Losing This Tiny Island Would Be a Huge Problem for the US Navy
Diego Garcia is the most important naval base in the Indian Ocean, so the UK needs to cut a deal with Mauritius for a 99-year lease.
Still trying to rule the waves.
Photographer: Finnbarr Webster/Getty Images
When I was a young Navy officer in the early 1980s aboard a Ticonderoga-class guided-missile cruiser, the USS Valley Forge, we pulled into an uncommon location for a port visit: the tiny atoll of Diego Garcia, in the heart of the Indian Ocean.
I was the operations officer, in charge of topside maintenance, communications, navigation, signals intelligence and supervision of the combat information center. And it didn’t take me long to realize why we were there: Diego Garcia was and remains an extremely important military facility shared by the US and UK.