{"id":389196,"date":"2023-04-11T06:06:38","date_gmt":"2023-04-10T20:06:38","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/?p=389196"},"modified":"2023-04-11T06:06:38","modified_gmt":"2023-04-10T20:06:38","slug":"nicholson-allays-concerns-on-impacts-of-upcoming-exercises","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/nicholson-allays-concerns-on-impacts-of-upcoming-exercises\/","title":{"rendered":"Nicholson allays concerns on impacts of upcoming exercises"},"content":{"rendered":"

Saying that they go through an extremely extensive process, Rear Adm. Benjamin Nicholson allayed Friday concerns about cultural and environmental impacts from the upcoming military exercises this summer in the CNMI.<\/p>\n

Nicholson, who is the commander of Joint Region Marianas, also affirmed in an interview that the People\u2019s Republic of China has been increasing its activities throughout Micronesia and that they are closely watching it.<\/p>\n

On the Tinian divert airfield, he said the discovery of World War 2 ammunitions is slowing down the construction work a tad, but the project is moving along.<\/p>\n

For the military exercises, Nicholson said they are required to follow a significant set of regulations and they go through an extensive process to ensure that they minimize any impact on the environment.<\/p>\n

In addition, Nicholson said, before they do these exercises, their people that run the ranges and set up the exercises closely coordinate with the CNMI\u2019s Bureau of Military Affairs.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>
Benjamin Nicholson<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

The Joint Region Marianas commander was interviewed shortly after his meeting with Gov. Arnold I. Palacios in the governor\u2019s conference room last week. At that meeting, Nicholson and Palacios talked about upcoming military exercises in the CNMI and Palacios\u2019 plan to develop military tourism to pivot away from the China tourism market, among other topics.<\/p>\n

Nicholson said they emphasize with their military members and their families all the time that they only leave behind their footsteps when they visit any place. Nicholson believes there are military members and their families who are really good environmentalists. \u201cWhen they go visit a beach, you don\u2019t see them leave trash,\u201d the commander said.<\/p>\n

As for China\u2019s military threat to Micronesia, Nicholson said they see quite a bit of People\u2019s Republic of China\u2019s activity throughout the region.<\/p>\n

\u201cThings are going on in [the Federated States of Micronesia], Palau, throughout the Marianas. And we keep a very, very close eye on that,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

And it\u2019s not just China\u2019s military movements. Nicholson said there\u2019s quite a little bit of other China activity that happens in the region, such as illegal fishing or related to funding.<\/p>\n

\u201cLots of different things are happening in the region. And we keep close attention to that. That continues to increase over time. But we watch that very carefully,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

With respect to the Tinian divert airfield project, Nicholson said the runway itself really isn\u2019t impacted as it is going to continue to operate.<\/p>\n

He said what they are building is a parallel taxiway and a parking apron, and eventually a fuel storage and a piping system from the port that goes to the fuel storage area.<\/p>\n

\u201cThat is moving along. It\u2019s moving slow because we encountered a few things,\u201d he said, like some World War II ammunitions and that slows down the process a little bit. He said they are, however, working on that and he is confident they will get the project done.<\/p>\n

The Tinian divert airfield construction project is composed of two phases\u2014Phase 1 is airfield development and Phase 2 involves a parking apron. Black Micro Corp. got the contract for $161.8 million. The target completion date is Oct. 9, 2025.<\/p>\n

The divert airfield will allow the U.S. Air Force to use Tinian as an alternative landing site for its planes in case Anderson Air Force Base in Guam is inaccessible due to war or calamities.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Saying that they go through an extremely extensive process, Rear Adm. Benjamin Nicholson allayed Friday…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":23,"featured_media":389206,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[900],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-389196","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-featured"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/389196","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/23"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=389196"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/389196\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/389206"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=389196"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=389196"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=389196"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}