Little Pearl

Most home-staying U.S. citizens still think of Guam as a speck in the vast Pacific. But actually Guam is a sizable piece of land covering 206 square miles. By last week, four months after its recapture by U.S. forces, it was also taking shape as a great, new base which its commanders proudly characterized as the "Pearl Harbor of the Western Pacific."

Nearly 20,000 Navy, Marine, and Army construction specialists were working night & day to finish the base, now the biggest single building project under way in the Pacific. They had already set up stout defenses, expanded former Jap airfields, dredged the harbor, laid miles of highway over jungle terrain, erected a radio station for fast news service.

Now they were concentrating on rebuilding the island's living quarters, almost all of which were smashed into rubble by the pre-invasion bombardment, and erecting a sea wall to protect port facilities. Seabees had almost finished the wall once when a tropical storm blew up, washed away all their work. Half of Guam's supplies had to be unloaded at portable pontoon piers.

At best the harbor of Guam could shelter only about 100 ships. But in comparison to Pearl Harbor, it was nearly 4,000 miles closer to the war. From Australia this week a radio newscast reported that five-star Admiral Chester W. Nimitz would move his headquarters from Pearl Harbor to Guam shortly after the first of the year.

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