Imperial Valley press., 1943-12-28

Use of 34-square-m mile Ascension
Island as q U. S. air base can at
last be talked about. For over a
year this tiny British island, 500
miles south of the equator in the
middle of the South Atlantic Ocean,
has been stopping point for
short fighter planes being
ferried to southern European and
African fronts, and even to the
Middle and Far East.
1t is perfectly situated for such
use, being approximately 1900 miles
east of Natal on the Brazil bulge,
and equidistant from American and
British air bases on the southern
coast of the African bulge. It's
selection as refueling base for the
Air Transport Command came, in
fact, after the generals running the
ATC wished that they had such a
halfway base, then. looked atAl
map to see that Ascension Island
was right where they wanted liz
With auxiliary fuel tanks, fighter
planes could make the South At
lantic crossing in two hops, easily.
But the island was a British pos
session. That meant making a deal
with the British. which proved far
easier than the next obstacle en-
countered-the fact that the island
was volcanic, with 2800-foot Green
mountain rising in its middle. an
extremely irregular lava rock terrain
cut by deep gorges, and no place
level or big enough for an airport,
That did not stop the engineers who
were given the job of building a.
field in 80 days. Eighty-seven days
later a minor peak that loomed up
in the middle of the runway which
the engineers mapped out, had
been removed. And in its place
was a beautiful, 7000-foot, hard
surfaced landing strip that has ac-
commodated hundreds OF American
planes on their way to the fronts.
SECRET" PUBLICIZED
Use of Ascension as a U. S. air
base has been one of the Army
Worst-kept secrets. When General
George C. Marshalls biennial re-
port was issued last summer, it re-
vealed that u. S. troops were then
stationed in some 80 foreign coun-
tries and island possessions. On a
map accompanying the report,
showing where all these places
were, the name Of little Ascension
stood out prominently in the South
Atlantic A legend indicated that
U. S. troops had been stationed
there since March, 1912.
Everything in the Marshall report
was supposed to be off the re-
stricted list and on the record, but
efforts to learn more about what
went on at Ascension met with flat
refuSals. Ascension was supposed
to be a very hush-hush operation
and Air Transport Command don't
want anything said about It. Even
though the Marshall report had
lifted the lid and even though
anyone looking at a map could
guess what it was being used for,
still even the simplest announce
ment about a U. S. base on Ascen-
sion had to be kept secret"
Then, a few days ago, a lunch
eon-club speaker in Washington, in
full possession of all the facts.
talked freely about Ascension and
said ii was all right for the story
to to be told, without attribution.
That's how it got out. The Air
Transport Command is issuing a
hand-out release about the island
later in the month, to coincide with
publication Of a magazine article
which tells all in greater detail. y
DEBATE INEVITABLE 4
But this won't be the end of the
Ascension Island story. Being an
other one of these American built
paid for -and-maintained bases on
British territory, it will become
topic for argument in deciding its
postwar use. The strong nationilst.
point of view is that all such bases,
wherever built, should remain as
American bases. U. S.-built military
air bases at Newfoundland, Ber-
muda and other points involved in,
the swap of old dostroyers to the
British will remain under the
American flag during the 99-year
lease, but cannot be used for COM
mercial aircraft. N
Some of the leading commercial
airline executives are of the opin-
ion that this is unimportant be-
cause most OF these bases are not