HAGÅTÑA (The Guam Daily Post) — A recent military exercise crossed into the private property of a few local families on Jinapsan, a coastal area of Yigo not far from Andersen Air Force Base.
“My uncles were down where the boat was near. They approached (the military service members) about what they were doing and they were told that (the personnel) were supposed to actually be at Sirena Beach, which is farther down (from our property),” Micah Perez told The Guam Daily Post.
Perez, whose family and others own and maintain ranches at Jinapsan, also said exercise participants were observed dumping a bright green dye into the water.
The incident, which occurred July 17, according to Joint Region Marianas, prompted an apology from the local military command, which said the trespassing was inadvertent.
“We apologize and commit to working closely with our visiting units to minimize the likelihood of this happening again,” Lt. Cmdr. Katie Koenig told the Post.
Participants were conducting search-and-rescue training at the time, she said, in an effort to practice “integration and coordination” between American and allied forces. The dye deployed was harmless, according to Koenig.
“The scenario involves rescuing personnel in a contested, open-ocean environment and safely returning them to base for medical assessment and care,” she said. “The green dye marker used in this evolution is safe and nontoxic; it dissipates without ill effects to humans or sea life.”
Perez told the Post his family is used to dealing with the military, especially since access to their ranches crosses federal property. He said the relationship with Andersen has been good over the years. Relatives were awaiting an explanation from the local Air Force base commander when the Post interviewed Perez on Thursday.
This may not be the first time a member of the armed forces mistakenly wandered onto their property, Perez said, but he couldn’t recall any similar incident happening during a larger training event.
“We’ll have military members come past our property line where the private property starts. And it’s fine. We’ll always greet them and we’ll tell them, ‘You can enjoy the beach area and everything; feel free. But please clean up after yourself and respect the area,’” he said. “But that was the first time I’ve ever seen any official exercise going on within our property. It was pretty crazy.”
A number of exercises have occurred over the past several months. According to Koenig, the training event that went astray into Jinapsan was part of Mobility Guardian 23, a massive exercise involving more than 15,000 members of American and allied forces across multiple locations in the Indo-Pacific region, including Guam.
A Japan Air Self-Defense Force C-130H Hercules loadmaster with the 401st Tactical Airlift Squadron, right, and U.S. Air Force 2nd Lt. Rayne Jones, a 31st Combat Training Squadron battlespace engineer, sit on the ramp of a C-130H during a simulated airdrop over Andersen Air Force Base July 12, 2023.
