We refueled on Wake Island in '69 on my first trip to Nam. It would be shame to see it just abandoned. iime will tell what they decide, though.
I would LOVE to go there sometime.. however, being your average Joe citizen.. i feel i will never have that chance. So much history, so much was lost and fought for on that tiny island!
hell that was the war cry was it not?
"remember Wake Island!"
I was nine years old in 1958 when our flight from Japan stopped at Wake. The beach was still strewn with rusting hulks of Jap ships including a submarine, and it was off limits due to uncleared mines (but I went there anyway and picked up some sea shells and coral which I still have).
Wake Island itself is a memorial to those who perished defending it. And it should be maintained as a U.S. base indefinitely.