Fewer Bases

Trimming its canvas to the gusty winds of Washington economies, the Navy re-rigged plans for its chain of Pacific bases.

Only three key points will be kept in full operating status: Hawaii, Guam and Saipan. To reinforce these, four other bases--Adak in the north, Midway in the Central Pacific, Leyte Samar and Subic Bay in the Philippines--will be maintained at reduced strength and capacity.

The rest will be retired from active service. Six will be manned with enough personnel to keep their facilities ready for use as soon as sufficient men and materiel could be shipped in. They are Kodiak and Attu in the Aleutians, Okinawa on the strategic northwestern frontier, the great sheltered anchorages of Eniwetok, Kwajalein and Truk. The others, buttoned up with only a fire and security watch: Dutch Harbor, Tinian, Majuro in the Marshalls, Samoa, the Australian mandate of Manus, Palau, and Puerto Princesa in the Philippines.

The Navy had given up altogether on six other islands: Johnston, Wake, Marcus, Iwo, Palmyra and Canton. Iwo, with its 9,800-ft. B-29 strip, would be taken over by the Army; Marcus would have a tiny weather station detachment.

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