Pago Pago, AMERICAN SAMOA — Congresswoman Uifa’atali Amata is joining forces with public affairs expert Michael Walsh in an op-ed in the publication “Breaking Defense Indo-Pacific” calling for President Trump to activate a new Fleet Anti-Terrorism Security Team (FAST) in American Samoa.  A FAST company is an elite unit of Marines that can be rapidly deployed to immediately secure US diplomats, officials, embassies or other US personnel or property.

The Marine Corps Security Force Regiment has a small number of FAST Companies that are forward deployed to overseas military bases, including in Bahrain, Spain and Japan and adding a second FAST unit — this one in the Pacific — would send a loud signal that the US government is committed to making investments necessary to protect the safety and security of US diplomatic personnel and military forces across this vast region, according to the op-ed.

If the DoD [Dept. of Defense] determines that such an investment is warranted, then they should next consider where to station the unit. In our opinion, the best option would be to select the Pele US Army Reserve Center in American Samoa.

American Samoa has the air and maritime port infrastructure that is required to be able to respond to the full range of possible crises and contingencies. It is also the US permanently inhabited territory in closest proximity to our new and planned diplomatic posts in Melanesia and Polynesia. That makes it an optimal location for projecting rapid response and forward-deployed expeditionary security forces for the purpose of ensuring diplomatic security across the region.

FAST Companies can help on the front line of threats to Americans abroad under his new administration. And decisions can be made quickly about them — the National Security Council could order an assessment of FAST Companies within 60 days, and come out of that with posture recommendations.

If such a review happens, it will become obvious that in the South Pacific, the United States government faces a number of challenges. The biggest is that there is a high level of risk for either natural or manmade crises in a number of countries that host US diplomatic missions. There is also the risk of major power competition destabilizing the region even further.

A FAST Company South Pacific could help to mitigate both of those risks. From the CCP focus on the region to the possibility of the aftermath following any natural disaster at the location of a US embassy in the Pacific Islands, there are increasing reasons to have FAST capabilities in readiness in the South Pacific.

Stationing a FAST unit in American Samoa would strengthen the hand of US diplomacy in the South Pacific and bolster the sense of US presence and attention among allied partnerships in the island nations, they conclude.

Read full op-ed here