While researching the postwar Wake era I came upon some interesting information about Wake Island’s role in missile defense programs over the years. Of the unclassified missions and operations that are open to public inquiry, the one called Brilliant Pebbles caught my attention. The oddly festive and evocative name seems reason enough to use it for a December blog post. Sadly, history has not recorded who in the Reagan Administration came up...

Wake Island is variously described as V-shaped, horseshoe-shaped, or wishbone-shaped. I like the last best, and so it seems appropriate to recall Thanksgiving on Wake Island in 1941. Thanksgiving fell on November 20, 1941, on Wake, other islands, D. C., and two-thirds of the states. For the third Depression year in a row, President Franklin Roosevelt had proclaimed Thanksgiving on the third Thursday of November instead of the traditional last...

On Wake Island the United States Marine Corps memorial stands tall, a stark white spire against a blue sky. Nearly fifty years since its dedication in 1966, the memorial remains well tended and frequently visited. Marines passing through Wake pay their respects year after year, often leaving medals and pins or picking up a paint brush to give the memorial a fresh white coat, as a visiting general did last week. The defense of Wake Island in...

The Wake Atoll Commemorative DXpedition has finally been approved for entry to Wake after a month-long delay. This amateur radio operators’ mission commemorates the 98 American civilian contractors who were killed on Wake in October 1943 and is dedicated to preserving their memory. The twelve-man team, now scheduled to arrive on Wake November 2 (across the International Date Line), will set up antennas and stations and commence long-distance...

The recent congressional impasse that resulted in a sixteen-day government shutdown recalled many political crises through American history, but I found myself drawn back to the period of heated public debates and bitter personal attacks in 1940-41 over isolationism. The political strength of the United States is based on representative democracy, loyal opposition, government by compromise, and the constitutionally defined system of checks and...