Military Presence

GAO provided information on the size, mission, and cost of the U.S. military presence in the Pacific theater, covering 40 countries, 10 foreign territories, 2 U.S. states, 6 U.S. territories, 2 freely associated states, and 1 U.S. protectorate.

GAO found that: (1) the United States has stationed military personnel in the Pacific since the beginning of the twentieth century; (2) there were 297,987 military personnel and 36,410 civilian employees, with a total of 181,991 dependents, stationed in the Pacific theater as of March 31, 1990; (3) the Department of Defense (DOD) employed 49,512 foreign national civilians in the area; (4) for fiscal year (FY) 1989, DOD spent about $16.8 billion to maintain its military presence; (5) Navy personnel constituted 40 percent of all Pacific theater military and civilian personnel, Army and Air Force personnel each constituted 24 percent, Marine Corps 11 percent, and DOD organization personnel 1 percent; (6) about 16 percent of Pacific area military and civilian personnel served in Japan, 14 percent in South Korea, and 4 percent in the Philippines; (7) as of March 31, 1990, there were 115,814 Navy and Marine Corps military personnel in the Pacific theater fleet forces, representing about 39 percent of all U.S. military personnel in the area; and (8) DOD spent about $5.5 billion to maintain fleet forces in FY 1989. GAO also found that: (1) the Commander in Chief, U.S. Pacific Command, commanded 81 percent of U.S. military and civilian personnel in the Pacific theater, directing operations through three service commands in Hawaii and four subunified commands in Korea, Japan, Hawaii, and Alaska; (2) one of the three services or DOD organizations commanded the remaining U.S. military and civilian personnel; and (3) in FY 1989, the military services deployed about $8.7 billion worth of equipment to the Pacific theater.