"Wake Island" Wake Atoll by davecallahan

I spent some time on Wake Island in the mid-1960s before going to Viet Nam.

We were mostly confined to the US Army base but got to see some of the nearby places briefly.

Wake is a territory of the USA. It is a coral atoll that was built up over a million years. It is composed of Wake Island, Wilkes Island and Peale Island with Wake Island being the biggest and most populous by far.

disembarking

019-18-00N 166-38-00E
19.3000, 166.6335

live ammo practice

Wake Island is now completely taken over by military first-strike launch security personnel (under 500 people are on the islands and none are indigenous but rather are hired by the military). Access to the islands is by a "needs only" basis which prevents the general public from visiting anymore.

Today, military personnel that are sent TDY to Wake are paid about $90 per diem which is about 10 times what we were paid back in the 1960s.