title: In Flames

text: The lineup of Strömblad, Ljungström, Larsson, Gelotte and Fridén released "The Jester Race" in 1996 and "Whoracle" in 1997. By the end of the recording for "Whoracle", however, both Ljungström and Larsson had announced that they were leaving the band. They were replaced for a short tour by Niclas Engelin and Peter Iwers, both of whom were ultimately retained as official members. Engelin only remained until the following year, however, and his role was taken over by Gelotte. The vacated position of drummer was soon filled by Daniel Svensson. The band's lineup remained stable for over a decade, releasing several albums.


title: In Flames

text: In February 2010, founding member Strömblad announced that he was leaving In Flames, with the band admitting that "in order to keep a very dear friend this is probably for the best". He was replaced for tour dates later in the year by a returning Niclas Engelin, who was later announced as a full member of the group in March 2011. In late 2015, long-term drummer Svensson also left In Flames, explaining that he wanted to "spend more time with ... [his] wife and three daughters". Joe Rickard was brought in as Svensson's replacement the following year. Iwers also departed a year after Svensson, explaining that he felt it was "the time to move on with other musical and non-musical adventures". Bryce Paul took over his place for future tour dates. In July 2018, Tanner Wayne replaced Rickard.


title: In Flames

text: In 2018, Engelin went on hiatus, with former Megadeth member Chris Broderick filling for live shows. The status of Engelin's belonging of band was unknown, despite Engelin stating that he was still in the band in an August 2020 interview, before refusing to answer the same question in July 2022. Anders confirmed that Chris was "100% officially in the band", hinting that Engelin left or was fired, before he confirmed Engelin's departure in an interview with Metal Hammer UK.


title: Kindergarten

text: Kindergarten is a preschool educational approach based on playing, singing, practical activities such as drawing, and social interaction as part of the transition from home to school. Such institutions were originally made in the late 18th century in Germany, Bavaria and Alsace to serve children whose parents both worked outside home. The term was coined by German pedagogue Friedrich Fröbel, whose approach globally influenced early-years education. Today, the term is used in many countries to describe a variety of educational institutions and learning spaces for children ranging from 2 to 6 years of age, based on a variety of teaching methods.


title: Kindergarten

text: In 1779, Johann Friedrich Oberlin and Louise Scheppler founded in Strasbourg an early establishment for caring for and educating preschool children whose parents were absent during the day. At about the same time, in 1780, similar infant establishments were created in Bavaria. In 1802, Princess Pauline zur Lippe established a preschool center in Detmold, the capital of the then principality of Lippe, Germany (now in the State of North Rhine-Westphalia).


title: Kindergarten

text: In 1816, Robert Owen, a philosopher and pedagogue, opened the first British and probably globally the first infants school in New Lanark, Scotland. In conjunction with his venture for cooperative mills Owen wanted the children to be given a good moral education so that they would be fit for work. His system was successful in producing obedient children with basic literacy and numeracy.


title: Kindergarten

text: Samuel Wilderspin opened his first infant school in London in 1819, and went on to establish hundreds more. He published many works on the subject, and his work became the model for infant schools throughout England and further afield. Play was an important part of Wilderspin's system of education. He is credited with inventing the playground. In 1823, Wilderspin published "On the Importance of Educating the Infant Poor", based on the school. He began working for the Infant School Society the next year, informing others about his views. He also wrote "The Infant System, for developing the physical, intellectual, and moral powers of all children from 1 to seven years of age".


title: Kindergarten

text: Countess Theresa Brunszvik (1775–1861), who had known and been influenced by Johann Heinrich Pestalozzi, was influenced by this example to open an ("angel garden" in Hungarian) on May 27, 1828, in her residence in Buda, the first of eleven care centers that she founded for young children. In 1836 she established an institute for the foundation of preschool centers. The idea became popular among the nobility and the middle class and was copied throughout the Kingdom of Hungary.


title: Kindergarten

text: Friedrich Fröbel (1782–1852) opened a "play and activity" institute in 1837, in the village of Bad Blankenburg, in the principality of Schwarzburg-Rudolstadt, Thuringia, as an experimental social experience for children entering school. He renamed his institute "" (meaning garden of children) on June 28, 1840, reflecting his belief that children should be nurtured and nourished "like plants in a garden". Fröbel introduced an educational environment into his school, in contrast to other earlier infant establishments, and is therefore credited with the creation of kindergartens. Around 1873, Caroline Wiseneder's method for teaching instrumental music to young children was adopted by the national kindergarten movement in Germany.


title: Kindergarten

text: Women trained by Fröbel opened kindergartens throughout Europe and around the world. The first kindergarten in the US was founded in Watertown, Wisconsin in 1856, and was conducted in German by Margaretha Meyer-Schurz.


title: Kindergarten

text: Elizabeth Peabody founded the first English-language kindergarten in the US in 1860. The first free kindergarten in the US was founded in 1870 by Conrad Poppenhusen, a German industrialist and philanthropist, who also established the Poppenhusen Institute. The first publicly financed kindergarten in the US was established in St. Louis in 1873 by Susan Blow.


title: Kindergarten

text: Canada's first private kindergarten was opened by the Wesleyan Methodist Church in Charlottetown, Prince Edward Island, in 1870. By the end of the decade, they were common in large Canadian towns and cities. In 1882, The country's first public-school kindergartens were established in Berlin, Ontario (modern Kitchener) at the Central School. In 1885, the Toronto Normal School (teacher training) opened a department for kindergarten teaching.


title: Kindergarten

text: The Australian kindergarten movement emerged in the last decade of the nineteenth century as both a philanthropic and educational endeavour. The first free kindergarten in Australia was established in 1896 in Sydney, New South Wales, by the Kindergarten Union of NSW (now KU Children's Services) led by reformer Maybanke Anderson.


title: Kindergarten

text: American educator Elizabeth Harrison wrote extensively on the theory of early childhood education and worked to enhance educational standards for kindergarten teachers by establishing what became the National College of Education in 1886.


title: Kindergarten

text: In Afghanistan, children between the ages of 3 and 6 attend kindergartens (; ). Although kindergartens in Afghanistan are not part of the school system, they are often run by the government.


title: Kindergarten

text: Early childhood development programs were first introduced during the Soviet occupation with the establishment in 1980 of 27 urban preschools, or "kodakistan". The number of preschools grew steadily during the 1980s, peaking in 1990 with more than 270 in Afghanistan. At its peak, there were 2,300 teachers caring for more than 21,000 children in the country. These facilities were an urban phenomenon, mostly in Kabul, and were attached to schools, government offices, or factories. Based on the Soviet model, these early childhood development programs provided nursery care, preschool, and kindergarten for children from 3 months to 6 years of age under the direction of the Department of Labor and Social Welfare.


title: Kindergarten

text: The vast majority of Afghan families were never exposed to this system, and many of these families were in opposition to these programs due to the belief that it diminishes the central role of the family and inculcates children with Soviet values. With the onset of civil war after the Soviet withdrawal, the number of kindergartens dropped rapidly. By 1995, only 88 functioning facilities serving 2,110 children survived, and the Taliban restrictions on female employment eliminated all of the remaining centers in areas under their control. In 2007, there were about 260 kindergarten/preschool centers serving over 25,000 children. Though every government center is required to have an early childhood center, at present, no governmental policies deal with early childhood and no institutions have either the responsibility or the capacity to provide such services.


title: Kindergarten

text: In each state of Australia, "kindergarten" (frequently referred to as "kinder" or "kindy") means something slightly different. In Tasmania, New South Wales and the Australian Capital Territory, it is the first year of primary school. In Victoria, kindergarten is a form of preschool and may be referred to interchangeably as preschool or kindergarten. In Victoria and Tasmania, the phrase for the first year of primary school is called "Prep" (short for "preparatory"), which is followed by Year 1.


title: Kindergarten

text: In Queensland, kindergarten is usually an institution for children around the age of 4 and thus it is the precursor to preschool and primary education. As with Victoria and Tasmania, the first year of primary school is also called "Prep", which is then followed by Year 1.


title: Kindergarten

text: The year preceding the first year of primary school education in Western Australia, South Australia or the Northern Territory is referred to respectively as "pre-primary", "reception" or "transition". In Western Australia, the year preceding pre-primary is called kindergarten.


title: Kindergarten

text: In Bangladesh, the term kindergarten, or "KG school" (kindergarten school), is used to refer to the schooling children attend from 3 to 6 years of age. The names of the levels are nursery, (children), etc. The view of kindergarten education has changed significantly over time. Almost every rural area now has at least one kindergarten school, with most being run in the Bengali language. They also follow the textbooks published by the National Curriculum and Textbook Board (NCTB) with slight modification, adding some extra books to the syllabus. The grades generally start from nursery (sometimes "play group"), "KG" afterwards, and end with the 5th grade. Separate from the National Education System, kindergarten contributes greatly toward achieving the Millennium Development Goal of universal primary education in Bangladesh.


title: Kindergarten

text: In Brazil, kindergarten (Portuguese: "Jardim de Infância") is the only non-compulsory education modality, for children up to 4 years old completed after March 31 for the vast majority of states. From the age of 4 completed until March 31, the child is eligible for preschool ("Pré-Escola"), which is mandatory and precedes the 1st grade. When a child turns 6 years old between April 1 and December 31, he/she must be in kindergarten (last grade of preschool nursery school), also known as kindergarten III, also known as “3º período da Escola Infantil”.


title: Kindergarten

text: In Bulgaria, the term () refers to the caring and schooling children attend from ages 3 to 7 (in some cases 6). Usually the children attend the from morning until late afternoon when their parents return from work. Most Bulgarian kindergartens are public. Since 2012, two years of preschool education are compulsory. These two years of mandatory preschool education may be attended either in kindergarten or in preparatory groups at primary schools.


title: Kindergarten

text: Schools outside of Ontario and the Northwest Territories generally provide one year of kindergarten, except some private schools which offer junior kindergarten (JK) for 4-year-olds (school before kindergarten is most commonly referred to as preschool). Kindergarten is mandatory in British Columbia, New Brunswick, and Prince Edward Island, and is optional elsewhere. The province of Nova Scotia refers to Kindergarten as Grade Primary. After kindergarten, the child begins grade one.


title: Kindergarten

text: The province of Ontario and the Northwest Territories provide two years of kindergarten, usually part of an elementary school. Within the French school system in Ontario, junior kindergarten is called and senior kindergarten is called , which is a calque of the German word .


title: Kindergarten

text: Within the province of Quebec, junior kindergarten is called (which is not mandatory), is attended by 4-year-olds, and senior kindergarten (SK) is called , which is also not mandatory by the age of 5; this class is integrated into primary schools.


title: Kindergarten

text: In Chile, the term equivalent to kindergarten is , sometimes also called . It is the first level of the Chilean educational system. It meets the needs of boys and girls integrally from birth until their entry to the (primary education), without being considered compulsory. Generally, schools imparting this level, the JUNJI (National Council of Kindergarten Schools) and other private institutions have the following organization of groups or subcategories of levels:


title: Kindergarten

text: In China, preschool education, before the child enters formal schooling at 6 years of age, is generally divided into a "nursery" or "preschool" stage and a "kindergarten" () stage. These can be two separate institutions, or a single combined one in different areas. Where there are two separate institutions, it is common for the kindergarten to consist of the two upper years, and the preschool to consist of one lower year. Common names for these three years are:


title: Kindergarten

text: In some places, children at 5–6 years may in addition or instead attend reception or preparatory classes () focusing on preparing children for formal schooling.


title: Kindergarten

text: State (public) kindergartens only accept children older than 3 years, while private ones do not have such limitations.


title: Kindergarten

text: Kindergarten () is a day care service offered to children from age three until the child starts attending school. Kindergarten classes (grade 0) were made mandatory in 2009 and are offered by primary schools before a child enters first grade.


title: Kindergarten

text: Two-thirds of established day care institutions in Denmark are municipal day care centres while the other third are privately owned and are run by associations of parents or businesses in agreement with local authorities. In terms of both finances and subject matter, municipal and private institutions function according to the same principles.


title: Kindergarten

text: Denmark is credited with pioneering (although not inventing) forest kindergartens, in which children spend most of every day outside in a natural environment.


title: Kindergarten

text: In Egypt, children may go to kindergarten for two years (KG1 and KG2) between the ages of four and six.


title: Kindergarten

text: At the end of the 1850s, Uno Cygnaeus, known as the "father of the Finnish primary school", presented the idea of bringing kindergartens to Finland after attending a kindergarten in Hamburg and a seminar training kindergarten teachers during his study trip to Central Europe. As early as 1920, there were about 80 kindergartens in operation across Finland, with a total of about 6,000 children.


title: Kindergarten

text: Kindergarten activity emphases and background communities vary. In Finland, most kindergartens are society's service to families while some are private. The underlying philosophy may be Montessori or Waldorf education. Preschools often also operate in connection with Finnish kindergartens. Kindergartens can also arrange language immersion programs in different languages. Finnish kindergartens now have an early childhood education plan, and parenting discussions are held with the parents of each child every year. Among OECD countries, Finland has higher-than-average public funding for early childhood education and the highest number of staff for children under the age of 3: only four children per adult.


title: Kindergarten

text: In France, preschool is known as ' (French for "nursery school", literally "maternal school"). Free ' schools are available throughout the country, welcoming children aged from 3 to 5 (although in many places, children under three may not be granted a place). The ages are divided into ' (GS: 5-year-olds), ' (MS: 4-year-olds), ' (PS: 3-year-olds) and ' (TPS: 2-year-olds). It became compulsory in 2018 for all children aged 3. Even before the 2018 law, almost all children aged 3 to 5 attended . It is regulated by the Ministry of National Education.


title: Kindergarten

text: In Germany, a ' (masculine: , plural ') is a facility for the care of preschool children who are typically at least three years old. By contrast, ' or ' refers to a crèche for the care of children before they enter ' (9 weeks to about three years), while '—literally "children's day site", usually shortened to "—is an umbrella term for any day care facility for preschoolers.


title: Kindergarten

text: Attendance is voluntary, and usually not free of charge. Preschool children over the age of one are entitled to receive local and affordable day care. Within the federal system, fall under the responsibility of the states, which usually delegate a large share of the responsibility to the municipalities. Due to the subsidiarity principle stipulated by §4 , there are a multitude of operators, from municipalities, churches and welfare societies to parents' initiatives and profit-based corporations. Many follow a certain educational approach, such as Montessori, Reggio Emilia, "" or Waldorf; forest kindergartens are well established. Most " are subsidised by the community councils, with the fees depending on the income of the parents.


title: Kindergarten

text: Even in smaller townships, there are often both Roman Catholic and Lutheran kindergartens available. Places in crèches and kindergarten are often difficult to secure and must be reserved in advance, although the situation has improved with a new law in effect August 2013. The availability of childcare, however, varies greatly by region. It is usually better in eastern regions, and in big cities in the north, such as Berlin or Hamburg, and poorest in parts of Southern Germany.


title: Kindergarten

text: All caretakers in ' or ' must have a three-year qualified education, or are under special supervision during training.


title: Kindergarten

text: ' can be open from 7 a.m. to 5 p.m. or longer and may also house a crèche (') for children between the ages of eight weeks and three years, and possibly an afternoon ' (often associated with a primary school) for school-age children aged 6 to 10 who spend time after their lessons there. Alongside nurseries, there are day care nurses (' or ") working independently of any preschool institution in individual homes and looking after only three to five children, typically up to the age of three. These nurses are supported and supervised by local authorities.


title: Kindergarten

text: The term ' ("preschool") is used both for educational efforts in ' and for a mandatory class that is usually connected to a primary school. Both systems are handled differently in each German state. The ' is a type of '.


title: Kindergarten

text: In Greece, kindergarten is called (). Kindergarten is a form of preschool and may be referred to interchangeably as preschool.


title: Kindergarten

text: Pre-primary Services in Hong Kong refers to provision of education and care to young children by kindergartens and child care centres. Kindergartens, registered with the Education Bureau, provide services for children from three to six years old. Child care centres, on the other hand, are registered with the Social Welfare Department and include nurseries, catering for children aged two to three, and creches, looking after infants from birth to two.


title: Kindergarten

text: At present, most of the kindergartens operate on a half-day basis offering upper and lower kindergarten and nursery classes. Some kindergartens also operate full-day kindergarten classes. Child care centres also provide full-day and half-day services with most centres providing full-day services.


title: Kindergarten

text: The aim of pre-primary education in Hong Kong is to provide children with a relaxing and pleasurable learning environment to promote a balanced development of different aspects necessary to a child's development such as the physical, intellectual, language, social, emotional and aesthetic aspects.


title: Kindergarten

text: To help establish the culture of self-evaluation in kindergartens and to provide reference for the public in assessing the quality and standard of pre-primary education, the Education Bureau has developed performance indicators for pre-primary institutions in Hong Kong. Commencing in the 2000/01 school year, quality assurance inspection was launched to further promote the development of quality early childhood education.


title: Kindergarten

text: In Hungary a kindergarten is called an " ("place for caring"). Children attend kindergarten between ages 3–6/7 (they go to school in the year in which they have their 7th birthday). Attendance in kindergarten is compulsory from the age of 3 years, though exceptions are made for developmental reasons. Though kindergartens may include programs in subjects such as foreign language and music, children spend most of their time playing. In their last year, children begin preparation for elementary school.


title: Kindergarten

text: In India, there are only informal directives pertaining to pre-primary education, for which pre-primary schools and sections need no affiliation. Directives state that children who are three years old on 30 September in the given academic year are eligible to attend nursery and kindergarten classes. Typically, children spend 3 to 4 years of their time in pre-primary school after which they are eligible to attend 1st Standard in Primary School which falls under HRD ministry norms. Pre-primary is not mandatory, however, it is preferred. All government schools and affiliated private schools allow children who are 5 years of age to enroll in standard 1 of a primary school. Mid-day meals are provided in most parts of the country and institutes run by the government.


title: Kindergarten

text: Italian " were officially instituted in a 1971 State Law (L. 1044/1971), and may be run by either private or public institutions. They were originally established to allow mothers a chance to work outside of the home, and were therefore seen as a social service. Today, they mostly serve the purpose of general education and social interaction. In Italy, much effort has been spent on developing a pedagogical approach to children's care: well known is the so-called Reggio Emilia approach, named after the city of Reggio Emilia, in Emilia-Romagna.


title: Kindergarten

text: ' normally occupy small one-story buildings, surrounded by gardens; usually suitable for no more than 60 or 70 children. The heart of the ' are the classrooms, split into playroom and restroom; the playroom always has windows and doors leading to the outside playground and garden.


title: Kindergarten

text: Maternal schools (') were established in 1968 after State Law n. 444 and are a full part of the official Italian education system, though attendance is not compulsory. Like ' (nursery schools), maternal schools may be held either by public or private institutions.


title: Kindergarten

text: Early childhood education begins at home, and there are numerous books and television shows aimed at helping mothers and fathers of preschool children to educate their children and to parent more effectively. Much of the home training is devoted to teaching manners, social skills, and structured play, although verbal and number skills are also popular themes. Parents are strongly committed to early education and frequently enroll their children in preschools. Kindergartens (), predominantly staffed by young female junior college graduates, are supervised by the Ministry of Education but are not part of the official education system. In addition to kindergartens, there exists a well-developed system of government-supervised nursery schools (), supervised by the Ministry of Labor. Whereas kindergartens follow educational aims, nursery schools are predominantly concerned with providing care for infants and toddlers. Together, these two kinds of institutions enroll 86% at age 3 and 99% at age 5 prior to their entrance into the formal system at first grade. The Ministry of Education's 1990 Course of Study for Preschools, which applies to both kinds of institutions, covers such areas as human relationships, health, environment, language, and expression. Starting from March 2008 the new revision of curriculum guidelines for kindergartens as well as for preschools came into effect.


title: Kindergarten

text: North Korean children attend kindergarten from 4 to 6. Kindergartens have two sections; low class ( ) and high class ( ) high class is compulsory.


title: Kindergarten

text: In South Korea, children normally attend kindergarten ( ) between the ages of three or four and six or seven in the Western age system. (Korean ages are calculated differently from Western ages: one is considered one year old from birth. Additionally, one's age increases by one year on January 1 regardless of when their birthday is. Hence in Korea, kindergarten children are called five-, six- and seven-year-olds). The school year begins in March. It is followed by primary school. Normally the kindergartens are graded on a three-tier basis.


title: Kindergarten

text: Korean kindergartens are private schools, and monthly costs vary. Korean parents often send their children to English kindergartens to give them a head start in English. Such specialized kindergartens can be mostly taught in Korean with some English lessons, mostly taught in English with some Korean lessons, or completely taught in English. Almost all middle-class parents send their children to kindergarten.


title: Kindergarten

text: Kindergarten programs in South Korea attempt to incorporate much academic instruction alongside more playful activities. Korean kindergartners learn to read, write (often in English as well as Korean) and do simple arithmetic. Classes are conducted in a traditional classroom setting, with the children focused on the teacher and one lesson or activity at a time. The goal of the teacher is to overcome weak points in each child's knowledge or skills.


title: Kindergarten

text: Because the education system in Korea is very competitive, kindergartens are becoming more intensely academic. Children are pushed to read and write at a very young age. They also become accustomed to regular and considerable amounts of homework. Very young children may also attend other specialized afternoon schools, taking lessons in art, piano or violin, taekwondo, ballet, soccer or mathematics.


title: Kindergarten

text: In Kuwait, Kuwaiti children may go to free government kindergartens for two years (KG1 and KG2) between the ages of four and five.


title: Kindergarten

text: In Luxembourg, kindergarten is called (literally "Playschool", plural ). It is a public education facility which is attended by children between the age of 4 (or 5) and 6, when they advance to (elementary school).


title: Kindergarten

text: In Malaysia, kindergarten is known as "". Most kindergartens are available to children of ages five and six (and some are available to children as young as four). For children up to the age of three (or four), there are preschool playgroups. There are no fixed rules for when a child needs to go to a kindergarten, but the majority do at 5 years of age. The child will usually attend kindergarten for two years, before proceeding to primary school at age 7.


title: Kindergarten

text: In Mexico, kindergarten is called , with the last year sometimes referred to as ( is the name given to grades 1 through 6, so the name literally means "prior to elementary school"). The kindergarten system in Mexico was developed by professor Rosaura Zapata, who received the country's highest honor for her contribution. It consists of three years of preschool education, which are mandatory before elementary school. Previous nursery is optional and may be offered in either private schools or public schools.


title: Kindergarten

text: At private schools, usually consist of three grades, and a fourth may be added for nursery. The fourth one is called ; it comes prior to the other three years and is not obligatory. While the first grade is a playgroup, the other two are classroom education.


title: Kindergarten

text: In 2002, the Congress of the Union approved the "Law of Obligatory Pre-schooling", which made preschool education for three to six-year-olds obligatory, and placed it under the auspices of the federal and state ministries of education.


title: Kindergarten

text: In Mongolia, kindergarten is known as or . As of September 2013, there are approximately 152 kindergartens registered in the country. From those 152 kindergartens, 142 are state-owned. Children begin kindergarten at the age of 2 and finish it by 5. The education system before kindergarten in Mongolia is called , which accepts children between 0 and 2 years of age.


title: Kindergarten

text: In Morocco, preschool is known as , , or . State-run, free schools are available throughout the kingdom, welcoming children aged 2 to 5 (although in many places, children under 3 may not be granted a place). It is not compulsory, yet almost 80% of children aged 3 to 5 attend. It is regulated by the Moroccan Department of Education.


title: Kindergarten

text: In Nepal, kindergartens are run as private institutions, with their lessons conducted in English. The kindergarten education in Nepal is most similar to that of Hong Kong and India. Children start attending kindergarten from the age of 2 until they are at least 5 years old.


title: Kindergarten

text: In the Netherlands, the equivalent term to kindergarten was '. From the mid-19th century to the mid-20th century the term ' was also common, after Friedrich Fröbel. However, this term gradually faded in use as the verb ' gained a slightly derogatory meaning in everyday language. Until 1985, it used to be a separate non-compulsory form of education (for children aged 4–6 years), after which children (aged 6–12 years) attended primary school (). After 1985, both forms were integrated into one, called ' (Dutch for primary education). For children under 4, the country offers private, subsidized day care (""), which are non-compulsory but nevertheless very popular.


title: Kindergarten

text: In New Zealand, kindergarten can refer to education in the 2 years preceding primary school, from age 3 to 4. Primary Education starts at age 5.


title: Kindergarten

text: The Macedonian equivalent of kindergarten is (), sometimes called () when the children are younger than 4. is not part of the state's mandatory education because the educational process in the country begins at the age of 5 or 6, i.e. first grade.


title: Kindergarten

text: In Norway, (children's garden) is the term equivalent to kindergarten, used for children in the ages between 10 months and 6 years. The first were founded in Norway in the late 19th century. Although they have existed for 120 years, they are not considered part of the education system. They are both publicly and privately owned and operated. The staff, at minimum the manager, should be educated as (kindergarten teacher), previously known as (preschool teachers). Children younger than three are often kept separate from the older children, since the youngest are only expected to play, rest and eat. All the children spend time outdoors every day. Many let the children sleep outdoors too. There is also an institution called (children's park), which does not need to have certified staff.


title: Kindergarten

text: In Peru, the term refers to the schooling children attend from 3 to 6 years of age. It is followed by primary school classes, which last for six years. Some families choose to send their children to primary school at the age of 6. In 1902 the teacher Elvira García y García organized the first kindergarten for children 2 to 8 years old, Fanning annex to the Lyceum for ladies. Her studies and concern for children led her to spread, through conferences and numerous documents, the importance of protecting children early and to respond to the formation of a personality based on justice and understanding, as well as the use of Fröbel's and Montessori's methods and parental participation.


title: Kindergarten

text: Early childhood education was strengthened through the creation of the Early Childhood Care and Development Act of 2000 (Republic Act No. 8980). In 2011, the Department of Education disseminated copies of the Kindergarten Education Act through Republic Act No. 10157 making it compulsory and mandatory in the entire nation. As a provision in this law, children under five years old are required to enroll in a kindergarten in any public elementary school in the country. This is part of the implementation of the K-12 system in the Basic Education Curriculum. Until the start of implementation of K-12 curriculum on June 6, 2011, upon making Kindergarten became mandatory, education officially started at the elementary level, and placing children into early childhood education through kindergarten was optional.


title: Kindergarten

text: In Poland, (literally "Preschool", also commonly known as or "Class 0" ) is a preschool educational institution for children aged from 3 to 6, mandatory for children aged 6, and optional for aged 7, whose parents submitted an application for the postponement of primary school.


title: Kindergarten

text: In Romania, ' (literally "small garden") is the favored form of education for preschool children usually aged 3–6. The children are divided into three age groups: "little group" (', age 3–4), "medium group" (', age 4–5) and "big group" (', age 5–6). In the last few years private kindergartens have become popular, supplementing the state preschool education system. Attending kindergarten is not compulsory.


title: Kindergarten

text: The "preparatory school year" () is for children aged 6–7, and since it became compulsory in 2012, it usually takes place inside regular school classrooms and is considered "year 0" of elementary education, bridging the gap between kindergarten and years 1–4 of elementary school.


title: Kindergarten

text: In the Russian Federation, (, literal translation of "children's garden") is a preschool educational institution for children, usually 3 to 6 years of age.


title: Kindergarten

text: Kindergartens in Singapore provide up to three years of preschool for children ages three to six. The three years are commonly called nursery, kindergarten 1 (K1) and kindergarten 2 (K2), respectively.


title: Kindergarten

text: The People's Action Party, which has governed Singapore since 1957, runs over 370 kindergartens through its charitable arm, the PAP Community Foundation. The kindergartens are run by the private sector, including community foundations, religious bodies, and civic or business groups.


title: Kindergarten

text: Kindergartens (commonly known as creche) in South Africa provide preschool programs for children of all ages up to six. The one to three-year program, known as "nursery", "kindergarten 1" (K1), and "kindergarten 2" (K2), prepares children for their first year in primary school education. Some kindergartens further divide nursery into N1 and N2.


title: Kindergarten

text: In Spain, kindergarten is called ' or ' and covers ages 3 to 6, the three courses being called, respectively, P-3, P-4 and P-5. Though non-mandatory, most children in Spain attend these courses.


title: Kindergarten

text: Before that, children aged 0 to 3 may attend the ' and take courses P-0, P-1 and P-2. In most parts of Spain ' are specialized schools completely separate from regular schools.


title: Kindergarten

text: Kindergarten in Sudan is divided into private and public kindergarten. Preschool is compulsory in Sudan. Kindergarten age spans from 3–6 years. The curriculum covers Arabic, English, religion, mathematics and more.


title: Kindergarten

text: In Sweden, kindergarten activities were established in the 19th century, and have been widely expanded since the 1970s. The first Swedish kindergarten teachers were trained by Henriette Schrader-Breymann at the Pestalozzi-Fröbel Haus, which she founded in 1882.


title: Kindergarten

text: While many public kindergartens and preschools exist in Taiwan, private kindergartens and preschools are also quite popular. Many private preschools offer accelerated courses in various subjects to compete with public preschools and capitalize on public demand for academic achievement. The curriculum at such preschools often encompasses subject material such as science, art, physical education and even mathematics classes. The majority of these schools are part of large school chains, which operate under franchise arrangements. In return for annual fees, the chain enterprises may supply advertising, curriculum, books, materials, training, and even staff for each individual school.


title: Kindergarten

text: There has been a huge growth in the number of privately owned and operated English immersion preschools in Taiwan since 1999. These English immersion preschools generally employ native English-speaking teachers to teach the whole preschool curriculum in an English only environment. The legality of these types of schools has been called into question on many occasions, yet they continue to prosper. Some members of Taiwanese society have raised concerns as to whether local children should be placed in English immersion environments at such a young age, and have raised fears that the students' abilities in their mother language may suffer as a result. The debate continues, but at the present time, the market for English immersion preschools continues to grow.


title: Kindergarten

text: In Uganda, kindergarten is nursery or pre-primary and usually covers ages 3 to 5, the three classes called baby class, middle class and top class, respectively. Pupils graduating from top class then go on to enrol in P1 – the first year of primary school. Though non-mandatory, most children in Uganda today attend these classes. In most parts of Uganda, nursery schools are specialised schools completely separate from regular primary schools.


title: Kindergarten

text: In 2010, a total of 56% of children aged one to six years old had the opportunity to attend preschool education, the Education and Science Ministry of Ukraine reported in August 2010. Many preschools and kindergartens were closed previously in light of economic and demographic considerations.


title: Kindergarten

text: The term kindergarten is rarely used in the UK to describe modern preschool education or the first years of compulsory primary school education. Preschools are usually known as creche, nursery schools or playgroups, while the first year of schooling is known as Reception in England and Wales and Primary One in Scotland and Northern Ireland (though different terms may be used in the small minority of UK schools which teach primarily through the medium of a language other than English). Nursery forms part of the Foundation Stage of education. In the 1980s, England and Wales officially adopted the Northern Irish system whereby children start school either in the term or year in which they will become five depending on the policy of the local education authority. In England, schooling is not compulsory until a child's fifth birthday but in practise most children join school in the Reception year the September before their fifth birthday. In Scotland, schooling becomes compulsory between the ages of and years, depending on their birthday (school starts in August for children who were 4 by the end of the preceding February).


title: Kindergarten

text: However, the word "kindergarten" is used for more specialist organisations such as forest kindergartens and is sometimes used in the naming of private nurseries that provide full-day child care for working parents. Historically the word was used during the nineteenth century when activists like Adelaide Manning were introducing educators to the work of Friedrich Fröbel.


title: Kindergarten

text: In the UK, parents have the option of nursery for their children at the ages of three or four years, before compulsory education begins. Before that, less structured childcare is available privately. The details vary between England, Northern Ireland, Scotland and Wales.


title: Kindergarten

text: Some nurseries are attached to state infant or primary schools, but many are provided by the private sector. The Scottish government provides funding so that all children from the age of three until they start compulsory school can attend five sessions per week of two and a half hours each, either in state-run or private nurseries. Working parents can also receive from their employers childcare worth £55 per week free of income tax, which is typically enough to pay for one or two days per week.


title: Kindergarten

text: Every child in England at the first school term after their third birthday is entitled to 15 hours per week free childcare funding. Pre-schools in England follow the Early Learning Goals, set by the Early Years Foundation Stage, for education produced by the Department for Education, which carries on into their first year of school at the age of four. This year of school is usually called Reception. The Early Learning Goals cover the main areas of education without being subject driven. These areas include:


title: Kindergarten

text: Pupils attend nursery school for four or five terms. It is also common practice for many children to attend nursery much earlier than this. Many nurseries have the facilities to take on babies, using the 'Early Years Foundation Stage' framework as a guide to give each child the best possible start to becoming a competent learner and skilful communicator. Nurseries and playgroups are inspected and regulated by Her Majesty's Inspectors (Office for Standards in Education).


title: Kindergarten

text: The Scottish government defines its requirements for nursery schools in the Early Years Framework and the Curriculum for Excellence. Each school interprets these with more or less independence (depending on their management structure) but must satisfy the Care Inspectorate in order to retain their licence to operate. The curriculum aims to develop:


title: Kindergarten

text: In the United States, kindergarten is usually part of the K–12 educational system. In most schools, children begin kindergarten at age five for one year. Forty-three of the fifty states (the exceptions being Alaska, Idaho, Minnesota, Michigan, New Hampshire, New York, and Pennsylvania) require school districts to offer a kindergarten year. Students develop skills such as numeracy, literacy, and a greater awareness of the world around them geographically, scientifically, socially, and culturally.


title: Kindergarten

text: The following reading list relates specifically to kindergarten in North America, where it is the first year of formal schooling and not part of the preschool system as it is in the rest of the world:


title: Wake Island

text: Wake Island (; also known as Wake Atoll) is a coral atoll in the western Pacific Ocean in the northeastern area of the Micronesia subregion, east of Guam, west of Honolulu, southeast of Tokyo and north of Majuro. The island is an unorganized, unincorporated territory belonging to (but not a part of) the United States that is also claimed by the Republic of the Marshall Islands. Wake Island is one of the most isolated islands in the world. The nearest inhabited island is Utirik Atoll in the Marshall Islands, to the southeast.


title: Wake Island

text: The United States took possession of Wake Island in 1899. One of 14 U.S. insular areas, Wake Island is administered by the United States Air Force under an agreement with the U.S. Department of the Interior. The center of activity on the atoll is at Wake Island Airfield, which is primarily used as a mid-Pacific refueling stop for military aircraft and as an emergency landing area. The runway is the longest strategic runway in the Pacific islands. South of the runway is the Wake Island Launch Center, a missile launch site. The island has no permanent inhabitants, but approximately 100 people live there at any given time.


title: Wake Island

text: On December 8, 1941 (within a few hours of the attack on Pearl Harbor, Wake Island being on the opposite side of the International Date Line), American forces on Wake Island were attacked by Japanese bombers. This action marked the commencement of the Battle of Wake Island. On December 11, 1941, Wake Island was the site of the Japanese Empire's first unsuccessful amphibious attack on U.S. territory in World War II when U.S. Marines, with some U.S. Navy personnel and civilians on the island, repelled an attempted Japanese invasion. The island fell to overwhelming Japanese forces 12 days later; it remained occupied by Japanese forces until it was surrendered to the U.S. in September 1945 at the end of the war.


title: Wake Island

text: The submerged and emergent lands at Wake Island comprise a unit of the Pacific Remote Islands Marine National Monument. Wake Island is one of nine insular areas that comprise the United States Minor Outlying Islands, a statistical designation defined by the International Organization for Standardization's ISO 3166-1 code.


title: Wake Island

text: Wake Island derives its name from British sea captain Samuel Wake, who rediscovered the atoll in 1796 while in command of the "Prince William Henry". The name is sometimes attributed to Captain William Wake, who also is reported to have discovered the atoll from the "Prince William Henry" in 1792.


title: Wake Island

text: Wake is located two-thirds of the way from Honolulu to Guam. Honolulu is to the east, and Guam to the west. Midway Atoll is to the northeast. The closest land is the uninhabited Bokak Atoll, away in the Marshall Islands, to the southeast. The atoll is to the west of the International Date Line and in the Wake Island Time Zone (UTC+12), the easternmost time zone in the United States and almost one day ahead of the 50 states.


title: Wake Island

text: Although Wake is officially called an island in the singular form, it is geologically an atoll composed of three islets (Wake, Wilkes, and Peale islets) and a reef surrounding a central lagoon.


title: Wake Island

text: Wake Island lies in the tropical zone, but is subject to periodic temperate storms during the winter. Sea surface temperatures are warm all year long, reaching above in summer and autumn. Typhoons occasionally pass over the island.


title: Wake Island

text: On October 19, 1940, an unnamed typhoon hit Wake Island with winds. This was the first recorded typhoon to hit the island since observations began in 1935.


title: Wake Island

text: Super Typhoon Olive impacted Wake on September 16, 1952, with wind speeds reaching . Olive caused major flooding, destroyed approximately 85% of its structures and caused in damage.


title: Wake Island

text: On September 16, 1967, at 10:40 pm local time, the eye of Super Typhoon Sarah passed over the island. Sustained winds in the eyewall were , from the north before the eye and from the south afterward. All non-reinforced structures were demolished. There were no serious injuries, and the majority of the civilian population was evacuated after the storm.


title: Wake Island

text: On August 28, 2006, the United States Air Force evacuated all 188 residents and suspended all operations as Category 5 Super Typhoon Ioke headed toward Wake. By August 31 the southwestern eyewall of the storm passed over the island, with winds well over , driving a storm surge and waves directly into the lagoon inflicting major damage. A U.S. Air Force assessment and repair team returned to the island in September 2006 and restored limited function to the airfield and facilities leading ultimately to a full return to normal operations.


title: Wake Island

text: Native vegetation communities of Wake Island include scrub, grass, and wetlands. "Tournefortia argentia" dominated scrublands exist in association with "Scaevola taccada", "Cordia subcordata", and "Pisonia grandis". Grassland species include "Dactyloctenium aegyptium" and "Tribulus cistoides". Wetlands are dominated by "Sesuvium portulacastrum", and "Pemphis acidula" is found near intertidal lagoons.


title: Wake Island

text: The atoll is home to multiple species of land crabs, with "Coenobita perlatus" being especially abundant.


title: Wake Island

text: The atoll, with its surrounding marine waters, has been recognized as an Important Bird Area (IBA) by BirdLife International for its sooty tern colony, with some 200,000 individual birds estimated in 1999. 56 bird species have been sighted on the atoll.


title: Wake Island

text: Due to human use, several invasive species have become established on the atoll. Feral cats were introduced in the 1960s as pets and for pest control. Eradication efforts began in earnest in 1996, and were deemed successful in 2008. Two species of rat, "Rattus exulans" and "Rattus tanezumi", have colonized the island. "R. tanezumi" populations were successfully eradicated by 2014, however, "R. exulans" persists. "Casuarina equisetifolia" was planted on Wake Island by boy scouts in the 1960s for use as a windbreak. It formed large mono-cultural forests that choked out native vegetation. Concerted efforts to kill the populations began in 2017. Other introduced plant species include "Cynodon dactylon" and "Leucaena leucocephala". Non-native species of ants are also found on the atoll.


title: Wake Island

text: The presence of the Polynesian rat on the island suggests that Wake was likely visited by Polynesian or Micronesian voyagers at an early date.


title: Wake Island

text: The first recorded discovery of Wake Island was on October 2, 1568, by Spanish explorer and navigator Álvaro de Mendaña de Neyra. In 1567, Mendaña and his crew had set off on two ships, "Los Reyes" and "Todos los Santos", from Callao, Peru, on an expedition to search for a gold-rich land in the South Pacific as mentioned in Inca tradition. After visiting Tuvalu and the Solomon Islands, the expedition headed north and came upon Wake Island, "a low barren island, judged to be eight leagues in circumference". Since the date – October 2, 1568 – was the eve of the feast of Saint Francis of Assisi, the captain named the island "San Francisco". The ships were in need of water and the crew was suffering from scurvy, but after circling the island it was determined that Wake was waterless and had "not a cocoanut nor a pandanus" and, in fact, "there was nothing on it but sea-birds, and sandy places covered with bushes."


title: Wake Island

text: In 1796, Captain Samuel Wake of the merchantman "Prince William Henry" also came upon Wake Island, naming the atoll for himself. Soon thereafter the 80-ton fur trading merchant brig "Halcyon" arrived at Wake and Master Charles William Barkley, unaware of Captain Wake's visit and other prior European contact, named the atoll Halcyon Island in honor of his ship.


title: Wake Island

text: In 1823, Captain Edward Gardner, while in command of the Royal Navy's whaling ship HMS "Bellona", visited an island at , which he judged to be long. The island was "covered with wood, having a very green and rural appearance". This report is considered to be another sighting of Wake Island.


title: Wake Island

text: On December 20, 1841, the United States Exploring Expedition, commanded by US Navy Lieutenant Charles Wilkes, arrived at Wake on and sent several boats to survey the island. Wilkes described the atoll as "a low coral one, of triangular form and eight feet above the surface. It has a large lagoon in the centre, which was well filled with fish of a variety of species among these were some fine mullet." He also noted that Wake had no fresh water but was covered with shrubs, "the most abundant of which was the tournefortia." The expedition's naturalist, Titian Peale, noted that "the only remarkable part in the formation of this island is the enormous blocks of coral which have been thrown up by the violence of the sea." Peale collected an egg from a short-tailed albatross and added other specimens, including a Polynesian rat, to the natural history collections of the expedition. Wilkes also reported that "from appearances, the island must be at times submerged, or the sea makes a complete breach over it."


title: Wake Island

text: Wake Island first received international attention with the wreck of the barque . On the night of March 4, 1866, the 650-ton iron-hulled "Libelle", of Bremen, struck the eastern reef of Wake Island during a gale. Commanded by Captain Anton Tobias, the ship was en route from San Francisco to Hong Kong with a cargo of mercury (quicksilver). After three days of searching and digging on the island for water, the crew was able to recover a water tank from the wrecked ship. Valuable cargo was also recovered and buried on the island, including some of the 1,000 flasks of mercury, as well as coins and precious stones valued at $93,943. After three weeks with a dwindling water supply and no sign of rescue, the passengers and crew decided to leave Wake and attempt to sail to Guam (the center of the then Spanish colony of the Mariana Islands) on the two remaining boats from "Libelle". The 22 passengers and some of the crew sailed in the longboat under the command of First Mate Rudolf Kausch and the remainder of the crew sailed with Captain Tobias in the gig. On April 8, 1866, after 13 days of frequent squalls, short rations and tropical sun, the longboat reached Guam. Unfortunately, the gig, commanded by the captain, was lost at sea.


title: Wake Island

text: The Spanish governor of the Mariana Islands, Francisco Moscoso y Lara, welcomed and provided aid to the "Libelle" shipwreck survivors on Guam. He also ordered the schooner "Ana", owned and commanded by his son-in-law George H. Johnston, to be dispatched with first mate Kausch to search for the missing gig and then sail on to Wake Island to confirm the shipwreck story and recover the buried treasure. "Ana" departed Guam on April 10 and, after two days at Wake Island, found and salvaged the buried coins and precious stones as well as a small quantity of the quicksilver.


title: Wake Island

text: On July 29, 1870, the British tea clipper "Dashing Wave", under the command of Captain Henry Vandervord, sailed out of Foochoo, China, en route to Sydney. On August 31 "the weather was very thick, and it was blowing a heavy gale from the eastward, attended with violent squalls, and a tremendous sea." At 10:30 p.m. breakers were seen and the ship struck the reef at Wake Island. Overnight the vessel began to break up and at 10:00 a.m. the crew succeeded in launching the longboat over the leeward side. In the chaos of the evacuation, the captain secured a chart and nautical instruments, but no compass. The crew loaded a case of wine, some bread and two buckets, but no drinking water. Since Wake Island appeared to have neither food nor water, the captain and his 12-man crew quickly departed, crafting a makeshift sail by attaching a blanket to an oar. With no water, each man was allotted a glass of wine per day until a heavy rain shower came on the sixth day. After 31 days of hardship, drifting westward in the longboat, they reached Kosrae (Strong's Island) in the Caroline Islands. Captain Vandervord attributed the loss of "Dashing Wave" to the erroneous manner in which Wake Island "is laid down in the charts. It is very low, and not easily seen even on a clear night."


title: Wake Island

text: With the annexation of Hawaii in 1898 and the acquisition of Guam and the Philippines resulting from the conclusion of the Spanish–American War that same year, the United States began to consider unclaimed and uninhabited Wake Island, located approximately halfway between Honolulu and Manila, as a good location for a telegraph cable station and coaling station for refueling warships of the rapidly expanding United States Navy and passing merchant and passenger steamships. On July 4, 1898, United States Army Brigadier General Francis V. Greene of the 2nd Brigade, Philippine Expeditionary Force, of the Eighth Army Corps, stopped at Wake Island and raised the United States flag while en route to the Philippines on the steamship liner SS "China".


title: Wake Island

text: On January 17, 1899, under orders from President William McKinley, Commander Edward D. Taussig of landed on Wake and formally took possession of the island for the United States. After a 21-gun salute, the flag was raised and a brass plate was affixed to the flagstaff with the following inscription:


title: Wake Island

text: Although the proposed Wake Island route for the submarine cable would have been shorter by , the Midway Islands and not Wake Island were chosen as the location for the telegraph cable station between Honolulu and Guam. Rear Admiral Royal Bird Bradford, chief of the U.S. Navy's Bureau of Equipment, stated before the U.S. House of Representatives Committee on Interstate and Foreign Commerce on January 17, 1902, that "Wake Island seems at times to be swept by the sea. It is only a few feet above the level of the ocean, and if a cable station were established there very expensive works would be required; besides it has no harbor, while the Midway Islands are perfectly habitable and have a fair harbor for vessels of draught."


title: Wake Island

text: On June 23, 1902, , commanded by Captain Alfred Croskey and bound for Manila, spotted a ship's boat on the beach as it passed closely by Wake Island. Soon thereafter the boat was launched by Japanese on the island and sailed out to meet the transport. The Japanese told Captain Croskey that they had been put on the island by a schooner from Yokohama in Japan and that they were gathering guano and drying fish. The captain suspected that they were also engaged in pearl hunting. The Japanese revealed that one of their parties needed medical attention and the captain determined from their descriptions of the symptoms that the illness was most likely beriberi. They informed Captain Croskey that they did not need any provisions or water and that they were expecting the Japanese schooner to return in a month or so. The Japanese declined an offer to be taken on the transport to Manila and were given some medical supplies for the sick man, some tobacco and a few incidentals.


title: Wake Island

text: After USAT "Buford" reached Manila, Captain Croskey reported on the presence of Japanese at Wake Island. He also learned that USAT Sheridan had a similar encounter at Wake with the Japanese. The incident was brought to the attention of Assistant Secretary of the Navy Charles Darling, who at once informed the State Department and suggested that an explanation from the Japanese Government was needed. In August 1902, Japanese Minister Takahira Kogorō provided a diplomatic note stating that the Japanese Government had "no claim whatever to make on the sovereignty of the island, but that if any subjects are found on the island the Imperial Government expects that they should be properly protected as long as they are engaged in peaceful occupations."


title: Wake Island

text: Wake Island was now clearly a territory of the United States, but during this period the island was only occasionally visited by passing American ships. One notable visit occurred in December 1906, when U.S. Army General John J. Pershing, later famous as the commander of the American Expeditionary Forces in western Europe during World War I, stopped at Wake on and hoisted a 45-star U.S. flag that was improvised out of sail canvas.


title: Wake Island

text: With limited fresh water resources, no harbor and no plans for development, Wake Island remained a remote uninhabited Pacific island in the early 20th century. It did, however, have a large seabird population that attracted Japanese feather collecting. The global demand for feathers and plumage was driven by the millinery industry and popular European fashion designs for hats, while other demand came from pillow and bedspread manufacturers. Japanese poachers set up camps to harvest feathers on many remote islands in the Central Pacific. The feather trade was primarily focused on Laysan albatross, black-footed albatross, masked booby, lesser frigatebird, great frigatebird, sooty tern and other species of tern. On February 6, 1904, Rear Admiral Robley D. Evans arrived at Wake Island on and observed Japanese collecting feathers and catching sharks for their fins. Abandoned feather poaching camps were seen by the crew of the submarine tender in 1922 and in 1923. Although feather collecting and plumage exploitation had been outlawed in the territorial United States, there is no record of any enforcement actions at Wake Island.


title: Wake Island

text: In January 1908, the Japanese ship "Toyoshima Maru", en route from Tateyama, Japan, to the South Pacific, encountered a heavy storm that disabled the ship and swept the captain and five of the crew overboard. The 36 remaining crew members managed to make landfall on Wake Island, where they endured five months of great hardship, disease and starvation. In May 1908, the Brazilian Navy training ship "Benjamin Constant", while on a voyage around the world, passed by the island and spotted a tattered red distress flag. Unable to land a boat, the crew executed a challenging three-day rescue operation using rope and cable to bring on board the 20 survivors and transport them to Yokohama.


title: Wake Island

text: In his 1921 book "Sea-Power in the Pacific: A Study of the American-Japanese Naval Problem", Hector C. Bywater recommended establishing a well-defended fueling station at Wake Island to provide coal and oil for United States Navy ships engaged in future operations against Japan. On June 19, 1922, the submarine tender landed an investigating party to determine the practicality and feasibility of establishing a naval fueling station on Wake Island. Lt. Cmdr. Sherwood Picking reported that from "a strategic point of view, Wake Island could not be better located, dividing as it does with Midway, the passage from Honolulu to Guam into almost exact thirds." He observed that the boat channel was choked with coral heads and that the lagoon was very shallow and not over in depth, and therefore Wake would not be able to serve as a base for surface vessels. Picking suggested clearing the channel to the lagoon for "loaded motor sailing launches" so that parties on shore could receive supplies from passing ships and he strongly recommended that Wake be used as a base for aircraft. Picking stated that "If the long heralded trans-Pacific flight ever takes place, Wake Island should certainly be occupied and used as an intermediate resting and fueling port."


title: Wake Island

text: In 1923, a joint expedition by the then Bureau of the Biological Survey (in the U.S. Department of Agriculture), the Bernice Pauahi Bishop Museum and the United States Navy was organized to conduct a thorough biological reconnaissance of the Northwestern Hawaiian Islands, then administered by the Biological Survey Bureau as the Hawaiian Islands Bird Reservation. On February 1, 1923, Secretary of Agriculture Henry C. Wallace contacted Secretary of Navy Edwin Denby to request Navy participation and recommended expanding the expedition to Johnston, Midway and Wake, all islands not administered by the Department of Agriculture. On July 27, 1923, , a World War I minesweeper, brought the Tanager Expedition to Wake Island under the leadership of ornithologist Alexander Wetmore, and a tent camp was established on the eastern end of Wilkes. From July 27 to August 5, the expedition charted the atoll, made extensive zoological and botanical observations and gathered specimens for the Bishop Museum, while the naval vessel under the command of Lt. Cmdr. Samuel Wilder King conducted a sounding survey offshore. Other achievements at Wake included examinations of three abandoned Japanese feather poaching camps, scientific observations of the now extinct Wake Island rail and confirmation that Wake Island is an atoll, with a group comprising three islands with a central lagoon. Wetmore named the southwest island for Charles Wilkes, who had led the original pioneering United States Exploring Expedition to Wake in 1841. The northwest island was named for Titian Peale, the chief naturalist of that 1841 expedition.


title: Wake Island

text: Juan Trippe, president of the world's then-largest airline, Pan American Airways (PAA), wanted to expand globally by offering passenger air service between the United States and China. To cross the Pacific Ocean his planes would need to island-hop, stopping at various points for refueling and maintenance. He first tried to plot the route on his globe but it showed only open sea between Midway and Guam. Next, he went to the New York Public Library to study 19th-century clipper ship logs and charts and he "discovered" a little-known coral atoll named Wake Island. To proceed with his plans at Wake and Midway, Trippe would need to be granted access to each island and approval to construct and operate facilities; however, the islands were not under the jurisdiction of any specific U.S. government entity.


title: Wake Island

text: Meanwhile, U.S. Navy military planners and the State Department were increasingly alarmed by the Empire of Japan's expansionist attitude and growing belligerence in the Western Pacific. Following World War I, the Council of the League of Nations had granted the South Seas Mandate ("Nanyo") to Japan (which had joined the Allied Powers in the First World War) which included the already Japanese-held Micronesia islands north of the equator that were part of the former colony of German New Guinea of the German Empire; these include the modern nation/states of Palau, Federated States of Micronesia, Northern Mariana Islands and Marshall Islands. In the 1920s and 1930s, Japan restricted access to its mandated territory and began to develop harbors and airfields throughout Micronesia in defiance of the Washington Naval Treaty of 1922, which prohibited both the United States and Japan from expanding military fortifications in the Pacific islands. Now with Trippe's planned Pan American Airways aviation route passing through Wake and Midway, the U.S. Navy and the State Department saw an opportunity to project American air power across the Pacific under the guise of a commercial aviation enterprise. On October 3, 1934, Trippe wrote to the Secretary of the Navy, requesting a five-year lease on Wake Island with an option for four renewals. Given the potential military value of PAA's base development, on November 13, Chief of Naval Operations Admiral William H. Standley ordered a survey of Wake by and on December 29 President Franklin D. Roosevelt issued Executive Order 6935, which placed Wake Island and also Johnston, Sand Island at Midway and Kingman Reef under the control of the Department of the Navy. In an attempt to disguise the Navy's military intentions, Rear Admiral Harry E. Yarnell then designated Wake Island as a bird sanctuary.


title: Wake Island

text: USS "Nitro" arrived at Wake Island on March 8, 1935, and conducted a two-day ground, marine and aerial survey, providing the Navy with strategic observations and complete photographic coverage of the atoll. Four days later, on March 12, Secretary of the Navy Claude A. Swanson formally granted Pan American Airways permission to construct facilities at Wake Island.


title: Wake Island

text: To construct bases in the Pacific, Pan American Airways (PAA) chartered the 6,700-ton freighter SS "North Haven", which arrived at Wake Island on May 9, 1935, with construction workers and the necessary materials and equipment to start to build Pan American facilities and to clear the lagoon for a flying boat landing area. The atoll's encircling coral reef prevented the ship from entering and anchoring in the shallow lagoon itself. The only suitable location for ferrying supplies and workers ashore was at nearby Wilkes Island; however, the chief engineer of the expedition, Charles R. Russell, determined that Wilkes was too low and at times flooded and that Peale Island was the best site for the Pan American facilities. To offload the ship, cargo was lightered (barged) from ship to shore, carried across Wilkes and then transferred to another barge and towed across the lagoon to Peale Island. By inspiration, someone had earlier loaded railroad track rails onto "North Haven", so the men built a narrow-gauge railway to make it easier to haul the supplies across Wilkes to the lagoon. The line used a flatbed car pulled by a tractor. On June 12, "North Haven" departed for Guam, leaving behind various PAA technicians and a construction crew.


title: Wake Island

text: Out in the middle of the lagoon, Bill Mullahey, a swimmer from Columbia University, was tasked with blasting hundreds of coral heads from a long, wide, deep landing area for the flying boats. In total some of dynamite were used on the coral heads in the Wake Atoll lagoon.


title: Wake Island

text: On August 17, the first aircraft landing at Wake Island occurred when a PAA flying boat, on a survey flight of the route between Midway and Wake, landed in the lagoon.


title: Wake Island

text: The second expedition of "North Haven" arrived at Wake Island on February 5, 1936, to complete the construction of the PAA facilities. A five-ton diesel locomotive for the Wilkes Island Railroad was offloaded and the railway track was extended to run from dock to dock. Across the lagoon on Peale workers assembled the Pan American Hotel, a prefabricated structure with 48 rooms and wide porches and verandas. The hotel consisted of two wings built out from a central lobby with each room having a bathroom with a hot-water shower. The PAA facilities staff included a group of Chamorro men from Guam who were employed as kitchen helpers, hotel service attendants and laborers. The village on Peale was nicknamed "PAAville" and was the first "permanent" human settlement on Wake.


title: Wake Island

text: By October 1936, Pan American Airways was ready to transport passengers across the Pacific on its small fleet of three Martin M-130 "Flying Clippers". On October 11, the "China Clipper" landed at Wake on a press flight with ten journalists on board. A week later, on October 18, PAA President Juan Trippe and a group of VIP passengers arrived at Wake on the "Philippine Clipper" (NC14715). On October 25, the "Hawaii Clipper" (NC14714) landed at Wake with the first paying airline passengers ever to cross the Pacific. In 1937, Wake Island became a regular stop for PAA's international trans-Pacific passenger and airmail service, with two scheduled flights per week, one westbound from Midway and one eastbound from Guam.


title: Wake Island

text: Wake Island is credited with being one of the early successes of hydroponics, which enabled Pan American Airways to grow vegetables for its passengers, as it was very expensive to airlift in fresh vegetables and the island lacked natural soil. Pan Am remained in operation up to the day of the first Japanese air raid in December 1941, forcing the U.S. into World War II.


title: Wake Island

text: On February 14, 1941, President Franklin D. Roosevelt issued Executive Order 8682 to create naval defense areas in the central Pacific territories. The proclamation established "Wake Island Naval Defensive Sea Area", which encompassed the territorial waters between the extreme high-water marks and the three-mile marine boundaries surrounding Wake. "Wake Island Naval Airspace Reservation" was also established to restrict access to the airspace over the naval defense sea area. Only U.S. government ships and aircraft were permitted to enter the naval defense areas at Wake Island unless authorized by the Secretary of the Navy.


title: Wake Island

text: Just earlier, in January 1941, the United States Navy began construction of a military base on the atoll. On August 19, the first permanent military garrison, elements of the U.S. Marine Corps' First Marine Defense Battalion, totaling 449 officers and men, were stationed on the island, commanded by Navy Cmdr. Winfield Scott Cunningham. Also on the island were 68 U.S. Naval personnel and about 1,221 civilian workers from the American firm Morrison-Knudsen Corp.


title: Wake Island

text: On December 8, 1941 (December 7 in Hawaii, the day of the attack on Pearl Harbor), at least 27 Japanese Mitsubishi G3M "Nell" medium bombers flown from bases on Kwajalein in the Marshall Islands attacked Wake Island, destroying eight of the 12 Grumman F4F Wildcat fighter aircraft belonging to USMC Fighter Squadron 211 on the ground. The Marine garrison's defensive emplacements were left intact by the raid, which primarily targeted the aircraft.


title: Wake Island

text: The garrison – supplemented by civilian construction workers employed by Morrison-Knudsen Corp. – repelled several Japanese landing attempts. An American journalist reported that after the initial Japanese amphibious assault was beaten back with heavy losses on December 11, the American commander was asked by his superiors if he needed anything. Popular legend has it that Major James Devereux sent back the message, "Send us more Japs!" – a reply that became famous. After the war, when Major Devereux learned that he had been credited with sending that message, he pointed out that he had not been the commander on Wake Island and denied sending the message. "As far as I know, it wasn't sent at all. None of us was that much of a damn fool. We already had more Japs than we could handle."


title: Wake Island

text: In reality, Commander Winfield S. Cunningham, USN was in charge of Wake Island, not Devereux. Cunningham ordered that coded messages be sent during operations, and a junior officer had added "send us" and "more Japs" to the beginning and end of a message to confuse Japanese code breakers. This was put together at Pearl Harbor and passed on as part of the message.


title: Wake Island

text: The U.S. Navy attempted to provide support from Hawaii but had suffered great losses at Pearl Harbor. The relief fleet they managed to organize was delayed by bad weather. The isolated U.S. garrison was overwhelmed by a reinforced and greatly superior Japanese invasion force on December 23. American casualties numbered 52 military personnel (Navy and Marine) and approximately 70 civilians killed. Japanese losses exceeded 700 dead, with some estimates ranging as high as 1,000. Wake's defenders sank two Japanese fast transports ("P32" and "P33") and one submarine and shot down 24 Japanese aircraft. The relief fleet, en route, on hearing of the island's loss, turned back.


title: Wake Island

text: In the aftermath of the battle, most of the captured civilians and military personnel were sent to POW camps in Asia, though some of the civilian laborers were enslaved by the Japanese and tasked with improving the island's defenses.


title: Wake Island

text: The island's Japanese garrison was composed of the IJN 65th Guard Unit (2,000 men), Japan Navy Captain Shigematsu Sakaibara and the IJA units which became 13th Independent Mixed Regiment (1,939 men) under command of Col. Shigeji Chikamori. Fearing an imminent invasion, the Japanese reinforced Wake Island with more formidable defenses. The American captives were ordered to build a series of bunkers and fortifications on Wake. The Japanese brought in an naval gun which is often incorrectly reported as having been captured in Singapore. The U.S. Navy established a submarine blockade instead of an amphibious invasion of Wake Island. The Japanese-occupied island (called Ōtorishima (大鳥島) or "Big Bird Island" by them for its birdlike shape) was bombed several times by American aircraft; one of these raids was the first mission for future United States President George H. W. Bush.


title: Wake Island

text: After a successful American air raid by Task Force 14 on October 5, 1943, Sakaibara ordered the execution of all of the 98 captured Americans who remained on the island. They were taken to the northern end of the island, blindfolded and machine-gunned. One prisoner escaped, carving the message ""98 US PW 5-10-43"" on a large coral rock near where the victims had been hastily buried in a mass grave. This unknown American was soon recaptured and beheaded.


title: Wake Island

text: Since the 1943 air raids, the garrison had been almost cut off from supplies and was reduced to the point of starvation. While the islands' sooty tern colony had received some protection as a source of eggs, the Wake Island rail was hunted to extinction by the starving soldiers. Ultimately about three-quarters of the Japanese garrison perished, and the rest survived only by eating tern eggs, the Polynesian rats introduced by prehistoric voyagers, and what scant amount of vegetables they could grow in makeshift gardens among the coral rubble.


title: Wake Island

text: On September 4, 1945, the Japanese garrison surrendered to a detachment of United States Marines under the command of Brigadier General Lawson H. M. Sanderson. The garrison, having previously received news that Imperial Japan's defeat was imminent, exhumed the mass grave. The bones were moved to the U.S. cemetery that had been established on Peacock Point after the invasion. Wooden crosses were erected in preparation for the expected arrival of U.S. forces. During the initial interrogations, the Japanese claimed that the remaining 98 Americans on the island were mostly killed by an American bombing raid, though some escaped and fought to the death after being cornered on the beach at the north end of Wake Island. Several Japanese officers in American custody committed suicide over the incident, leaving written statements that incriminated Sakaibara. Sakaibara and his subordinate, lieutenant commander Tachibana, were later sentenced to death after conviction for this and other war crimes. Sakaibara was executed by hanging in Guam on June 18, 1947, while Tachibana's sentence was commuted to life in prison. The remains of the murdered civilians were exhumed and reburied at Honolulu's National Memorial Cemetery of the Pacific at section G, commonly known as Punchbowl Crater.


title: Wake Island

text: With the end of hostilities with Japan and the increase in international air travel driven in part by wartime advances in aeronautics, Wake Island became a critical mid-Pacific base for the servicing and refueling of military and commercial aircraft. The United States Navy resumed control of the island, and in October 1945 400 Seabees from the 85th Naval Construction Battalion arrived at Wake to clear the island of the effects of the war and to build basic facilities for a Naval Air Base. The base was completed in March 1946 and on September 24, regular commercial passenger service was resumed by Pan American Airways (Pan Am). The era of the flying boats was nearly over, so Pan Am switched to longer-range, faster and more profitable airplanes that could land on Wake's new coral runway. Other airlines that established transpacific routes through Wake included British Overseas Airways Corporation (BOAC), Japan Airlines, Philippine Airlines and Transocean Airlines. Due to the substantial increase in the number of commercial flights, on July 1, 1947, the Navy transferred administration, operations and maintenance of the facilities at Wake to the Civil Aeronautics Administration (CAA). In 1949, the CAA upgraded the runway by paving over the coral surface and extending its length to 7,000 feet.


title: Wake Island

text: In June 1950, the Korean War began with the United States leading United Nations forces against a North Korean invasion of South Korea. In July, the Korean Airlift was started and the Military Air Transport Service (MATS) used the airfield and facilities at Wake as a key mid-Pacific refueling stop for its mission of transporting men and supplies to the Korean front. By September, 120 military aircraft were landing at Wake per day. On October 15, U.S. President Harry S. Truman and General MacArthur met at the Wake Island Conference to discuss progress and war strategy for the Korean Peninsula. They chose to meet at Wake Island because of its close proximity to Korea so that MacArthur would not have to be away from the troops in the field for long.


title: Wake Island

text: From 1958 through 1960 the United States installed the Missile Impact Location System (MILS) in the Navy managed Pacific Missile Range, later the Air Force managed Western Range, to localize the splash downs of test missile nose cones. MILS was developed and installed by the same entities that had completed the first phase of the Atlantic and U.S. West Coast SOSUS systems. A MILS installation, consisting of both a target array for precision location and a broad ocean area system for good positions outside the target area, was installed at Wake as part of the system supporting Intercontinental Ballistic Missile (ICBM) tests. Other Pacific MILS shore terminals were at the Marine Corps Air Station Kaneohe Bay supporting Intermediate Range Ballistic Missile (IRBM) tests with impact areas northeast of Hawaii and the other ICBM test support systems at Midway Island and Eniwetok.


title: Wake Island

text: On September 6, 1967, Standard Oil of California's 18,000-ton tanker SS "R.C. Stoner" was driven onto the reef at Wake Island by a strong southwesterly wind after the ship failed to moor to the two buoys near the harbor entrance. An estimated six million gallons of refined fuel oil – including 5.7 million gallons of aviation fuel, 168,000 gallons of diesel oil and 138,600 gallons of bunker C fuel – spilled into the small boat harbor and along the southwestern coast of Wake Island to Peacock Point. Large numbers of fish were killed by the oil spill, and personnel from the FAA and crewmen from the ship cleared the area closest to the spill of dead fish.


title: Wake Island

text: The U.S. Navy salvage team Harbor Clearance Unit Two and Pacific Fleet Salvage Officer Cmdr. John B. Orem flew to Wake to assess the situation, and by September 13 the Navy tugs and , salvage ships and , tanker , and , arrived from Honolulu, Guam and Subic Bay in the Philippines, to assist in the cleanup and removal of the vessel. At the boat harbor the salvage team pumped and skimmed oil, which they burned each evening in nearby pits. Recovery by the Navy salvage team of the "R.C. Stoner" and its remaining cargo, however, was hampered by strong winds and heavy seas.


title: Wake Island

text: On September 16, Super Typhoon Sarah made landfall on Wake Island at peak intensity with winds up to 145-knots, causing widespread damage. The intensity of the storm had the beneficial effect of greatly accelerating the cleanup effort by clearing the harbor and scouring the coast. Oil did remain, however, embedded in the reef's flat crevices and impregnated in the coral. The storm also had broken the wrecked vessel into three sections and, although delayed by rough seas and harassment by blacktip reef sharks, the salvage team used explosives to flatten and sink the remaining portions of the ship that were still above water.


title: Wake Island

text: In the early 1970s, higher-efficiency jet aircraft with longer-range capabilities lessened the use of Wake Island Airfield as a refueling stop, and the number of commercial flights landing at Wake declined sharply. Pan Am had replaced many of its Boeing 707s with more efficient 747s, thus eliminating the need to continue weekly stops at Wake. Other airlines began to eliminate their scheduled flights into Wake. In June 1972 the last scheduled Pan Am passenger flight landed at Wake, and in July Pan Am's last cargo flight departed the island, marking the end of the heyday of Wake Island's commercial aviation history. During this same time period the U.S. military had transitioned to longer-range C-5A and C-141 aircraft, leaving the C-130 as the only aircraft that would continue to regularly use the island's airfield. The steady decrease in air traffic control activities at Wake Island was apparent and was expected to continue.


title: Wake Island

text: On June 24, 1972, responsibility for the civil administration of Wake Island was transferred from the FAA to the United States Air Force under an agreement between the Secretary of the Interior and the Secretary of the Air Force. In July, the FAA turned over administration of the island to the Military Airlift Command (MAC), although legal ownership stayed with the Department of the Interior, and the FAA continued to maintain the air navigation facilities and provide air traffic control services. On December 27, the Chief of Staff of the Air Force (CSAF) General John D. Ryan directed MAC to phase out en-route support activity at Wake Island effective June 30, 1973. On July 1, 1973, all FAA activities ended and the U.S. Air Force under Pacific Air Forces (PACAF), Detachment 4, 15th Air Base Wing assumed control of Wake Island.


title: Wake Island

text: In 1973, Wake Island was selected as a launch site for the testing of defensive systems against intercontinental ballistic missiles under the U.S. Army's "Project Have Mill". Air Force personnel on Wake and the Air Force Systems Command (AFSC) Space and Missile Systems Organization (SAMSO) provided support to the Army's Advanced Ballistic Missile Defense Agency (ABMDA). A missile launch complex was activated on Wake and, from February 13 to June 22, 1974, seven Athena H missiles were launched from the island to the Roi-Namur Test Range at Kwajalein Atoll.


title: Wake Island

text: In the spring of 1975, the population of Wake Island consisted of 251 military, government and civilian contract personnel, whose primary mission was to maintain the airfield as a Mid-Pacific emergency runway. With the imminent fall of Saigon to North Vietnamese forces, President Gerald Ford ordered American forces to support "Operation New Life", the evacuation of refugees from Vietnam. The original plans included the Philippines' Subic Bay and Guam as refugee processing centers, but due to the high number of Vietnamese seeking evacuation, Wake Island was selected as an additional location.


title: Wake Island

text: In March 1975, Island Commander Major Bruce R. Hoon was contacted by Pacific Air Forces (PACAF) and ordered to prepare Wake for its new mission as a refugee processing center where Vietnamese evacuees could be medically screened, interviewed and transported to the United States or other resettlement countries. A 60-man civil engineering team was brought in to reopen boarded-up buildings and housing, two complete MASH units arrived to set up field hospitals and three Army field kitchens were deployed. A 60-man United States Air Force Security Police team, processing agents from the U.S. Immigration and Naturalization Service and various other administrative and support personnel were also on Wake. Potable water, food, medical supplies, clothing and other supplies were shipped in.


title: Wake Island

text: On April 26, 1975, the first C-141 military transport aircraft carrying refugees arrived. The airlift to Wake continued at a rate of one C-141 every hour and 45 minutes, each aircraft with 283 refugees on board. At the peak of the mission, 8,700 Vietnamese refugees were on Wake. When the airlift ended on August 2, a total of about 15,000 refugees had been processed through Wake Island as part of "Operation New Life".


title: Wake Island

text: On March 20, 1978, Undersecretary James A. Joseph of the U.S. Department of the Interior reported that radiation levels from "Operation Crossroads" and other atomic tests conducted in the 1940s and 1950s on Bikini Atoll were still too high and those island natives that returned to Bikini would once again have to be relocated. In September 1979 a delegation from the Bikini/Kili Council came to Wake Island to assess the island's potential as a possible resettlement site. The delegation also traveled to Hawaii (Molokai and Hilo), Palmyra Atoll and various atolls in the Marshall Islands including Mili, Knox, Jaluit, Ailinglaplap, Erikub and Likiep but the group agreed that they were only interested in resettlement on Wake Island due to the presence of the U.S. military and the island's proximity to Bikini Atoll. Unfortunately for the Bikini Islanders, the U.S. Department of Defense responded that "any such resettlement is out of the question."


title: Wake Island

text: In April 1981, a party of 19 Japanese, including 16 former Japanese soldiers who were at Wake during World War II, visited the island to pay respects for their war dead at the Japanese Shinto Shrine.


title: Wake Island

text: In the early 1980s, the National Park Service conducted an evaluation of Wake Island to determine if the World War II (WWII) cultural resources remaining on Wake, Wilkes and Peale were of national historical significance. As a result of this survey, Wake Island was designated as a National Historic Landmark (NHL) on September 16, 1985, helping to preserve sites and artifacts on the atoll associated with WWII in the Pacific and the transpacific aviation era prior to the war. As a National Historic Landmark, Wake Island was also included in the National Register of Historic Places.


title: Wake Island

text: On November 3 and 4, 1985, a group of 167 former American prisoners of war (POWs) visited Wake with their wives and children. This was the first such visit by a group of former Wake Island POWs and their families.


title: Wake Island

text: On November 24, 1985, a Pan American Airlines (Pan Am) Boeing 747, renamed "China Clipper II", came through Wake Island on a flight across the Pacific to commemorate the 50th anniversary of the inauguration of Pan American China Clipper Service to the Orient. Author James A. Michener and Lars Lindbergh, grandson of aviator Charles Lindbergh, were among the dignitaries on board the aircraft.


title: Wake Island

text: Subsequently, the island has been used for strategic defense and operations during and after the Cold War, with Wake Island serving as a launch platform for military rockets involved in testing missile defense systems and atmospheric re-entry trials as part of the Ronald Reagan Ballistic Missile Defense Test Site. Wake's location allows for a safe launch and trajectory over the unpopulated ocean with open space for intercepts.


title: Wake Island

text: In 1987, Wake Island was selected as a missile launch site for a Strategic Defense Initiative (SDI) program named "Project Starlab/Starbird". In 1989, the U.S. Army Strategic Defense Command (USASDC) constructed two launch pads on Peacock Point, as well as nearby support facilities, for the eight-ton, , multi-stage Starbird test missiles. The program involved using electro-optical and laser systems, mounted on the Starlab platform in the payload bay of an orbiting Space Shuttle, to acquire, track and target Starbird missiles launched from Cape Canaveral and Wake. After being impacted by mission scheduling delays caused by the explosion of the Space Shuttle "Challenger", the program was canceled in late September 1990 to protect funding for another U.S. Army space-based missile defense program known as "Brilliant Pebbles". Although no Starbird missiles were ever launched from Wake Island, the Starbird launch facilities at Wake were modified to support rocket launches for the "Brilliant Pebbles" program with the first launch occurring on January 29, 1992. On October 16, a Castor-Orbus rocket was destroyed by ground controllers seven minutes after its launch from Wake. The program was canceled in 1993.


title: Wake Island

text: Missile testing activities continued with the Lightweight Exo-Atmospheric Projectile (LEAP) Test Program, another U.S. Army strategic defense project that included the launching of two Aerojet Super Chief HPB rockets from Wake Island. The first launch, on January 28, 1993, reached apogee at and was a success. The second launch, on February 11, reached apogee at and was deemed a failure.


title: Wake Island

text: Due to the U.S. Army's continued use of the atoll for various missile testing programs, on October 1, 1994, the U.S. Army Space and Strategic Defense Command (USASSDC) assumed administrative command of Wake Island under a caretaker permit from the U.S. Air Force. The USASSDC had been operating on Wake since 1988 when construction of Starbird launch and support facilities was started. Now under U.S Army control, the island, which is located north of Kwajalein Atoll, became a rocket launch site for the Kwajalein Missile Range known as the Wake Island Launch Center.


title: Wake Island

text: In July 1995, various units of the U.S. military established a camp on Wake Island to provide housing, food, medical care and social activities for Chinese illegal immigrants as part of "Operation Prompt Return" (also known as "Joint Task Force Prompt Return"). The Chinese immigrants were discovered on July 3 on board the "M/V Jung Sheng Number 8" when the 160-foot-long vessel was interdicted by the U.S. Coast Guard south of Hawaii. The "Jung Sheng" had left Canton, China en route to the United States on June 2 with 147 Chinese Illegal Immigrants, including 18 "enforcers", and 11 crew on board. On July 29, the Chinese were transported to Wake Island where they were cared for by U.S. military personnel and on August 7, they were safely repatriated to China by commercial air charter. From October 10 to November 21, 1996, military units assigned to "Operation Marathon Pacific" used facilities at Wake Island as a staging area for the repatriation of another group of more than 113 Chinese illegal immigrants who had been interdicted in the Atlantic Ocean near Bermuda aboard the human smuggling vessel, the "Xing Da".


title: Wake Island

text: On October 1, 2002, administrative control and support of Wake Island was transferred from the U.S. Army to the U.S. Air Force's 15th Wing, an aviation unit of Pacific Air Forces based at Hickam Air Force Base in Hawaii. The 15th Wing had previously been in control of Wake from July 1, 1973, to September 30, 1994. Although the Air Force was once again in control, the Missile Defense Agency would continue to operate the Wake Island Launch Center and the U.S. Army's Ronald Reagan Ballistic Missile Defense Test Site would continue to maintain and operate the launch facilities and also provide instrumentation, communications, flight and ground safety, security, and other support.


title: Wake Island

text: On January 6, 2009, President George W. Bush issued Executive Order 8836, establishing Pacific Remote Islands Marine National Monument to preserve the marine environments around Wake, Baker, Howland, and Jarvis Islands, Johnston Atoll, Kingman Reef, and Palmyra Atoll. The proclamation assigned management of the nearby waters and submerged and emergent lands of the islands to the Department of the Interior and management of fishery-related activities in waters beyond 12 nautical miles from the islands' mean low water line to the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA). On January 16, Secretary of the Interior Dirk Kempthorne issued Order Number 3284 which stated that the area at Wake Island assigned to the Department of Interior by Executive Order 8836 will be managed as a National Wildlife Refuge. Management of the emergent lands at Wake Island by the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, however, will not begin until the existing management agreement between the Secretary of the Air Force and the Secretary of the Interior is terminated.


title: Wake Island

text: The 611th Air Support Group (ASG), a U.S. Air Force unit based at Joint Base Elmendorf-Richardson in Anchorage, Alaska took over control of Wake Island from the 15th Wing On October 1, 2010. The 611th ASG was already providing support and management to various geographically remote Air Force sites within Alaska and the addition of Wake Island provided the unit with more opportunities for outdoor projects during the winter months when projects in Alaska are very limited. The 611th ASG, a unit of the 11th Air Force, was renamed the Pacific Air Forces (PACAF) Regional Support Center.


title: Wake Island

text: On September 27, 2014, President Barack Obama issued Executive Order 9173 to expand the area of the Pacific Remote Islands Marine National Monument out to the full 200 nautical miles U.S. exclusive economic zone (EEZ) boundary for each island. By this proclamation, the area of the monument at Wake Island was increased from 15,085 sq mi (39,069 km) to 167,336 sq mi (433,398 km).


title: Wake Island

text: On November 1, 2015, a complex $230 million U.S. military missile defense system test event, called "Campaign Fierce Sentry" Flight Test Operational-02 Event 2 (FTO-02 E2), was conducted at Wake Island and the surrounding ocean areas. The test involved a Terminal High Altitude Area Defense (THAAD) system built by Lockheed Martin, two AN/TPY-2 radar systems built by Raytheon, Lockheed's Command, Control, Battle Management, and Communications system, and guided missile destroyer with its AN/SPY-1 radar. The objective was to test the ability of the Aegis Ballistic Missile Defense and THAAD Weapon Systems to defeat a raid of three near-simultaneous air and missile targets, consisting of one medium-range ballistic missile, one short-range ballistic missile and one cruise missile target. During the test, a THAAD system on Wake Island detected and destroyed a short-range target simulating a short-range ballistic missile that was launched by a C-17 transport plane. At the same time, the THAAD system and the destroyer both launched missiles to intercept a medium-range ballistic missile, launched by a second C-17.


title: Wake Island

text: Wake Island has no permanent inhabitants and access is restricted. However, as of 2017, there are approximately 100 Air Force personnel and American and Thai contractor residents at any given time. As of 2011, the billeting at the airfield supports 198 beds.