I refueled in Guam a couple times. Five stars. Would refuel there again.
Guam: The America that Americans forget
181–190 of 555 posts
Re: Guam: The America that Americans forget
#182The article touches a little on flight costs, but as someone who'd love to visit sometime and never has, it annoys me how flights to Guam work. Given its location most airlines don't fly direct from the mainland, so many flights to Guam are from Asia. But, you can't buy a ticket from the US with a layover in Japan from JAL or with a layover in Korea from Korean Air because any flight with a US origin to a US destinat…
There used to be direct flights on Continental before they were acquired/merged by United
Re: Guam: The America that Americans forget
#183Earlier quoted context omitted.
Yup - if we didn't accept Finland and Sweden into NATO then their only option to prevent a Russian invasion would be to develop nukes and aim them at St. Petersburg.
I’m not sure what the joke is. Sweden had an atomic bomb program which was dropped in the 1970s after assurances from the US to extend its “nuclear umbrella” to protect Sweden.
So if the USSR were to attack Sweden then what would the USA do exactly?
Re: Guam: The America that Americans forget
#184Earlier quoted context omitted.
> those who feel limited by the island and its infrastructure (no Target, no Starbucks, etc.) I hate those people. I live in a city of 1.5 million (there's everything here), and it's a constant background radiation talking point for a significant number of my highschool friends: how unfortunate they are that they don't live in the nearby city of 15 million. IME this constant moping has everything to do with the amoun…
I've visited Charleston and Huntington, WV. I went to all the 'hippy' spots (the only festival in the area, the farmer's market, bar with gigs, a museum on the outskirts). US 50k cities have less infrastructures and cultural events than 10k cities in my country to be honest, i can quite understand your peers (you also have really good small towns like Fayetteville, WV, if you like outdoorsy stuff and physical activit…
Funny thing, I'm originally from Huntington, WV. My fiance has never been to WV, and we're thinking of skipping the trip to Huntington and just meeting my family in Fayetteville for a weekend trip.
Re: Guam: The America that Americans forget
#185Ah, yes, the island that could capsize, if we load it up with too much materiel, according to a particular US Senator... Guam is like Guantanamo, or Diego Garcia. We're there only because they are of strategic importance for the post-war (WWII) projection of power and nothing more. Else all those little island bases would be quiet places like so many other small islands that dot the oceans.
> Else all those little island bases would be quiet places like so many other small islands that dot the oceans. Most of those "quiet places" in the Pacific are in free association with the United States. They still "act as bases" in return for the United States offering guaranteed protection and sovereignty. So I'm not quite sure what your comparison point is supposed to be: a) places that ended up under US possessi…
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Re: Guam: The America that Americans forget
#186Earlier quoted context omitted.
> Or maybe just accept that the one constant of life is everyone takes everyone else's shit if and when they can and want. Sure. But if this is normal, why is it so hard to accept what Russia is doing to Ukraine? Just because evils were done in the past, doesn’t mean we should just accept it as universal truths and continue doing the same things to others (islanders). If you accept that Russia is wrong, then invading…
>>why is it so hard to accept what Russia is doing to Ukraine? Jesus christ, that's a logical jump if I've ever seen one, but ok, I'll bite: IF Russia succeeds at taking Ukraine, then sure in few hundred years it should be accepted as "normal" that's just what Russia's territory is. Just like most European countries where their borders have shifted through wars and violence many times in the past. That doesn't make t…
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Re: Guam: The America that Americans forget
#187Earlier quoted context omitted.
> We're there only because they are of strategic importance for the post-war (WWII) projection of power and nothing more. Are you aware that the US acquired Guam decades before WWII?
…And then acquired by the Japanese at the outbreak of WWII and then we took it back toward the end of WWII. Its importance lies in its geography. It is a nice base from which to project power. The Spanish knew that, the Japanese knew that and we knew that. Else it’d be like many mid oceanic islands. Or the Orkney islands. The importance is military strategic importance, else they’d be like the Faroe Islands. Some pla…
Re: Guam: The America that Americans forget
#188Earlier quoted context omitted.
Flight costs are a pain, and the flight durations are nothing to sneeze at either. I live out in Guam (my wife is stationed here with the Navy) and the two most common ways to get back to the mainland are via Tokyo (Narita) and Honolulu. I would definitely encourage visiting if you have the means! I find there are two types of people here: those who feel limited by the island and its infrastructure (no Target, no Sta…
> those who feel limited by the island and its infrastructure (no Target, no Starbucks, etc.) I hate those people. I live in a city of 1.5 million (there's everything here), and it's a constant background radiation talking point for a significant number of my highschool friends: how unfortunate they are that they don't live in the nearby city of 15 million. IME this constant moping has everything to do with the amoun…
It is an interesting idea to explore: Why do humans predominantly want to live in bigger and bigger groups. Sure, there are a few people that want to live out in the country, but cities are big because people want to be there. Humans like groups.
Re: Guam: The America that Americans forget
#189Sorta related, Guam is a good place for game servers to have similar pings for Asia, Oceania and USA (sorta) https://www.oneqode.com/guam/
Yea I recently started hosting a very niche game server in Guam (action quake 2) because of its central location. It’s 95ms from Melbourne, AU, 110ms from Auckland, NZ and about 120ms from west coast US. Central US is probably about 150ms. All of which are very close playable. Living in Australia, as a teen FPS gamer it was always frustrating to know that no matter what tech comes next, the physical distance is the l…
Action Quake 2, jeez that's a blast from the past. Precursor to counter strike if I recall correctly.
RA2 was my jam back in the day, migrating to RA3.
Re: Guam: The America that Americans forget
#190Earlier quoted context omitted.
I thought about retiring in Guam someday since Medicare would actually work there. But I can’t imagine it is much nicer than Bali or some parts of Thailand I’m also thinking about (if my health is good 20 years later), and it’s definitely more expensive than.
OTOH I would guesstimate Guam to be much more politically stable than Bali or Thailand.
Thailand perhaps (although I'd note that political instability in Thailand is carefully done to avoid disturbing the tourism industry in anyway).
But it's been many years (25? If you count Timor crisis?) since any significant political disturbance in Bali/Indonesia and only 3 years since a coup attempt in Guam/USA.