation, such as at commissaries and exchanges, at local community outlets, and from online purchases; and the annual Retail Price Schedule, which measures the cost of a 150-item market basket of non-housing goods and services e.g., groceries and clothing, the release said.
“Local differences in costs for utilities and housing are accounted for separately through the housing allowance — from the outlets where Service members indicate they shop; and annually …,” the release said.
According to Journal files, U.S. military personnel in Guam and Hawaii were told they may lose more than half of their cost-of-living allowances — hundreds of dollars per month in many cases.
The complicated system, for example, for an E-6 with 10 years of service and three dependents could indeed mean a cut of hundreds of dollars, depending on location, whether currency fluctuations come into effect, and more, according to information prepared by the U.S. Department of Defense. In another DoD example, an E-4 based in Oahu with three years of service and two dependents is also looking at decreases in 2023, but the example assumes an increase in monthly net income from the previous year.
James C. Moylan, Guam’s delegate to Congress, expressed his own concern on May 4, also saying that cuts will affect members of the Guam Army Guard and the Guam Air Guard, as well as military personnel on the island.
According to a March 29 release, James C. Moylan, Guam’s delegate to Congress; said he had asked U.S. Secretary of State Lloyd J. Austin III regarding the news that Guam (and Hawaii) cost of living allowances would be slashed. Austin said at the time one of his assistant secretaries was reviewing the waiver request submitted by Rear Adm. Benjamin R. Nicholson, which would take the OCOLA levels back to the amounts provided prior to March 15. Moylan spoke with Austin at a House Armed Service Committee hearing on the fiscal 2024 Department of Defense budget.
Joint Region Marianas in Guam, said in a Facebook post on March 20 that it was “working closely with Indo-Pacific Command to advocate for an appeal of the new Overseas Cost of Living Allowance (OCOLA) Adjustment Policy for Guam.”
Active-duty personnel in Guam were faced with a 66% decrease, and the regional command said in the Facebook post that strongly encouraged personnel and their families to prepare.
The U.S. military provides a tool for its personnel to calculate what their Overseas COLA will be – based on locality, years of service and pay grade.
Guam economic diversification 3D initiative proceeding
ASTRO America is launching May 3 a Guam Additive Manufacturing roundtable series “to connect with key individuals and discuss the barriers, business opportunities, and benefits of an initiative underway to determine the viability” of local industrial 3D printing industry in Guam, according to a release from the organization.
On April 27 (CHamoru Standard Time) ASTRO America and the Guam Economic Development Authority released a Baseline Additive Manufacturing Readiness Report “highlighting that Guam has the basic building blocks for establishing a high-tech manufacturing sector on the island.” The initiative is now in its planning implementation phase and being discussed publicly for the first time,” ASTRO America said in the release, which it sent out.
GVB board waits for legislative approval of nominees, staff continue with work
Gerald S.A. Perez, vice president of the Guam Visitors Bureau; told the Journal that while the board awaits legislative confirmations of its final members, that poses no operational problems for GVB’s leadership and staff.
On March 8, during a special board meeting, the board discussed the appointment of its 12th director. According to GVB, on March 11, Carl T. C. Gutierrez, president of GVB asked the Office of the Attorney General to issue an opinion on selection of the 12th director.
Despite advice from its legal counsel that 11 board members were needed to appoint the 12th member, the board met on March 23 to discuss that selection and selected Monty D.M. Mesa, general manager of Guam Premier Outlets and Tumon Sands Plaza, according to GVB. Mesa is also a director of the Guam Travel & Tourism Association.
On April 27, the GVB board – following a motion by Mesa, voted to open a search for a general manager and legal counsel rather than conduct performance evaluations of Gutierrez and Joseph B. McDonald, legal counsel. According to the board minutes and recording, no performance evaluation of management had been conducted since 2009. On April 28 the Attorney General’s Office issued its opinion and confirmed GVB legal counsel’s opinion that the law requires 11 directors to select the 12th director, thus according to GVB making the appointment of Mesa illegal.
While the board awaits legislative confirmations, Perez told the Journal, “Operationally it’s not affecting GVB, because we continue to function … it’s business as usual.”
The GVB board is scheduled to meet on May 11.
Editor’s Note regarding the attached letter from Rear Adm. Benjamin R. Nicholson:
Sources give different figures for Guam’s square land total. For example, these vary from 210 square miles (CIA World Fact Book) to 212 square miles (Guam Territorial Land Use Plan 1994 and various land use plans thereafter; U.S. Census Bureau) to 217 miles (Britannica), and often include the word “approximately.” Variances may be due to reclamation and what specifically is included. Guam Business Magazine and the Journal have variously used 210 square miles and 212 square miles when including that statistic with other statistics from a particular source.
The Public Affairs Office of Joint Region Marianas confirmed that the definition used by the Department of Defense and the Navy is 212 square miles.
Department of Defense land holdings in 1950 was estimated at 58% of Guam. DoD land control decreased because of the Guam Excess Land Act of 1994, and Base Closure and Realignment Commission recommendations, which restructured military resources and land use around the nation.
In May 1994, the Territorial Land Use plan said, “According to the Bureau of Planning, the federal government controls 32 percent of the island's total land area as military reservations.”
The 2009 Draft Environmental Impact Study for the Guam and CNMI Military Relocation said the “United States Government” held “approximately 35%” of Guam’s land, according to a 2009 report from the Guam Bureau of Statistics and Plans. The study also refers to U.S. government holdings of land in Guam as “approximately one third,” a figure frequently used. The 2010 Final Environmental Impact Statement for the relocation discussed the “proposed increase in federal land” to accommodate the relocation.
In 2011, in the confirmation of the “net negative” agreement letter from Robert O. Work, U.S. under secretary of the U.S. Navy to Gov. Edward B. Calvo, a background note included reference to a Naval Facilities Engineering Command Marianas Defense Policy Review Initiative Land Inventory study “for the purpose of identifying all military land holdings and their current requirements and identify opportunities and recommendations for future use.” The study included all land owned by the DoD on Guam. This amounted to a total of approximately 36,331 acres of land at that time, of which 36,264.88 acres was Department of Navy held and 66.12 acres was Department of the Army held. The total DoD land holdings constituted approximately 27% of the total land area of Guam, the study said, though no list of properties held was included.
Since then, 609 acres have been returned to the Government of Guam, the admiral wrote in his submission.
The Public Affairs Office of Joint Region Marianas confirmed that at this time, “The Department of Defense holds approximately 35,622 acres of land on Guam.”
The 2011 net negative agreement between Robert Work, U.S. under secretary of the Navy and Gov. Edward B. Calvo does not refer to submerged lands.
The Public Affairs Office at Joint Region Marianas clarified to the Journal that the definition used for submerged land that Nicholson referred to is, “Submerged lands are defined as lands permanently or periodically covered by tidal waters up to but not above the line of mean high tide and seaward to a line three geographical miles distant from the coastlines, as defined under the provisions of Public Law 93-435 of 5 October 1974, 88 STAT.1210 (HR 11559, 93rd Congress).”
Nicholson refers to the Department of Defense’s Office of Local Defense Community Cooperation in his letter and a potential grant for a new hospital for Guam.
According to Journal files, Guam and the Northern Mariana Islands received one community cooperation grant each in 2020, for which application must be made by the potential recipient.
One of them went to the Municipality of Chalan Pago-Ordot, which was awarded $3.51 million to “undertake a $6,506,426 project to construct a Multipurpose Recreation and Emergency Center to support military families on Guam.”
One of the essential elements the projects needed to progress was the approval of a local military command.
The Guam project received the endorsement of Capt. Jeffrey M. Grimes, then commander of Naval Base Guam and Major Gen. Esther J.C. Aguigi, then commander of Guam’s National Guard.
The NMI project saw a grant of “$335,000 to the Commonwealth Bureau of Military Affairs, Tinian, Commonwealth of Northern Marianas Islands, to enhance utility infrastructure in support of life, health, and safety for service members rotating on/off the island of Tinian from Joint Region Marianas.” The grant was for deficiencies in the utility infrastructure — specifically road work on roads 205 and 206 and was part of the road improvement project in partnership with the Office of the Governor, the Office of Mayor Edwin P. Aldan and the Naval Construction Regiment. Rear Adm. John Menoni, then commander of Joint Region Marianas, alerted the NMI Bureau of Military Affairs to the opportunity, according to Journal files.
And also …
Naval Facilities Engineering Systems Command Pacific announced the award of a $106.89 million “firm-fixed price task order” to the Core Tech-HDCC-Kajima LLC Joint Venture on April 26 for the construction of an embarkation facility at Apra Harbor at Naval Base Guam, to be used for “embarkation and debarkation by the Third Marine Expeditionary Force,” according to a May 4 release from NavFac Pacific, which made the award. The contract is funded by the Government of Japan through what is known as mamizu money. See www.mbjguam.com for prior awards to this JV.
IT&E will be performing roadside work in Guam from May 15 to July 30 in the following areas:
- Harmon Industrial Park Road, near Black Construction Corp.
- Route 16, Dededo
- Route 1, near Micronesia Mall
- Route 34, near Two Lovers Point
IT&E told the Journal, “The work being done is to increase capacity and for overall upgrades to infrastructure.” mbj