page_title: Diego Garcia
section_title: Naval Support Facility Diego Garcia
hierarchical_section_title: Diego Garcia / United States military activities / Naval Support Facility Diego Garcia
caption_attribution_description: English: OPERATION ENDURING FREEDOM -- A B-2 Spirit takes off for an Operation Iraqi Freedom bombing mission while other aircraft from 40th Air Expeditionary Wing prepare to launch from a forward-deployed location. The B-2's "stealth" characteristics give it the ability to penetrate an enemy's most sophisticated defenses and threaten its most valued and heavily defended targets. (U.S. Air Force photo by Senior Airman Nathan G. Bevier)
context_page_description: Diego Garcia is an island of the British Indian Ocean Territory, an overseas territory of the United Kingdom. It is a militarised atoll just south of the equator in the central Indian Ocean, and the largest of 60 small islands comprising the Chagos Archipelago. It was first discovered by Europeans and named by the Portuguese, settled by the French in the 1790s and transferred to British rule after the Napoleonic Wars. It was one of the "Dependencies" of the British Colony of Mauritius until the Chagos Islands were detached for inclusion in the newly created British Indian Ocean Territory in 1965.
  In 1966, the population of the island was 924. These people were employed as contract farm workers on primarily coconut plantations owned by the Chagos-Agalega company. Although it was common for local plantation managers to allow pensioners and the disabled to remain in the islands and continue to receive housing and rations in exchange for light work, children after the age of 12 were required to work. In 1964, only 3 of a population of 963 were unemployed. In April 1967, the BIOT Administration bought out Chagos-Agalega for £600,000, thus becoming the sole property owner in the BIOT.
context_section_description: Naval Support Facility Diego Garcia provides Base Operating Services to tenant commands located on the island. The command's mission is "To provide logistic support to operational forces forward deployed to the Indian Ocean and Persian Gulf AORs in support of national policy objectives."
caption: B-2 bomber take off, B-52 bombers on tarmac on Diego Garcia
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