By David Ware
March 8, 2022
The Red Hill facility holds what is a considerable oil reserve for the U.S. Indo-Pacific Command for both the Navy and the Air Force. With the U.S. Department of Defense decision to permanently shut it down, Hawaii as a state, Oahu as an island, will be left with very little to no strategic reserves.
If there was an emergency like a hurricane, tsunami, or military conflict between us and a country from, say East Asia, that arose where all the fuel supply lines were shut down for days or weeks on end, then what would happen to us out here in what Mark Twain referred to as “the most isolated group of islands in the world“?
Yes, this will affect military readiness in the region. Without a strategic reserve, the readiness level could very quickly go from green to yellow. If the above-ground white tanks by Pearl Harbor were rendered inoperable or if the refinery in Kapolei [Campbell Industrial Park] were to be destroyed by a tsunami or hurricane, without a strategic reserve, we would be completely vulnerable and our military exposed.
This analysis was contributed by a retired intelligence analyst in the U.S. Air Force and at U.S. Pacific Command, who also served with the U.S. Defense Intelligence Agency.
The decision to spread out our military fuel storage reserves in the territories and nations of the Pacific Basin, as announced by U.S. Secretary of Defense Lloyd Austin, will present an extreme challenge during a time of conflict.
Let’s just say this as simply as possible: Red Hill fuel storage tanks keep our military warships and fighter planes ready, not only to retaliate, but to deter war.
Author David Ware 