How ironic is it that someone comes to the forum called…lemme check again here…yep, it’s called Mundane Pointless Stuff I Must Share, then proceeds to complain about how utterly mundane and pointless it is. Um, isn’t that kinda the POINT? That it’s pointless? Jeeze. What the hell are they teaching those kids in school nowadays anyhow?
Don’t panic! Don’t panic!
No civil war in sight, just grumbling from the displaced islanders. There are only about 500 of them in the Marshall Islands anyway.
Just thought you should know about Diego Garcia’s recent past. Mainly, that the UK ought to be ashamed of itself for displacing the local population…
I didn’t know that there ever was a native population.
When his step-dad spent four months there in 1980, he told me it was just military. I figured it was too small to maintain a viable population. I suppose 500 Islanders aren’t much of a threat, but you are definetly right, it is shameful behavior. We did the same thing in the Bikini Islands and I now wonder how many more. I guess one island is the same as the next - to us.
Rilchiam–check the Pit if you really wanna know.
First of all, the good news: I’m no longer working on Diego Garcia! My company decided to “restructure” and thus my job there is no longer. That’s fine with me because I’m now living (as of today) in Marina, California.
Anyway, for the latest on the British Indian Ocean Territory, you may check http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?file=/chronicle/archive/2000/11/04/MN13005.DTL (and my apologies if this makes the window go too wide; it’s been a while since I’ve posted anything).
As far as the island itself goes: there are no native inhabitants living there (check the url above). There are approximately 3000~4000 residents at any one time counting the few British, the many US military, and the “Third Country National” employee population (made up mostly of Philippine nationals and a few Mauritian nationals). All those residents live on Diego Garcia itself as the rest of the islands are restricted. For that matter, the entire Territory is restricted and only those employed or stationed there are permitted entry.
Regarding shameful behaviour of the British: I’m unsure as what was more shameful, the British action in expelling the Ilois or the French action in abandoning the plantation workers (slaves?) when copra production was no longer profitable enough.
Wow, that brings back some memories. I spent the night there once, the day before Thanksgiving in '83. The navy got a hair up its butt and decided to ship me home in the middle of a decidedly non-luxury cruise on the danger Ranger. I flew in on a US-3A viking and spent the night in splinterville in the beach huts. It was mind boggling to stand on the beach and know there was nothing for a thousand miles. After four months of a royally ****ed up cruise it was nice to spend an evening at the Diego Garcia NCO’s club sipping a Heineken and watching True Grit. Those brits know how to make a yank feel at home. The next day I shipped to the Phillippines in a C-141 transport. My thanksgiving meal was a standard air force issue cold fried chicken box lunch. Since I was on my way home no meal tasted better.
Before I got home I had a ten day layover in Subic Bay. The details of that time require AdultCheck™ verification 
Padeye, your post brought up some memories too. My short stint in DGar was on the return trip from a 30-day medical TAD in Subic, heading back to my ship in the North Arabian Sea.
The Naval Hospital in Subic had their little detachment of the broken and diseased, and those who were ambulatory were supposed to muster every morning and be assigned work. After a few days, I realized that my name wasn’t being called, so I stopped going. I’d sleep in every morning and meet my buddies for lunch at the club and have a few beers, which then led to a few more beers in the afternoon, and so on. I needed to go back to the boat to get some rest by the end of that!
Who else shed a tear when they closed down Subic? Boy, did I have some good times in that place.