History of Diego Garcia

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Important Dates of the
Provisional People's Democratic
Republic of Diego Garcia

41 Flags Over Diego Garcia.

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BPS - BEFORE PERMANENT SETTLEMENT


Late Cretaceous, 65 million years before the present.	The molten core of the earth begins to push up to form the Laccadives, Maldives, and Chagos archipelagos, including the mountain that will eventually become Diego Garcia.
In the Rama Era - Before Lord Krishna	Hanuman, leader of the Vanaras (talking apes) journeys 800 miles south of India to a place he called Lanka, which is approximately the location of Diego Garcia. Or maybe not.
c. 200 A.D.	The great Austronesian diaspora is in full swing. Folks from what is today Indonesia & surrounding areas set out on epic sea voyages in outrigger canoes along the Equatorian Counter Current, settling the Pacific Islands, eventually colonizing islands as far away as Hawaii, New Zealand, and Easter Island. They also traveled the South Equatorial Current of the Indian Ocean, which flows from east to west between the equator and 10 degrees south, reaching Madagascar around this time. Chances are they passed near Diego Garcia (at 7 degrees south), perhaps even landing, but did not establish permanent settlements.
1413	Cheng Ho, the Great Eunuch of the Ming Dynasty's Imperial Palace, sails close by. Or maybe not.
1502	Clusters of islands, which possibly represent the Chagos Archipelago, appear on Alberto Catino's world map. This is the first time Diego is shown or mentioned anywhere in the world. Or maybe not.
1504	The Italian Ludovico de Varthema discovers Diego Garcia during his trip from Berbera, Somalia to the Indian port of Diu in Gujarat. Or maybe not.
1512	Pedro Mascarenhas, a Portuguese Captain, is detached from the 'Armada de India', of Dom Garcia de Noronha, and sent to India with dispatches by the shortest and fastest route. He sails through the Chagos Archepelago, discovers and names Diego Garcia. Or maybe not.
1532	Spanish explorers discover and name Diego Garcia. Or maybe not.
1602	Sir James Lancaster, on his second voyage to India, now in command of a four-ship fleet consisting of the RED DRAGON, HECTOR, ASCENSION, and Lancaster's SUSAN, attempts to pioneer a sea route from East Africa to the East Indies to trade for pepper and nutmeg. He takes his fleet across the Indian Ocean and at about six degrees south finds himself in extremely shallow water and in danger of running aground. He spent three days picking through the reefs (probably the Great Chagos Bank) before reaching the safety of the open ocean. His tale of near disaster keeps mariners from entering the area for over 100 years. Lancaster's fleet was the very first trading expedition of the British East India Company (earlier trips - by Lancaster and Michelbourne - being essentially pirate raids).
June 19, 1605	Sir Edward Michelbourne, a British East India Company "Gentleman Adventurer", i.e., pirate, is on his way home from a two year voyage pirating Dutch traders in the East Indies in command of the TIGRE, sights the "Ile of Diego Graciosa" but cannot find a place to anchor. He described it as being ten or twelve leagues long and being covered with coconut trees, with fish and birds abundant.
1666	J. Jansson of Amsterdam publishes a map of the Indian Ocean, titled "Erythraei Sive Rubri Maris Periplus ab Arriano Descriptus nunc verio ab Abrah. Ortelio ex eodem Delineatus" which shows some islands about where Diego Garcia lies today.
1719	*The British ship STRANGER* sails close by, but remains a stranger.**
1740	Jacques Nicolas Bellin publishes a detailed map in Paris that shows the islands of the Southwest Indian Ocean, including Diego Garcia.
1742	*The French ships ELISABETH* and CHARLES survey the Chagos region.**
January 1745	Another British ship, the PELHAM, visits Diego Garcia, the first recorded landing. This was also the first time the F word was used on the island, when a sailor undoubtably said "How long did you say we are staying on this f---ing island?" The PELHAM departed shortly thereafter.
July 15, 1755	*Yet another British ship, the HMS MARY, visits Diego Garcia.*
Late 1700s	The name Diego Garcia becomes standard on maps of the time. Names on earlier maps include Deo Gratia (1537), Isle de Diego Graciosa (1641), Don Garzia, and Chagos Island.
1763	*British ships SPEAKER* and PITT visit Diego, and make the first map of the island. The crew, however, fails to name one single island feature for Parliamentary Speaker Pitt.**
1768	A French naval ship, Captained by Dufresne, lands on Diego Garcia after sailing from the Seychelles.
1769	*French Navy Lieutenant La Fontaine, visits Diego Garcia as surveyor for M. le Chevalier Grenier. This expedition consists of two ships, L'HEURE DU BERGER* and VERT GALLAND.**
1770	L'HEURE DU BERGER, captained this time by la Fontaine, returns and enters the lagoon through Barton Pass (an exceedingly treacherous passage). He later writes, 'A large number of vessels could anchor here in safety. The island has a great many coconut trees and is covered with jungle. Many of the trees, such as the "bios blanc" make good firewood. Fish, turtles, seabirds and wild fowl are around, but there is very little fresh water. It is possible to dig a well into the coral of which the island is mainly formed, but the water so obtained is brackish, and could in all probability cause sickness.'
1771	French Navy Captain du Roslan arrives at Diego Garcia, after plotting the postion of other Chagos islands, thus establishing Diego's relative location for the first time (everything was relative in those days).
1772	The British ship SWIFT captained by Thomas Neale enters the lagoon at Diego. For several years the British in Bombay had been dispatching ships to explore the Chagos Archepelago, but the SWIFT was the first to find any of the islands since 1768.
1774	The British ship DRAKE visits, under the command of Captain Adam Sheriff, maps the lagoon entrance, and left sheep, goats and pigs to populate the island (no sailors apparently being particularly interested) as provisions for future generations of maroons.
1776 - 1784	The British and French stop exploring the Indian Ocean, being busy with their Navies in the Americas for the period.
1778	The French Governor of Mauritius grants Monsieur Dupuit de la Faye a 'consession' for development of the entire island, but he fails to go there or colonize the island.
1785	Some 'straggling Frenchmen' build a dozen or so huts on the island.
April 27, 1786	A British East India Company colonizing expedition from Bombay enters the lagoon with the ships ADMIRAL HUGHES, DRAKE (again), VIPER, and EXPERIMENT, and claim the island for King George III and the East India Company. The purpose of the colony is to establish a 'victualing station' and six shiploads of topsoil are imported from India in which to grow food plants. Richard Thomas Price is in charge of the colony and in command of four officers, 41 craftsmen and 69 servants. Military command is assigned to Captain John Sartorius of the Engineers, who is in charge of all land and marine surveys. He has under his command eight officers and 155 soldiers, mainly Sepoys (Indian native infantry) and Lascars (Indian native artillerymen). Upon arrival of the British fleet, the staggling Frenchmen pack up a boat and sail away to report the invasion to the Governor of Mauritius, Vicomte de Souillac. NOTE: The British East India Company's flag at the time was identical to the one used by American Rebels in 1776-1777. As Lord Cornwallis, loser at Yorktown in 1781 was by this time the Dictator of India (on behalf of the King and the British East India Company), he must have had to bite his lip every time he saw it over one of his ships or factories... At any rate, the flag of the first official colonists of Diego Garcia was, in fact, an American flag!
Early May 1786	Lieutenant Archibald Blair of the East Indian Company surveys the island and produces the first reliable map of the island. He also names Eclipse (future site of Downtown Diego Garcia) and Observatory Points, which were previously called 'the two teats', no doubt by the staggling, sex-starved Frenchmen.
May 30, 1786	The East India Company ship ATLAS wrecks on the oceanside of Diego, stranding James Horsburgh and the rest of the crew on the east arm of the island at the Point which now bears his name. Horsburgh later writes, 'The charts on board were very erroneous in the delineation of the Chagos Islands and Banks, and the commander, trusting too much to dead reckoning, was steering with confidence to make the non-existent Adu or Candu for a new departure, being their longitude nearby, by account, and bound for Ceylon; but, unfortunately a cloud over Diego Garcia prevented the helmsman from discerning it, (the officer of the watch being asleep), till we were on the reef close to the shore. The masts, rudder, and everything above the deck went with the first surge; the second lifted the vessel over the outer rocks and threw her in towards the beach". Horsburgh published numerous charts and papers during his long life, but the great work by which his name still lives is the celebrated ‘Directory’ or rather "Directions for Sailing to and from the East Indies, China, New Holland, Cape of Good Hope, and the interjacent Ports, compiled chiefly from original Journals and Observations made during 21 years' experience in navigating those Seas," The survivors of the ATLAS joined Price's colony, and would have eaten the sheep, goats and pigs left for their use by the DRAKE in 1774, except the straggling Frenchmen had already done so.
October 1786	The British experiment in growing food plants on Diego is a failure, especially considering that they have an extra 250 mouths to feed from the ATLAS, and they pack up and sail away, having learned, as thousands of others have since, that a 6 month tour of duty on Diego is long enough.
Late 1786	The French arrive in the MINERVE to chase the British off, but the British had already gone. The French leave a 'stone of ownership' on the island proclaiming that it really, after all, belonged to France. Then they sail away, there being no food on the island to speak of.
April 30, 1787	Alexander Dalrymple, Hydrographer of the East India Company, writes to Lord Mulgrave to summarize and pontificate on the visits of British Ships to Diego Garcia. Basically, he wanted to try again. As with other proposals by Dalrymple, who was eternally whining that Captain Cook (instead of Dalrymple) had been chosen to search for (and find) Australia in 1770, his suggestions were ignored. Except by Lord Cornwallis, now in charge of British India, and who previously had lost the American Colonies by underestimating his enemy. Oh, and by overestimating the staying power of the French Fleet (read your history of Yorktown for details).
1789	Lord Cornwallis sends out Lieutenant Morrsom of the Royal Navy to survey the island and determine its suitability as a staging base for fleets en route to India. Morrsom concludes that it is, but Cornwallis gets interested in other things, and the British forget about Diego Garcia for a decade or two.

THE OIL ISLANDS


Late 1780s	The French in Mauritius start marooning their Lepers on Diego Garcia. The lepers ate sea turtles, primarily, since turtle meat was believed to cure the disease. It didn't.
1792	A British merchant ship stops by, and sends two crew members ashore to talk with the inhabitants. They reported that the island was populated by '8 or 10' lepers. The captain of the ship refuses to allow the crewmembers back aboard, and sails away, leaving them marooned with the lepers.
1793	A Monsieur Lapotaire from Mauritius sets up the first coconut 'factory' concession on Eclipse Point. He also brings the first black slaves to the island. The little factory ships coconuts to Mauritius to be processed into oil, and also ships out salted fish, rope made from coconut fiber, and exports Sea Turds (Sea Cucumbers) to China, where they are considered a great delicacy.
1793	*A British Ship, HAMPSHIRE,* wrecks attempting to enter the lagoon through Barton Pass (still an exceedingly treacherous passage).**
1801	Hearing that there were lepers getting fat on DG, the HMS VICTOR puts in to reprovision with water and the lepers' turtles. She then sailed to the Seychelles and sank the French Corvette Fleche, which had just marooned some banished Frenchmen on those islands.
April 26, 1809	The captain-general of Maurituis, a certain De Caen, gives M. Blevec and M. Chepe a 'concession' to exploit the eastern part of the atoll as a coconut oil factory.
1809	De Caen changes his mind, and forbids processing coconut oil on Diego Garcia, out of a fear that the British would come and steal it. He orders coconuts to be sent to Mauritius for processing.
December 3, 1810	The British, during one of the 'Napoleonic Wars' capture Mauritius and its 'lesser dependencies' (including Diego Garcia), thus effectively stealing the coconut oil, just as De Caen feared, just in a more dramatic way.
1812	A severe earthquake on the island shakes the coconut crabs right out of the trees.
May 30, 1814	The Treaty of Paris was signed between France and her enemies Great Britain, Russia, Austria, and Prussia, following the (first) abdication of Napoleon. France was forced to return to the borders of 1792. England was granted the French colonies of Tobago, St. Lucia, and Mauritius (and thus it's "lesser dependencies" including Diego Garcia).
April 10, 1819	The Dutch warship ADMIRAL EVERTSEN wrecks on Diego Garcia. The officers and crew are marooned there until rescued by the U.S. merchant ship PICKERING on June 10, 1819, which takes them to Mauritius.
1819	Some Dutch artist from the ADMIRAL EVERTSEN draws the first pictures of Diego Garcia. The picture clearly shows the American Brig PICKERING from Plymouth, Massachusetts at anchor in the lagoon; the first flag shown on Diego is the good ol' Stars and Stripes. At the time, the US had 21 states, Illinois having been admitted in December, 1818. However, the 21-star flag was not adopted until December, July 4th, 1818, so this would have been the flag flown by the PICKERING.
1824	The British Governor of Mauritius, Lowry Cole, appoints the first British official to the island. He is a Frenchman named Le Camus, and must have found the assignment very existential. His duties were: Restore peace between the lepers and slaves (who had been at war with each other for several years); Act as pilot for any vessel entering Diego Garcia, except for slavers, which were to be denied access; Stop ships from dumping ballast in the main channels; Build a hospital for the lepers on Middle Island; and, Report any lawlessness by visiting ships' crews. Le Camus actually did a pretty good job, although he never builds the hospital.
1824	Two brothers, W. and C. T. Horat, arrive and produce the first completely accurate map of Diego for the Mauritius Colonial Government. They were accompanied by Mr. D. Werner, who writes a report giving information necessary for the navigation of ships entering the lagoon. Werner reports that the island is divided into four plantations: Laportaire's, M. Cayeux's, Cayeux's brother's, and Bleved and Patee's. Werner also points out that the island was of no further use for a leper colony, because they had eaten all the turtles.
1829	Le Camus asks to be paid for the five years he spent on Diego as a colonial official. The Governor of Mauritius is shocked by this outrageous request, and refuses. Le Camus sues.
1831	Le Camus settles his suit when the Governor takes Laportaire's concession of 2,590 acres and gives it to Le Camus.
August 1834	England abolishes slavery. Ex-slaves are 'apprenticed' to their former masters for six years before being set completely free in 1840. Thus ended the 41-year history of slavery on Diego Garcia.
1835	The lepers from Diego Garcia and a few of the other occupied islands in the Chagos are taken by ship to Ile Curieuse in the Seychelles to be put with other lepers in a real colony with people there to look after them medically, etc. According to inexact information, the black lepers were notably peaceful (and why not, until the previous year they were slaves, and were still indentured, and therefore "knew their place"!) while the white lepers were a lot of trouble on the ship. Two of the lepers from DG didn't want to be transfered, and escaped in a canoe, and apparently made it to Danger Island in the Chagos, where the transporting ship couldn't 'rescue' them. This is apparently the first account of people not wanting the leave Diego Garcia.
1837	Captain Robert Moresby of the {British} Indian Navy visits Diego, and conducts 'a thorough scientific survey'. He plants 30 breadfruit trees. He also is the first to report that there were cats and chickens on the island. Some of his observations were used by Darwin in his 1842 book "The Structure and Distribution of Coral Reefs. Being the First Part of the Geology of the Voyage of the ‘Beagle.’ Under the Command of Capt. Fitzroy, R.N. During the Years 1832 to 1836" - there are at least three references to Diego Garcia in Chapter 1 alone. (Darwin didn't publish "On The Origin of Species by Means of Natural Selection, or The Preservation of Favoured Races in the Struggle for Life" until 1859). From Steve Forsberg's thesis: "As an interesting side note, one of the things Moresby found on Diego Garcia was litter. On September 18, 1837, he found a bottle with a note in it on the shore. It was signed by F.C. Montgomery, 4th Regiment and also mentioned Captain Twopenny of the 73rd Highlanders. They had been aboard a ship traveling from Plymouth, England to Ceylon when they threw their message in a bottle overboard, at a point more than 1,300 miles from Diego Garcia and two years earlier. "
August 21, 1838	The first colonial official to visit the island since Le Camus, Charles Anderson, is sent to Diego aboard the LAVERET to tell the slaves that they were freed four years earlier. He reports that there were three plantations, one at East Point, one at Minni Minni, and one at Point Marianne. He also reported that things really weren't all that pleasant for the former slaves, but that crime was nearly non-existant, a condition he attributes to the impossibility of obtaining booze on the island. Perhaps this was why he left after just two days on the island.
1840	As a result of Anderson's report, donkeys are brought ashore because British law forbade using the (now freed) slaves for work that could be done by beasts of burden. The descendants of those donkeys remain on the island to this day.
1849	From Steve Forsberg's thesis: "An article on the Chagos Islands appeared in The United Service Journal and Naval and Military Magazine. It took a very dim view toward the progress of the islands, whose proprietors “do not themselves reside in these Islands, but live in opulence where they like, deputing the management of the affairs of the Chagos to a number of registrars, or overseers.” The article does not paint a very nice picture of life on the islands, but allowances have to be made for the British sensibilities of the authors. There is dismay that the laborers “resemble the tribes of Africa, from whom they took their origin” and that “No idea of a Supreme Being appears to exist in the Chagos Archipelago.” After all, the article points out, the proprietors are of “French descent. "Most of the islanders lived on huts set on posts 3 feet above the ground, the space below “being invariably occupied by pigs,” which abound and produced a “stench.” Sheep and cows were also to be found on the island, and poultry was “exceedingly plentiful.” There were turtles, both green and hawksbill, and the laborers were rewarded with “a piece of blue cloth worth seven or eight shillings” if they found a particularly fine example. It was noted that by this time seals and walrus were almost entirely gone from the island... "Dogs were raised on the island and their sale resulted in “considerable revenue.” The article notes a “valuable breed of pointers” being raised. The article is not too clear about when it was referring to Diego Garcia in particular or another of the Chagos Chain. It described an island called “Home of Dogs,” however, that could be one of the small islets in the mouth of Diego Garcia’s lagoon. A large number of dogs were raised there, tended only by “one Negro - generally a leper.” The dogs were reportedly fond of human attention, and at low tides some would swim across to “neighboring islands.” "
1855ish	The New Bedford whaler HARRISON stops in.
June 20, 1859	The next set of colonial officials to visit, Lt. Berkley and Mr. Caldwell, arrive and take a census. They reported a population of 338 (258 men, 39 women, and 41 children) and 350 donkeys. Working together the various species produced 25,500 gallons of coconut oil that year.
1859	Bishop Vincent, the leader of the Anglican Church in Mauritius, arrives to convert the heathen and the Catholics to the Church of England. He noted that the island had a large population of "Malabars" from the Indian subcontinent. The bishop decides not to stay, but encourages other missionaries to try. None heed the call for at least the next 14 years.
1860	The Meteorological Society recommended to the Governor for the establishment of a central observatory for hourly or two-hourly observations day and night together with a number of subsidiary observations at Rodrigues, St. Brandon, Agalega, Diego Garcia and Seychelles
November 14, 1864	Charles Farquharson, arrives aboard the RAPID to represent the Governor of Mauritius, and take another census. He reports the population of the island was 378 (267 men, 45 women, and 46 children), of whom 20 are Europeans.
1864	The Main House and several other of the main buildings at the plantation at East Point are constructed.
1866	James Spurs, 'an enlighened, despotic but benevolent man', becomes manager of the plantation at East Point a position he holds until 1883. He establishes very strict regulations concerning alcohol consumption, and forbids killing sea birds, sea turtles, or coconut crabs.
October 1875	An outbreak of cholera hits the plantation at Point Marianne, but there are no deaths. Patients are treated in the hospital there, which is made from the deck house of the ship SHANNON, which had wrecked there several years before.
1875	E. Parkenham Brooks, the first colonial official to visit since 1859, fined the Manager of the East Point Plantation, James Spurs, for imprisoning three 'labourers' without sufficient cause. He also fined an under-manager at Point Marianne for striking a labourer.
1875	Janvier, a 'Malagash' (someone from Madigascar) Voodoo Witch Doctor, is charged with killing a woman giving birth to twins, and the twins, and is sent to Mauritius for trial, where he is found not guilty.
1875	A Roman Catholic Priest visits the island, and then leaves it to the heathens. Or perhaps he recognized the prior claim made on the islanders' souls by the Anglicans.
Late 1880s	From Steven Forsberg: This one is about when "divers were REAL men." In the late 1880s it seems that famed British diver Alexander Lambert worked on Diego Garcia. Lambert was a legend in his time, among other things he was the first to use "rebreathing" gear. The following is part of a short newspaper 'filler' article that was published in the U.S. circa 1890, it describes a routine day at work for the legendary Lambert: "I can give you one of Lambert's; he once had a thrilling- fight with one at the bottom of the Indian ocean. He had been sent to the island of Diego Garcia to fbr copper sheets on a coal bunk that had been fouled by a steamer, and was annoyed during his operations by the same shark for nearly a week. "The monster was temporarily scared away, however, every time, Lambert opened the escape valve in his helmet and allowed some air to rush out. One day Lambert signaled to his I attendants for a big sheath knife and a looped rope. "Having these, Lambert used his bare hand an a bait and waited until the shark commenced to turn on its back, when he stabbed it repeatedly, passed the noose around its body and signaled for it to be drawn up. The diver brought home the shark's back- as a trophy."Read more about Lambert.
1881	*The HMS ECLIPSE, commanded by Captain Garforth, surveys the island for use as a coaling station.*
1882	The Orient Steam Navigation Company relocates its coaling station from Aden to Diego Garcia for its fleet of 12 ships sailing from the Suez canal to Australia. It uses the ex-sailing ships ARRAN, 962 tons, and the RONACHAN, 1,156 tons, as Coal Hulks, anchored off Minni Minni in the lagoon. Eventually, it moves its operations to Middle and East Islands. Meanwhile, W. Lund & Sons, Ltd., sets up a competing operation for its 2 ship fleet, anchoring it's hulks at East Point. James Spurs goes to work for the Orient and Pacific, and a M. LeConte takes the job of manager at East Point.
August 27, 1883	Inhabitants are shocked to hear loud booming noises. The noise is from the explosion of the volcano Krakatoa near Java, over 1,000 miles to the east. When the sonic wave reaches Rodrigues island, 800 miles west of Diego, the Police Chief reports hearing 'heavy gunfire to the east.'
October 29, 1883	The Orient Steamer LUSITANIA puts in for coal. However, so many of the laborers of the Orient Company were absent and refused to do extra work even with pay. James Spurs had to hire colliers from the rival Lund and Company.
1883	The plantations of the islands in the Chagos Archipelago combine into one company called the 'Societe Huiliere de Diego et Peros'. The effect on Diego Garcia was to close the estate headquarters at Minni Minni and combine that plantation with the one at East Point. Point Marianne remained as a separate community headed by a sub-manager.
1883	Laborers at the East Point Plantation, armed with knives and clubs, stage an insurrection, which is put down by the M. LeConte by brandishing his revolver. LeComte blames the 45 men working for Lund and Company for the troubles, since they are "without any women".
1883	A.H.S. Lucas, one of the trailblazers of phycology, spends two days paddling around the lagoon observing the seaweeds during coaling of the SS CUZCO. He gets so engrossed, that the ship's manager and Lucas' wife have to paddle out and haul him back to the ship just in time to sail away to Australia. Fluent in English, French, and German, Lucas later taught himself to read Russian, primarily to understand some papers about lizards written in that language. A life-long scientist and teacher, he authored the seminal 2-volume work "The Seaweeds of South Australia."
1883	A ship carrying 500 Japanese Moslem pilgrims destined for Mecca (the Haj pilgrimage) stops off at Eclipse Point, where they get out and wander around for a while.
February 16, 1884	The steamer NATAL belonging to Lund and Company bound from England to Australia, anchors at East Point with 90 passengers on board, 8 of whom are suffering from measles. A child died the next day from that disease, but Mr. LeConte refused to allow it to be buried ashore for fear that the disease would spread on the island. The NATAL left the next day and threw the body overboard outside the lagoon.
1884	Captain Raymond, of the sailing ship WINDSOR CASTLE, which had arrived with 1,334 tons of coal for Lund and Company, gets drunk, lands at East Point with 16 armed men, takes pot shots at what he thought was Spur's house (which was unoccupied), nails the Union Jack on a nearby palm tree, and claims the (already British) island for Great Britain. He sobers up two days later, and sails away. No one else in the history of Diego Garcia ever got quite that drunk. Except maybe one or two people once or twice.
1884	Another Roman Catholic Priest visits the island, and leaves.
1885	HMS RAMBLER under the command of the Honorable F.C.P. Vereker, carries out a detailed survey of the lagoon. Rambler Bay, on the northeast side of the lagoon is named for this ship. This is the first thorough hydrographic survey of the northern lagoon, and along with Moresby's more general survey of the southern lagoon, remains the basis of the charts today.
1885	A Mr. Butler is appointed Constable Sergeant, and arrives with six Constables to establish law and order, primarily to prevent a recurrance of Captain Raymondesque shennannigans.
July 13, 1886	Admiral Sir Frederick Richards stops at Minni Minni to coal up his fleet, comprised of HMS BACCHANTE (pictured here), TURQUOISE, REINDEER, and MARINER, en route to Zanzibar to stop the Arab Trade in African Slaves. (This was NOT the same HMS REINDEER that was captured by the USS WASP in 1814.) A description of this visit was provided by Thomas Marsh, who was an officer's servant on the MARINER: "On the 29th we left Seychelles for Diego Garcia and found that there was a very heavy swell outside the harbour, which caused the ship to roll about quite a lot. On July 5th we had a very uncomfortable night as the sea was rough and we shipped a lot of water and we were glad to get to the shelter of the harbour at Diego Garcia. We had not had a single fine day at sea from the time that we had left Zanzibar which is a distance of about 2500 miles. The harbour at Diego Garcia is well sheltered. Diego Garcia is a small Island in the middle of the Indian Ocean and almost triangular in shape with an entrance to the harbour at one of the corners. The Orient line of steamships to and from Australia used this port as a coaling station and had their own plant here. The natives were chiefly Creoles, numbering about one thousand. There were only 2 Englishmen there with their families and nobody seemed to keep more than they wanted for themselves and there was no possible way of buying anything to replace our stock. "I landed at Minny-Minny and afterwards at East Point but could not get anything. Coconut trees grow in abundance thickly together as ferns. I have never seen anything to compare with their denseness. The widest part of the island was no than 2 or 3 miles. The few Europeans came to the ship with their families to church services on the llth, just 6 of them. "The Dorunda of the British India Steam Navigation Company put in here for coal on her way home from Australia on the l2th and took our mail as far as Aden. We were also fortunate in getting a quarter of beef from her refrigerating plant which came as a God send for the officers' mess. On the l3th Admiral Sir Frederick Richards arrived in his flagship Bacchante accompanied by the Turquoise, Reindeer and Mariner. We were ordered to shift anchorage nearer Minny-Minny. The flagship brought mail for us from Colombo. Europeans from the shore and some of the flagship company came on board to a theatrical performance. On the l7th the flagships band played on shore and the Turquoise and Reindeer came down from East Point where they had coaled. On the l9th we had anchor drill and man and arm boat practice. All four ships left in company on the 2lst for Rodriguez..."
1886	Louis Fidele is imprisoned for practicing witchcraft in the cemetary at East Point. This witchcraft was intended to ensure that the ghosts would not rise up to haunt the living, which was a very real fear of the workers on the island.
1886	The Naturalist G.C. Bourne spends four months on the island studying geology and the bird and plant life. Bourne later teaches as Oxford, and lectures on his discoveries.
July 4, 1887	*Thomas Marsh in the HMS MARINER* returns to DG after a 4-day speed run down from Trincomalee, India. The MARINER took on 74 tons of coal at DG and left that afternoon for Mauritius.**
1888	The coaling stations on the island close, their rowdy employees depart, and steamships stop stopping. No longer needed to police the wild crowds of imported Somalis, Indians and Chinese manning the stations, Mister Butler and his Constables are withdrawn, and no other police force was set up for the next 85 years. The island is left to the workers and European overseers of the plantations.
1895	The first church is built at the East Point Plantation. The settlements at Minni Minni, East Island and Middle Island were abandoned.
1899	*The German warships BISMARCK* and MARIE anchored in the lagoon for a while, and shortly afterwards, the British warships HMS HAMPSHIRE and HMS EMPRESS OF RUSSIA paid a visit.**
1899	*The Deutsche Tiefsee (German deep sea) Expedition, aboard the VILDIVIA* carries out a survey of the marine fauna of the surrounding wates and the lagoon.**
1901	1,500 coconut trees are blown over during a typhoon.
1903	The process of drying coconut meat to make copra is introduced, and the production of oil for export ceases. Instead the copra is shipped to Mauritius for processing into oil.
July 7-13, 1905	The Percy Sladen Trust Expedition, led by J. Stanley Gardiner, studies the island's geomorphology, and the marine and land plants and animals. The Expedition was investigating the biological relationships between the Seychelles, Mascarenes and Chagos groups and tried to find evidence for former land connections between the islands. The discoveries of this expedition established that the granitic Seychelles islands are continental fragments of Gondwana, isolated from India and Madagascar 65 million years ago while the other islands are volcanic in origin, and that the Seychelles had an 'archaic' fauna, while the Mascarenes, Amirantes, Aldabra and Chagos Island groups have similar 'immigrant' taxa that traveled to the islands on the predominant marine currents.
1908	Doctor Powell arrives as head of a medical mission. He finds, literally, shitty sanitation conditions regarding latrines, and that safe water supply practices are ignored by 'both labor and management' and that they better clean up their act. He also proposes that the islanders be forbidden to take wine away from the village shop, and that they be required to drink it in the bar. He blames much of the island's crime and disease on the quality of the wine. "Only coarse wine is given, and then comes the rub, a fight and the knife".
October 9, 1914	The German Imperial Navy (Kaiserliche Marine) Cruiser SMS EMDEN, 387 feet long, displacing 3,364 tons, sails into the lagoon with her collier the BURESK, and spends the next two days scraping barnacles off her hull by flooding compartments and lifting first the stern and then the bow into the air. The crew also fixed the plantation manager's motor launch, and was paid with a pig, fresh fish, and some fruit. Note: SMS means Seiner Majestat Schiff (His Majesty's Ship), comparable to HMS in the Royal Navy.
October 12, 1914	Eight hours after the EMDEN steamed off to her destiny (to be blown to bits at Cocos), the British Auxilliary Cruiser HMS EMPRESS OF RUSSIA and her mate the HMS HAMPSHIRE arrive to tell the plantation manager that World War One had started two months before, and to be on the lookout for the EMDEN.
November 1914	HMAS PIONEER, a PELORUS-class Light Cruiser, stops to coal up en route from Freemantle to Zanzibar to help fight the Germans in East Africa.
July 1917	The HMAS HUON, HMAS SWAN, HMAS TORRENS, HMAS PARRAMATTA, HMAS WARREGO, and HMAS YARRA stop briefly during their search of the Chagos Archipelago for survivors of two British vessels, JUMNA and WORDSWORTH, which had disappeared without trace early in 1917. Nothing was found and the destroyers, ‘River’ Class Torpedo Boat Destroyers built for the Royal Australian Navy during the period 1909-16, continued their voyage, arriving at Port Said on 9 August 1917.
1926	From Steve Forsberg's thesis: "One note of excitement would be the assignment of a new manager in the mid 1920s. Soon there were complaints that “labourers are being roughly handled and ill treated by the new manager Mr. Edouard D’Argent” and that the islanders were living in a state of fear. In May 1926, Mr. Henry Bigara died shortly after a person named Fidelia had committed suicide. Police sergeant LeMeme quickly figured out that an islander variously called Besage or Catawon had murdered Bigara at the instigation of the manager D’Argent. They were both sent to Mauritius to stand trial for the death of Bigara (Fidelia’s death could not be pinned on them). Catawon was quickly convicted but the jury hung on D’Argent’s guilt. He had many friends in Mauritius and the local press supported him. In addition there were rumors of jury tampering. A second trial convicted D’Argent, however, and he was sentenced to spend the rest of his life in “penal servitude” on Mauritius. He died shortly thereafter."
1932	The Chapel at East Point is constructed, the previous one (built in 1895) having been crushed by a falling palm tree.
November, 1933	Father Dussercle, a Roman Catholic Priest, arrives aboard the 380-ton barque DIEGO, determined to stamp out Anglican Protestantism and paganism. He was especially offended by the continuing practice of witchcraft in the cemetaries, especially 'orgies, lascivious dancing, immoral getups, and revolting acts committed on the corpses.'
1934	*The steamer SS ZAMBEZIA* begins regular supply and cargo runs from Mauritius to Diego Garcia. She services the island until 1951.**
May 24, 1939	The HMS LIVERPOOL'S made a call at East Point, and the crew was allowed liberty ashore; when recalled in the evening two marines, Billy Bishop and Dennis Turnbull, were missing. They hid in the jungle for some days, eventually being discovered by some plantation workers, and turned over to the plantation manager. Some weeks later, HMS MANCHESTER arrived at Diego Garcia, and the two men gave themselves up. Just in time for WWII.
June 1939	A Consolitated PBY-2 Flying Boat, call sign GUBA-2, piloed by Captain P.G. Taylor, carried out an air mail route survey flight from Australia across the Indian Ocean calling at Cocos Islands, Diego Garcia, and Seychelles arriving at Mombasa on 21 June 1939. It then returned to California, whence it had departed a year or so earlier. World War II intervened before this service could be inagurated.

WORLD WAR II ON DIEGO GARCIA

September 1, 1939	Germany invades Poland, beginning World War II.
May 1940	The British set up a Convoy Route dubbed "X.C." from the Chagos through the Maldives to Colombo, Ceylon. The route is used throughout World War II.
March 1941	RAFA ANNE (Royal Air Force Association ship) arrives from Seletar in the Maldives with 'sectionalised huttery', an Air Ministry Works Department officer and coolies to set up an RAF seaplane outpost. RAFA ANNE, a.k.a. RAFA TUNG SONG was a twin screw steamer of 178 feet length, with carrying capacity of 350 tons. On charter from Singapore Straits Steamship Company, she was still crewed by the civilian crew, with a small detachment of RAF personnel aboard.
July 7, 1941	Squadron Leader Jardine flies Catalina W8417 from Diego Garcia to check for enemy shipping at Suvadiva (Huvadhu) and Addu Atolls, then over flew Male, and checked progress of RAF buildings on Dhoonidhoo Island (north of Male) thence to Koggala, Ceylon.
February 14, 1942	HMAS WOLLONGONG, a 650-ton minesweeper, departs Freemantle Australia to join the "Eastern Fleet" at Diego Garcia.
February 1942	Two 6-inch Naval Rifles made by Birmingham Small Arms are installed on Kerry Point (now called Canon Point) on the oceanside of Eclipse Point to hold off the Japanese Navy. In charge of the installation is Scotsman Captain J. Alan Thompson, Royal Marines, who later writes three novels about life on Diego Garcia during the war. Royal Marines initially man the guns, and were billeted on the requisitioned merchant ship CLAN FORBES. When relieved, they sailed for the Seychelles to install other, well, installations. The RMs were relieved by by the X Mauritian Battery, who were in turn relieved by the 12th Indian Coast Battery of the Indian Army in September 1942. Their quarters were at a village called "Noroit" on the northwest corner of the island - approximately where the GPS Site is today. Forsberg provides this alternative regarding the guns: "The guns themselves were 6" Mark VII guns, one (piece 1264) manufactured by Vickers and the other (piece 1417) by the Royal Gun Factory. The former was installed on cradle 798 and pedestal 1067, while the later was installed on cradle 1067 and pedestal 798, the cradle/pedestal sets apparently getting switched during installation. The guns had a range of approximately 14,000 yards with a nominal muzzle velocity of 2,500 feet per second. There were 99 feet and a 276.5 degree bearing from gun number one to number two. A 2-meter Barr & Stroud F.T.29 rangefinder (number 22119) was used on a Type M.T. 1454 modified mount (number 2219). A Vickers clock and naval Dumaresq were used for fire control." Forsberg also states the guns were mounted in December 1941. His references appear to be more accurate than mine. According to a book due out in April 2006 by Robert Swarbrick, this RM unit was "Detachment 350" and also served on Addu. Other war-time construction included telephone lines and a road from Canon Point to Point Marianne to the East Point Plantation. The road ran along the lagoon shore-line, and included concrete bridges over the barachois at the South end of the lagoon.
March 1942	An RAF Seaplane Base, Advanced Flying Boat Base Number 29, is established at East Point.
July 26, 1942	The Imperial Japanese Navy submarine I-16 reconoiters the doings on Diego Garcia. In the preceeding month she had sunk four merchantmen south of the Chagos (3,889-ton Yugoslav SUSAK at 15-42S 40-58E, 4,847-ton Greek AGHIOS GEORGIOS IV at 16-12S 41-00E, 3,748-ton Yugoslav SUPETAR at 21-49S 35-50E, and 5,243-ton Swedish EKNAREN at 17-00S 40-00E). After her visit to DG, she cruises to Penang, and then back to Japan.
November 17, 1942	The Corvette HMIS BENGAL, an Australian built minesweeper in the service of the Royal Indian Navy which had been escorting the Royal Dutch Shell tanker ONDINA, arrives at East Point to repair battle damage after a hot battle with the Japanese Armed Merchant Cruisers HOKOKU MARU and AIKOKU MARU. The captain of the BENGAL, Lieutenant-Commander Wilson, RNR, received the Distinguished Service Order, while others of his crew were also awarded for the battle. However, it was a lucky shot from the ONDINA's 4" gun that hit the HOKOKU MARU's starboard torpedo tube, resulting in a fire which reaches the aft magazine, blowing out her sides and sinking her. This victory causes the Imperial Japanese Navy to abandon commerce raiding with surface ships in the Indian Ocean.
January 27, 1943	HMAS TAMWORTH, sister ship to the WOLLONGONG I, sailed from Fremantle, escorting the tanker SS ATHELDUKE to Diego Garcia. From Diego Garcia she proceeded to Colombo to join the British Eastern Fleet, with which she was to serve for some two years on Indian Ocean and Persian Gulf convoy escort duty.
April 1943	The British set up a Convoy Route dubbed "C.X." from Colombo through the Maldives to the Chagos. It is the reciprocal of X.C. set up in May 1940.
September 20, 1943	At 3 p.m., the German Submarine U-532, commanded by Ottoheinrich Junker and operating from its base in Jakarta, torpedos the British ship SS FORT LONGUEUIL near Diego Garcia. Although at least four rafts with at least 16 men of the 59-man crew survived the sinking, only two men, Thakar Miah and Mohamed Aftab, survived to reach shore (in Malaysia) four and a half months later. They were captured by the Japanese but survived the war.
September 30, 1943	Wreckage from the Liberty Ship SS SAMUEL HEINTZELMAN 0651 washes ashore at Minni Minni. The HEINTZELMAN had been sunk by the German Submarine U-511 about 200 miles east of Diego (at 9S-81E) on July 9. She was carrying 5,644 tons of ammunition and blew up after being struck by a single torpedo with the loss of all 69 crewmen and six passengers.
April 4, 1944	HMS PATHFINDER (G-10), a P-Class Destroyer (pictured above) stops by en route from Ceylon to South Africa. In the Atlantic in 1942, she had sunk a U-Boat (U-161) and an Italian sub, and in April, 1943, sunk another U-Boat U-203). During her service escorting convoys from 1942-1945, not one ship in any convoy was lost to submarines, which was quite a feat in those days. She was shot up beyond repair by Japanese air attacks off Ramree Island, Burma, on 11 Feb '45.
June 29, 1944	Here's why the Catalinas were on Diego Garcia. The Imperial Japanese Navy submarine I-8 sinks the 6,942-ton Eastern and Australia Line's freighter NELLORE about 200 miles ESE of Diego at 07-51S, 75-20E. There were 209 passengers and crew on board, and 79 are lost and the I-8 took 1 crewmember and 10 passengers prisoner. A week later, the frigate HMS LOSSIE rescues 112 crewmen and lands them at Addu Atoll. On 17 July, two crewmen are picked up by an RAF "Catalina" and landed at Ceylon. On 27 July, almost 2500 miles from the site of the NELLORE's sinking and a month later, ten crewmen land at Sambavany, Madagascar. On July 2, the I-8 torpedoes the 7,176-ton American "Liberty" ship JEAN NICOLET. The I-8 surfaces, shells the lifeboats, and takes 99 survivors aboard, where Captain (Commander, posthumously Rear Admiral) Ariizumi has them searched, bound and questioned. He has the NICOLET's master, radio operator and a civilian passenger taken below. Then, in a three-hour massacre, most of the survivors are beaten, stabbed, or shot. Some are made to run a gauntlet of crewmen with knives and pipes. When the I-8's radar picks up an aircraft, Ariizumi submerges and leaves the bound Americans on deck to drown, but some of the survivors, return to the sinking NICOLET and launch rafts. On 4 July, the Indian Navy trawler HOXA rescues just 23 survivors. Of the three Americans taken below on the I-8, only the passenger survives internment as a POW. This isn't the first time Ariizumi killed prisoners. On 26 March 1944, Ariizumi had his crew massacre the crew of the 5,787-ton armed Dutch merchant TJISALAK near the Maldives. He had the crew kill them on the I-8's deck with swords and by clubbing them with wrenches, and ordered machine-gunners to fire on any survivors who leap overboard. Of the 102 men and one nurse on the TJISALAK only five men survive. They eventually reach a lifeboat and are later picked up by the American "Liberty" ship JAMES A. WILDER. The I-8 was also famous for making a trip to Brest France in 1943. She was subsequently sunk during a surface engagement with the USS MORRISON (DD-560) off Okinawa at 25-29N, 128-35E, with the loss of 130 of her crew (there was one survivor who was wounded and blown overboard during the engagement). Ariizumi was promoted and reassigned in late 1944. The Japanese claim he shot himself after Japan's surrender, but his body was never seen be the allies. *13 former I-8* crewmen are tried for war crimes in 1946, several recieving sentences, the maximum of which was 7 years. Just doesn't seem like enough to me.**
September 15, 1944	A Seaplane Tender and two PBY Catalinas break their moorings and are blown ashore at East Point during a typhoon. One of the Catalinas, K for Katie, Pilot Officer James Park, Commander, remains on the beach to this day.
September - October 1944	An epidemic of dengue fever strikes the island. Most of the RAF personnel came down with the disease, and several islanders died of it.
September 1945	Following the Surrender of Japan on September 2, 1945, the RAF Seaplane Base at East Point is closed, and the airmen and the soldiers manning the guns at Eclipse Point start going home. It would be another seven years before aircraft were seen in the skies over Diego.
October 1945	The RAF Meterological Station is turned over to the colonial government of Mauritius, and is operated continuously until 1800 hours, August 2, 1972.

A BRIEF RETURN TO COLONIAL IDYLL.

1946	Royal Marine Captain J. Alan Thompson, a Scotsman, publishes the first of three semi-autobiographical, but mostly fictional, accounts of life on the island during World War II, "Only the Sun Remembers". He published the others in 1949 and 1956.
1951	MV SIR JULES replaces the SS ZAMBEZIA on the Mauritius to Diego Garcia cargo route.
August 13, 1952	Tony Freeborn pilots his Shackelton from 205 Squadron at RAF Gan over Diego Garcia to photograph possible seaplane mooring sites from a proposed survey crew (which arrives in November). Tony's aircraft is the first aircraft to be seen in the skies of Diego Garcia since WWII.
September 4, 1952	Bernard Moitessiere, sailing solo in the Siamese Junk MARIE-TH'RESE, runs aground on the reef at Diego Garcia. He waded ashore and was surprised to discover French speaking inhabitants. Six weeks after the wreck, he was given a ride to Mauritius on board a British Corvette. Here's what Bernard wrote about sailing in the southern seas: "I have no desire to return to Europe with all its false gods. They eat your liver out and suck your marrow and brutalize you. I am going where you can tie up a boat where you want and the sun is free, and so is the air you breathe and the sea where you swim and you can roast yourself on a coral reef...." My kind of Frenchman.
October 13, 1952	Sir Hillary Blood, Governor of Mauritius, inaugurates the first school on Diego Garcia. Enrollment is open to all.
November 1, 1952	An RAF survey crew arrives in a Sunderland flying boat and surveys Eclipse Point (the northwest tip) for a possible 6,000 foot airstrip.
1955	The Cattle Egret is introduced to Diego from the Seychelles, and quickly becomes a common sight. By 2001 it is a major pest on the airfield.
October 1955	Sir Robert Scott, Governor of Mauritus, visits aboard the HMS KILLISPORT. When he goes home, he starts writing the book "Limuria: The Lesser Dependencies of Mauritius" about the place. He noted that chickens were so numerous that the going rate for a broiler was three English cigarettes.
1957	Admiral Jerauld Wright, Commander of the US Atlantic Fleet, "inspects" DG from a US ship.
1957	A collecting expedition from Yale University's Peabody Museum visits with James E. Morrow, a student of Daniel Merriman's interested in billfishes, as the ichthyologist. Morrow worked as the unofficial curator of fishes at the Peabody from 1949 until 1960.
1959	A.J.E. Orian visits Diego Garcia and publishes his report on the coconut industry there in the Review of Mauritian Agriculture.
1962	The Chagos Agalega Company of the Seychells buys the coconut plantation from the previous owners, the Societe Huiliere de Diego et Peros (a French firm based in Paris).
July 1964	From Forsberg: "A US Navy survey team, led by Commander Harry Hart of the office of the Chief of Naval Operations, flew from the U.S. to England where it picked up more members, including British representatives. Ultimately, it flew to Gan in the Maldive islands and transferred to the HMS DAMPIER for the final leg to Diego Garcia. It might be significant that one of the members of the survey team was Mr. Vance Vaughn, who was from the U.S. Navy Communications Annex at Nebraska Avenue in Washington, D.C. Nebraska Avenue was the headquarters of Naval Security Group, the arm of the navy tasked with signals intelligence. More overtly, the team included two enlisted men who were tasked with setting up a radio unit for tests. Master Chief Electronics Technician Richard M. Young and Radioman Chief M. J. Meriji used a 25-watt skid-mounted generator to power their radio, and a 20-foot dipole antenna to transmit. Using the call sign WOLF WOMAN they tested the islands “hearability” by contacting various other radio stations, particularly ships at sea."

THE BIOT


November 8, 1965	England forms the British Indian Ocean Territory (BIOT), which included Diego and the Chagos Archipelago (previously part of the colony of Mauritius), and Aldabra, Farquhar, and Des Roches islands (previously part of the colony of The Seychelles). In payment for the detached islands, and to resettle the inhabitants, Mauritius was given 3 million pounds, and the Seychelles was given a new airport on Mahe. The Governor of the Seychelles was made the Commissioner of the BIOT.
December 30, 1966	Great Britain and the United States execute an "exchange of notes" making the island available for the defense needs of both countries for the next 50 years, with an option for 20 more.
1967	HMS VIDAL, a Royal Naval Survey Ship, under the command of Captain C.R.K. Roe, makes a detailed hydrographic survey of the entire lagoon.
February 8, 1967	BIOT Ordinance No 1, the Compulsory Acquisition of Land for Public Purposes Ordinance, was made. It empowered the Commissioner to acquire land compulsorily for a public purpose, notably and explicitly the defence purposes of the UK or Commonwealth or other foreign countries in agreement with the UK.
March 22, 1967	The Commissioner made the BIOT Ordinance No 2, the Acquisition of Land for Public Purposes (Private Treaty)Ordinance, enabling him to acquire land by agreement for the same public purposes.
April 3, 1967	Acting under the provisions of BIOT Ordinance No 2, The British Government buys ALL the plantations throughout the Chagos archipelago for 660,000 pounds from The Chagos Agalega Company.
June - July 1967	HMS VIDAL conducts a thorough hydrographic survey of the lagoon and surrounding ocean. Aboard the VIDAL are Prof David Stoddart and Dr John Taylor, who in 1971 publish "The Geography and Ecology of Diego Garcia and the Chargos Archipelago."
August 13, 1968	The British Commissioner for the BIOT issues a regulation forbidding the killing of Green Sea Turtles, or the possession or sale of any turtle or turtle product.
1968	Jean Cole publishes her non-fiction account of her family's 11,700 mile journey from Mombassa to New Zealand with a stop at Diego Garcia.
1968	*The MV NORDVAER* from Port Victoria, Seychelles assumes the cargo and supply run to the new Colony of the British Indian Ocean Territory, replacing the MV SIR JULES from Mauritius.**
1968-1970	American geodesists and technicians, led by Kirby Crawford, operates a satellite triangulation station, with living quarters, just east of the East Point plantation for the US Department of Defense and the US Coast and Geodetic Survey. The team photographs balloon satellites along with stars in the background at night with a large astronomic camera. They also observe a precise astronomic position by conventional survey methods and establish a precise triangulation network throughout the island. This was the first program to accurately measure the size and shape of the earth, which they found is not exactly round. But it isn't exactly flat either.

THE USN DEFEATS GODLESS COMMUNISM IN THE I.O.
PAX AMERICANA.
THINGS CHANGE. SHIT HAPPENS.


January 23, 1971	A nine-man advance party of SEABEES from Naval Marine Construction Battalion 40 (NMCB-40) lands on Diego Garcia to confirm planning information and initiates preliminary survey for beach landing areas.
March 9, 1971	At 1700 hours local time, the USS VERNON COUNTY (LST 1161) arrives at Diego Garcia. She was painted white specifically for this peacetime deployment to an allied island. The following day, she begins underwater reconnaisance and beach surveys in preparation for beaching to begin construction of REINDEER STATION, as the US Navy facility on Diego was initially known.
March 12, 1971	*The USS VERNON COUNTY* beaches and begins offloading the men and construction equipment that will be used to build the US Navy base on Diego Garcia.**
March through June, 1971	50 SEABEES from NMCB-40 and Amphibious Construction Battalion 2 (ACB-2) land on Diego Garcia. The SEABEES and the men of Underwater Demolition Team 12 remove underwater obstacles, install buoys, mark anchorages, clear jungle and set up a tent city, and began laying down an airfield. Subsequently additional SEABEES and equipment come ashore from the USS GRAHAM COUNTY (LST 1176), USS ANCHORAGE (LSD 36) (pictured above) USS MONTICELLO (LSD 35), and USS CHARLESTON (LKA 113) (pictured below). The ships act as a self-sufficient home base for the troops ashore, as well as make numerous trips to the Philippines, Cocos, and Mauritius ferrying more men and equipment to the island through June, 1971.
March 24, 1971	The SEABEES begin construction of a US Naval Communications Station.
July 28, 1971	The first runway on the island is completed, all 3,500 feet of it, four days ahead of schedule. The first C-130 to land carries the SEABEES who built it back to Bangkok for 10 days of drunken promiscuity.
October 15, 1971	*The last of the plantation workers (commonly refered to as the Ilois) and their families are shipped out on the MV NORDVAER,* ending 178 years of continuous civilian habitation.**
1971	Killing the dogs. According to testimony the UK High Court in 2003, the Governor of the Seychelles ordered the killing of about 800 stray and abandoned dogs, which had taken over the east side of Diego Garcia as the population of Ilois shrank. According to the then-manager of the Plantation on Diego Garcia, they were shot, poisoned, and gassed using vehicle exhaust. Apparently, U.S. Navy personnel carried out the killings.
Oct. - Nov. 1971	The CHAGOS DETACHMENT of NMCB-71 and the whole of NMCB-1 arrives to begin large scale construction of the antenna fields and the runway, which was lengthened to 6,000 feet.
1971	The U.S. Naval Weather Service Environmental Detachment (NWSED) is established in 1971, assuming meteorological responsibilities from the Mauritius Meteorological Service under the provision that weather data from Diego Garcia be made available to their country.
1971	David Stoddart, and J. Taylor publish the seminal collection of articles on Diego Garcia's geography and ecology in the Smithsonian Institute's Atoll Research Bulletin, volume 149. "The Geography and Ecology of Diego Garcia and The Chagos Archepelago" includes articles on many subjects including history, climatology, geography, wildlife, reef studies, etc. To understand Diego Garcia as it was just before the US military arrived, and evaluate the changes since, you MUST read this book. For a copy in .pdf format, go to the University of Hawaii's web site, scroll down to "No. 149" and download it. It's huge - 21.7mb, but it's absolutely worth it if you care at all about serious science and history.
July 1972	NMCB-62 arrives to continue construction activities.
August 2, 1972	The Meterorolgical Station near the East Point Plantation closes, with it's weather observation duties assumed by the USN.
December 25, 1972	The first jet aircraft to land on the island, a C-141 Starlifter, carries in Bob Hope and his USO tour.
1972	ABHAN Daniel Vaughan, from Virginia, builds and uses the first surf board (a long board) on the island
1973	A Taiwanese firm is given a contract to dredge the Main Channel and a ship Turning Basin within the lagoon. The British Government deploys Royal Naval Police to enforce civil law upon these civilians. This is the first regular police presence on the island since 1888.
1973	The British government gives the now-independent government of Mauritius 650,000 pounds to resettle the black Ilois. The Hindu-majority Mauritian government promptly makes the money disappear for several years and the Ilois (who later change their name to 'Chagossians') are ghetto-ized into the worst slums of Port Louis.
March 20, 1973	US Naval Communications Station, Diego Garcia, is commissioned.
October 1, 1977	US Naval Support Facility, Diego Garcia, is commissioned.
April 12-16, 1979	*The USS ELLIOT (DD 967)* makes port call at Diego, then rendevouz with the USS RANGER and TF 77.4 for operations in the Gulf of Aden.**
May 17, 1979	*Flying from the USS CONSTELLATION, VA-146 performs a 24-airplane fly-by of Diego Garcia. The squadron is equipped with A-6E Corsairs.*
July 12, 1979	US Air Force Captain Ted A. Morris, Jr., lands on Diego Garcia for the first time, as copilot of a C-141A Starlifter 4-engined jet transport of the 8th Military Airlift Squadron from McChord AFB, Washington. Morris eventually orchestrates the Revolution which establishes the Provisional Peoples' Democratic Republic of Diego Garcia, and assumes the exalted position of President for Life, a title he holds until this day.
September 25, 1979	The first recorded Cricket Match was played between the Brits of Naval Party 1002 and the crew of a visiting Royal Australian Air Force patrol aircraft. The Brits, swilling Courage Ale, defeated the devotees of Swan Lager by an unspecified, but impressive, score.
1979	The SEABEES of NMCB-5 are awared the Navy Expeditionary Medal for their efforts to build the base at DG.
April 1980	During this month, RH-53D helicopters from HM-16, and USAF MC-130s from the 1st SOW transit Diego Garcia during OPERATION EAGLE CLAW en route to attempt the rescue of the American Embassy personnel held hostage by the Iranian fanatic Ayatolla Komeni. The mission on the night of April 24-25 is unsuccessful, but provides the first positive proof of the value of Diego Garcia's strategic position in defending American national interests.
July 1, 1980	The first SR-71 to land at Diego, #962, arrived from Kadena AB, Okinawa with Pilot Bob Crowder and RSO Don Emmons at the controls. The 4,000+ mile flight took 4.5 hours. SR-71 operations are supported by Detachment 8, 4300d Strategic Reconnaisance Wing.
1980	The US Navy establishes the Near Term Prepositioned Force (NTPF) to hold a Marine Corps brigade worth of equipment on shipboard. This is the first of many floatillas of pre-positioned supply ships that ride at anchor in the lagoon. The ships in the first floatilla include USNS MERCURY (formerly SS ILLINOIS), USNS METEOR (formerly SS LIPSCOMB LYKES), USNS JUPITER, USNS MISPILLION, SS AMERICAN COURIER, SS AMERICAN CHAMPION, and USNS SEALIFT PACIFIC (formerly SS ZAPATA PATRIOT). The ships sailed from Wilminton, Delaware to their new home in July 1980.
October 1980	The Guided Missile Cruiser USS TRUXTON, CGN-35, which was the 4th USN nuclear powered surface ship, visits DG during a cruise of the Indian Ocean lasting 110 days. DG was the ONLY port of call for the TRUXTON during that cruize.
June 1981	KC-135s from the 161st Air Refueling Group, Arizona National Guard, complete the first National Guard tanker deployment to Diego Garcia.
January 14, 1981	SR-71 #960 lands at Diego Garcia. Photo by David Burns.
July 1982	The US Navy awards a contract to the Houston-based firms of Raymond International Builders, Inc., Brown and Root, Inc., and the Middlesex, England firm of Mowlem International Ltd. (RBRM) to construct facilities for the US Navy and US Air Force over the next five years, consisting of 128 projects at a cost of more than $400,000,000.
March 26, 1982	Civilization returns to Diego Garcia. Barbara Shuping, the first U.S. Navy woman assigned to the island, arrives ending 11 years of male domination of the island.
July 1982	The last full SEABEE Battalion to serve on the island, NMCB-62, departs.
1982	Not having learned its lesson, the British government gives the government of Hindu-majority Mauritius 4,000,000 pounds for the black Ilois. Again, the Ilois never see the money.
1982	A US Navy transport squadron, VRC-50, flying S-3s, sets up a permanent detachment on Diego Garcia to fly supplies to Aircraft Carriers in the Indian Ocean.
1982	A CH-46 with about 9 people plus the crew looses one of its engines and crashes into the USS MILWAUKEE and sinks. One of the passengers was pulled down with the aircraft, the rest survived.
September 1983	The last SEABEE Detachment (from NMCB-62) departs. In 12 years, the SEABEES had completed 220 projects for the US Navy and US Air Force valued at $200,000,000 - the largest peacetime Naval construction project in history.
November 30, 1983	At 21:46 local time, an earthquake measuring 7.6 on the Richter Scale hit Diego Garcia. It lasted 142 seconds. Most island residents are drunk and learn of the event the next morning.
November 2, 1985	Military Sealift Command Squadron Two (COMPSRON TWO) is formed and takes command of the floatilla of ships in the lagoon.
1985-ish	The new pier and runway are completed. Here's a description of these facilities: "Major components of the project include a 2,000-foot, deep draft wharf to accommodate all classes of Navy vessels, a small-boat basin for support craft with five concrete pile-supported piers, a boat repair facility including a 450-ton boat lift, and a transfer system. Shoreline stabilization consists of a 1,500-foot, 1.5-ton stone breakwater, sheet pile bulkhead, shoreline revetment, a 50-acre landfill for airfield extension, complete utility system, back land ancillary facilities, dredging, and navigational aids and markers. The project required the complete dredging of a new boat basin and ship channel. The dredged material was used to create a 100-acre landfill upon which the back land facilities were built. The back land facilities included administration and maintenance buildings, complete fueling and POL facilities, and all other required utilities and port infrastructure. As part of the overall design and construction for the waterfront facilities, M&N designed 600,000-square foot Portland Cement concrete runway and parking apron for C-5A, C-130, and C-141 aircraft" (from Moffant and Nichol's website). That area was later designation the "SAC Ramp" and used by bombers and tankers, rather than airlift aircraft.
December 16, 1985	*The USS SARATOGA (CV-60), accompanied by the USS SCOTT (DDG-995)* and the USS MONOGAHELA (A0-178), becomes the first aircraft carrier to tie up to the new "ALPHA" wharf.**
1985	Simon Winchester publishes "The Sun Never Sets: Travels to the Remaining Outposts of the British Empire" (New York, Prentice Hall, 1985). Pages 27-60 are about BIOT and Diego Garcia.
October 27, 1986	*The USS MISSOURI (BB-63)* makes a port call at Diego Garcia. The crew was met with truckloads of "letters to any sailor" sent through Operation Dear Abby.**
1986	COMPSRON TWO finishes fleshing out. It now has five new ships dedicated to the USMC's Marine Expeditionary Brigade, and 12 other ships dedicated to the US Army (including the SS AUSTRAL LIGHTNING, SS AUSTRAL RAINBOW, SS GREEN VALLEY, SS GREEN HARBOR, and MV AMERICAN CORMORANT) and US Air Force (including the SS LETICIA LYKES).
June 1987	USS CONSTELLATION (CV-64) and her battle group anchor in the lagoon and conduct air operations while at anchor. This was the first time a west-coast ported carrier had performed such operations. The reason she was there was that it was the end of the fiscal quarter and the Navy had run out of money to keep the battle group at sea on GONZO STATION in the Arabian Sea, and since it costs 1/2 as much to anchor ships as to sail them, it was purely a money saving operation.
August 1987	The US Air Force deploys B-52s to Diego Garcia for the first time during OPERATION EARNEST WILL, which was in response to the Iranian mining of the Persian Gulf.
December 4-7, 1987	*The Battleship USS IOWA (BB-61)* makes a port call at Diego Garcia en route to the Persian Gulf. She ties up at the dock with the USS LONG BEACH, the first nuclear powered guided missile cruiser.**
1987	The construction projects contracted to RBRM end, completing the major constuction activities on the island.
1987	The Ground Electro Optical Data Sensing System (GEODSS) site is commissioned on the south end of the island. The site can track an object the size of a basketball 25,000 miles up and determine it's altitude to within six feet.
1988	J.M.W. Topp publishes an annotated check list of the flora of Diego Garcia, British Ocean Territory in the Atoll Research Bulletin 313. John Topp was the Brit Rep on DG, and quite the naturalist.
August 24, 1989	USS RANGER (CV-61) makes a Port Call at DG.
October 30, 1989	*32 miles south of DGAR, An FA-18 Hornet from the USS MIDWAY (CV-41)* 'mistakenly' drops a 500-pound bomb on the USS REEVES (CG-24). Five REEVES sailors are injured.**
1989	Richard J. S. Edis becomes Commissioner of the British Indian Ocean Territory, and serves until 1991. In June, 1993 he completes the book "Peak of Limuria" about the history and natural wonders of Diego Garcia. He also designs the B.I.O.T. Commissioner's Flag, which is commonly called the BIOT Flag, just in time for the wars.

ENDLESS WAR FROM PARADISE


August 2, 1990	The Republic of Iraq invades the State of Kuwait.
August 7, 1990	The first three ships of Marine Prepositioned Ship Squadron TWO depart Diego Garcia and reach Saudi Arabia on August 15. The remaining two ships of MPS Squadron TWO departed shortly thereafter. They carried everything required for 16,500 men of the 7th Marine Expeditionary Brigade, who flew in and married up with their equipment. The 7the MEB was combat ready by August 25 - the first heavy combat unit ready for action during OPERATION DESERT STORM. This was the first use of the MPS in an actual crisis.
September 1990	A typhoon hits Diego Garcia and demolishes the Tent City being set up for U.S. Air Force bomber crews and support personnel during OPERATION DESERT STORM.
December 3, 1990	HMAS BRISBANE refuels at Diego Garcia en route to the Persian Gulf.
January 17, 1991	B-52Gs take off on bombing missions over Iraq on the first night of OPERATION DESERT STORM.
February 3, 1991	B-52G, tail number 59-2593, from 42nd Bomb Wing, Loring AFB, under command of the 4300d Bomb Wing (Provisional), experiences a catastrophic electrical system failure while returning from a bombing mission. At least five of its eight engines flame out, and the aircraft crashes into the Indian Ocean 2-3 miles north of the island. The aircrew ejects at a low altitude (between 1,000 and 200 feet above the water), and although three crewmembers eject safely, three others, Captain Jeffry J. Olson, First Lieutenant Jorge I. Arteaga, and First Lieutenant Eric D. Heeden, are killed on impact or drowned.
October 1991	A 200 nautical-mile Fisheries Conservation and Management Zone (FCMZ) is declared around the BIOT, including Diego Garcia to ensure sustainable management of the fisheries within this zone. Target species are tuna (yellowfin, bigeye and skipjack) and billfish (marlin and swordfish). The largest fleets operating in the region at the time and fishing out the entire area are French and Spanish purse seiners and Taiwanese and Japanese longliners. You knew it would have something to do with the French.
October 1994	A team from NCTS Pensacola arrives on DG and installs the hardward necessary to connect the island to the Internet. There are initially only 80 accounts, and no one has a clue how to use it.
1994	Naval Support Facility Diego Garcia wins the American Petroleum Institute's "Best Bulk Storage Facility in the Navy" award. The award is given by the Commander Naval Supply Systems Command to the activity that makes the most significant contributions to Navy fuel operations and the fleet support mission during the preceding calendar year.
October 28-30, 1995	The Research Vessel R/V KNORR lays over at Diego Garcia. The KNORR is nearing the end of a year's worth of sampling the carbon dioxide levels and currents throughout the Indian Ocean - a project for the Oakridge National Laboratory.
1996	Larry Grisham and his band "The Beat Daddys" perform on the island.
September 3, 1996	The crew of DUKE 01, from the 2nd Bomb Wing based at Diego Garcia, flies the first combat mission of a B-52H aircraft in OPERATION DESERT STRIKE against targets in Iraq. For this accomplishment, they receive the Mackay Trophy for the "most meritorious flight of the year". The Mackay Trophy is on permanent display at the Smithsonian Air and Space Museum.
1998	The warmest 'El Nino' weather pattern of record occurs, raising ocean temperatures around the island 3-5 degrees. Ninety percent of the coral reef dies.
June 22, 1998	The Navy Support Facility wins the "Silver Pineapple" Award for the 2nd best employee training program in the Navy.
December 1998	The 2nd Air Expeditionary Group conducts the OPERATION DESERT FOX bombing campaign against Iraq from Diego Garcia. The Group is composed of B-52Hs from Barksdale AFB, Louisiana, and Minot AFB, North Dakota, and KC-10s from McGuire AFB, New Jersey.
1999	The Pink Trumpet Tree, Tabebuia heterophylla, is identified as 'invasive' on DGAR by Whistler and Steele. So?
1999	Scientific Research expedition to Diego Garcia and the other atolls in the Chagos by Charles Sheppard (world-renowned reef scientist and editor of the essential scientific work about DG "The Ecology of the Chagos Archipelago" published in 1999) and John Topp (former Brit Rep and botanist).
July 17, 2000	Sir Sidney Kentridge, British Trial Lawyer, brings suit against the British Government in London's High Court on behalf of the islanders removed in the early 1970s claiming the removal was illegal. The hearing lasts five days.
November 3, 2000	London's High Court rules that the removal of the islanders in the early 1970s was illegal.
August 2, 2001	Rear Admiral Robert C. Chaplin, the commander of U.S. Naval Forces Japan, which commands the Naval base at Diego Garcia, issues regulations prohibiting the wear of flip-flops, tank tops, halter tops, oversized shirts, tank tops and jogging suits, with exceptions for swimming or sports. Just exactly what everyone on Diego Garcia wears off-duty. Sadly, Admiral Chaplin was to learn that there are more important things to worry about just a month and seven days later.
August 8, 2001	The British government designates the lagoon and east arm of the atoll as a 'Ramsar Site' (conservation of wetlands), because it is 'a particularly good example of a relatively unpolluted coral reef system in a near-natural state, of special value for maintaining the genetic and ecological diversity of the region, especially its marine life. It provides habitat for marine flora and fauna at critical stages of their biological cycles, including the threatened Hawksbill and Green Turtles, and regularly supports 20,000 or more waterbirds, including Greater frigate, Red-footed boobies, brown and lesser noddies, amongst others.'
September 11, 2001	ITC Gregg Harold Smallwood, USN, who served on Diego Garcia in 1995-1996, is killed when terrorists deliberately crash a hijacked 100-ton airliner into his office in the Pentagon in Washington D.C.
September 14, 2001	Three days after the terrorist attacks on New York and Washington D.C., the first of eight B-1Bs from the 34th Bomb Squadron (Mountain Home AFB Idaho) and the 37th Bomb Squadron (Ellsworth AFB South Dakota) and 10 B-52Hs (from Barksdale AFB Louisiana) arrive on Diego Garcia. The 28th Air Expeditionary Wing is formed, commanded by Colonel Edward A. Rice, Jr., who is promoted to Brigadier General shortly thereafter. Among aircraft deployed is B-52H 60-0001, "Memphis Belle IV".
September 21, 2001	COMNAVFORJAPAN (RADM Chaplin again) issues detailed security guidance concerning the release of public information about OPERATION ENDURING FREEDOM. This includes review of web sites to remove installation photographs, ship locations, etc. The Commander of Naval Support Facility Diego Garcia, Captain Mike Lucarelli, contacts the webmaster of this site to request that be done, and I complied until the campaign in Afghanistan was complete.
October 7, 2001	B-52s and B-1s take off on bombing mission over Afghanistan on the first night of OPERATION ENDURING FREEDOM. For the next 76 days, four B-1 and five B-52 sorties are flown each day, dropping over 11,500 bombs. This equated to 10% of the 6,500 sorties flown during the war, but 65% of the bombs dropped.
October 8, 2001	A flight of three B-2s, led by Major Melvin Deaile, lands on Diego after completing the longest bombing mission in history - 44 hours - from Whiteman AFB in Missouri to targets in Afghanistan followed by a recovery at Diego. Each aircraft dropped 16 2,000-pound GPS guided bombs on Taliban positions. Upon reaching Diego the crews left the engines running, and prepositioned crews took over and flew the airplanes home to Missouri, a 30 hour flight. From October 8 - 11, a total of 12 B-2 missions are flown. Major Deaile was flying "SPIRIT OF AMERICA" on that first mission, and in July 2002 he was named Air Force Exceptional Pilot of the Year by the Chief of Staff for his exploit.
October 21-23, 2001	The Deputy Commander for Operations of USAF's Air Combat Command, Major General 'Howie' Chandler, visits the island. He arrives and departs piloting B-52H 60-0060, a 41-year old bomber, named "IRON BUTTERFLY".
October 22, 2001	The US Navy (in it's role as enforcer of US/UK agreements on the island) informs the US Air Force that it must ship home at least one member of any 'families' deployed with the 28th AEW. The US/UK agreement prohibits married couples to be simultaneously assigned to Diego Garcia. At the time there was 'at least' one such couple fighting the war together, with others en route. This decision ensures the long standing policy that love between husband and wife will not be tolerated on Dodge, and only adulterous sex is conducted on the island.
November 9, 2001	The Japanese government agrees to provide fuel and food to Diego Garcia by sea lift, in support of the war on terrorism.
November 13, 2001	No. 77 Squadron of the Royal Australian Air Force, flying F/A-18 Hornets, deploys to Deigo to defend the island during the War on Terrorism. They stay for three months. They are replaced by No. 3 Squadron (for an additional three month tour). Not one Taliban jet fighter makes it through their Combat Air Patrols.
Novermber 27 & 28, 2001	The Rock and Roll band "America" performs for the sailors and airmen on Diego Garcia. They are presented with an American Flag that was flown on a combat mission over Afghanistan on November 15. On December 13, the band presents the flag to the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in Cleveland, Ohio, where it is on display.
November 2001	Troop 7, C Company, 40 Commando, Royal Marines, lounges about Diego Garcia before entering combat in Afghanistan.
December 12, 2001	ICECUBE 44, a B-1B named "LIVE FREE OR DIE", takes off from Diego and experiences massive electrical and flight control failure. The four crewmen eject from the crippled aircraft, and are rescued by the USS RUSSELL.
December 20, 2001	Michael Tigar, American Trial Lawyer, brings suit in the US District Court in Washington D.C. by Olivier Bancoult, 290 Cassis Road, Port Louis, Mauritius; Terese Mein, Hermitage, Victoria, Mahe, Seychelles; Marie Isabelle France-Charlot, 5 Rue Koenig, Roche-Bois, Port Louis, Mauritius; The Chagos Refugee Group, (same address as Bancoult); and The Chagos Social Committee, (same address as Terese Mein), on their own behalf, and on behalf of its their members and others so situated, against Robert S. Mcnamara, 700 New Hampshire Avenue, N.W., Washington, DC 20037; Donald H. Rumsfeld, 1000 Defense Pentagon, Washington, DC 20301-1000; Admiral Thomas Moorer, 9707 Old Georgetown Rd., Bethesda, MD 20814; Melvin R. Laird, 16667 Bobcat Court, Fort Myers, FL 33908; James R. Schlesinger; 3601 26th Street N., Arlington, VA 22207; George T. Churchill, 6400 Olmi Landrith Drive, Alexandria, VA 22307; Admiral James L. Holloway, III, 1694 Epping Farms Lane, Annapolis, MD 21410; Eric D. Newsom, 11425 Great Meadow Dr., Reston, VA 20191-3607; The United States of America, c/o United States Attorney General John Ashcroft, 950 Pennsylvania Ave., N.W., Washington, DC 20530; Halliburton Corporation, 3600 Lincoln Plaza, 500 North Akard, Dallas, TX 75201; and De Chazal Du Mee, 1819 H. Street, N.W. Suite 600, Washington, DC 20006 for "Forced Relocation, Torture, Racial Discrimination, Cruel, Inhuman, Degrading Treatment, Genocide, Intentional Infliction of Emotional Distress, Negligence, and Trespass". Case 01-2619. The plaintiffs are descendants of the workers on the islands removed in 1972, and ask for a lot of stuff, but the bottom line is that they want at least $2,000,000 per person, and claim there are 5,000 islanders (this means $10,000,000,000.00 - ten billion dollars). The suit is expected to take years, or even decades, to conclude.
2001	US Navy P-3 Squadron VP-40 deploys from Whidby Island NAS, Washington, to Diego Garcia for OPERATION ENDURING FREEDOM. Not one Al Qaida submarine gets through their patrols.
2001	The Republic of Korea bases a C-130 Air Force Detachment on Diego Garcia, and sends a ship to assist with the recovery of the downed B-1.
2001	Dr. Charles Sheppard leads another biological expedition to Deigo and the rest of the islands.
January 2002	During this month, and through February 2, the US Army's 101st Airborne Division's Logistics Task Force passes through Diego Garcia en route to Kandahar, Afghanistan, to relieve in place the 26th Marine Expeditionary Unit. The LTF airflow was 36 C-5s and 48 C-17s.
February 2002	USS GREENEVILLE, SSN 772, arrives in the lagoon for damage assessment following a collision with the USS OGDEN off the coast of Oman. This was the 2nd collision for the sub, which sank a Japanese Fishing School vessel off Oahu in February 2001. She also ran aground at Saipan in August 2002.
March 2002	Australian Artist Peter Churcher spends two weeks painting scenes and portraits on the island. This picture is called "'Macka' sleepin in tent, Diego Garcia" painted in oil on board in 2002. Please see the Australian War Memorial's website on Churcher's paintings.
October 18, 2002	The US Secretary of the Navy awards Naval Support Facility the Meritorious Unit Citation for the period September 11 2001 - May 31 2002 for exemplary service during OPERATION ENDURING FREEDOM.
December 2, 2002	An earthquake measuring 4.6 on the Richter Scale shakes up the island at 12:21 a.m. As usual, island residents are mostly passed out drunk that time of night, and miss the excitement.
December 11, 2002	The Spanish Navy boarded the unflagged North Korean freighter SO SAN 650 miles east of the Horn of Africa. On board the ship were 15 Scud missiles and warheads en route to Yemen from North Korea. The missiles and warheads, along with a quantity of chemicals, were found hidden under a cargo of cement, and the ship was handed over to the US Navy, which reportedly escorted the SO SAN to Diego Garcia.
December 24, 2002	American comedian Drew Cary arrives for a USO show for the troops on the island, Bob Hope being unable to attend this year.
February 8, 2003	The hospital ship USNS COMFORT T-AH 20, docked at Diego Garcia to allow her crew liberty. She previously had been anchored in the lagoon since February 3. She sailed from Diego on February 27 and arrived in the Persian Gulf on March 4 and stayed for the duration of the major combat opertions during OPERATION IRAQI FREEDOM, departing the Gulf on May 10.
March 21, 2003	At least 3 B-2 Bombers launch from Diego Garcia to bomb Baghdad during OPERATION IRAQI FREEDOM. B-2s operating from DG include 98-21071 SPIRIT OF MISSISSIPPI, 98-90129 SPIRIT OF GEORGIA, 99-31085 SPIRIT OF FLORIDA, and 99-31087 SPIRIT OF PENNSYLVANIA.
April 1, 2003	USAF Captain Jennifer Wilson of the 393rd Expeditionary Bomb Squadron lands her B-2 Bomber on Diego Garcia after becoming the first female B-2 crewmember to fly a combat mission.
May - Sept. 2003	Captain Fatty Goodlander (the "Salt Stained Sea Gypsy" - noted yachtsman and author) and his wife Carolyn drop the anchor of the 38 foot yacht WILD CARD at Beddam Island in the Chagos, revel in the pristine, uninhabited (not by choice) environment, live off the land and sea, and bitch about the bombers flying overhead on their way to Iraq. I guess it's nice to afford a boat and have no responsibilities for the problems of the world. Is Goodlander a French name?
September 5, 2003	The US Navy's Public Works Department asks PPDRDG citizens to report any sightings of the Variable Agana Lizard seen at a distance of more than 500 meters of the Beach House. The lizard reportedly eats insects, and spread of the lizard may result in the wholesale decimation of biting flies, stinging beetles, mosquitos, and other valuable six-legged species.
September 7, 2003	The US Navy formally opens the new $9 million Aircraft Intermediate Maintenance facility. The project took two years to build.
September 7 - 21 2003	HMS TRIUMPH, a fast-attack sub, pulls a port call at DG.
September 2003	B-1Bs replace B-52s in the 40th AEW to continue the war on terroism.
October 9, 2003	The British High Court of Justice, Queen's Bench Division, rules that the Chagossians had been compensated adequately for their expulsion in 1971, and denied additional compensation. The Court ruled that the resettlement assistance they have been given over a number of years, amounting to £14.5m ($25m) in today's terms, had settled those claims.
December 2003	The Republic of Korea Air Force (ROKAF) deactivates it's C-130 detachment, which has been at Diego since 2001.
February 9, 2004	Pete Davis and Todd Johnson from the Cecil H. and Ida M. Green Institute of Geophysics and Planetary Physics (part of Scripps Institute at University of California at San Diego) completed installation of the 40th IDA (Interntional Deployment of Accelerometers) in the IRIS Global Seismographic Network. This imcluded construction of a concrete "seismic vault" near the GEODSS site. The seismic sensors rest on a central pier, which is directly attached to the coral that underlies the vault so that the instruments can best record the shaking caused as seismic waves travel through the earth. The first earthquake recorded by the instruments was an Mw = 6.7 quake that occurred 6000 km away in Indonesia.
March 20, 2004	"Lalit militants" demonstrate in front of the US Embassy in Mauritius to protest US presence on Diego Garcia and its use in the Global War on Terror.
May 2004	According to the leftist British Newspaper "The Guardian", the US is holding "rendition" prisoners on Diego Garcia. According to a Jan 11, 2007 story, the British government "has always denied allowing the Americans to use British soil for torture and abuse, but ... denials are difficult to square with the words of US army general Barry McCaffrey, who had recently retired from running Southcom, the military command that oversees Guantánamo. He was asked in May 2004 where the thousands of ghost prisoners were being held. 'You know, Bagram Air Field, Diego Garcia, Guantánamo, 16 camps throughout Iraq,' he replied.
July 7, 2004	Member of Parliament Tom Brak