Skip To Content

    12 Beautiful Islands The U.S. Military Has Tested Weapons On

    The U.S. military plans to practice live fire training at Pagan island in Micronesia, which is home to many plants and animals found no where else in the world. It's just one of many gorgeous islands where the U.S. has practiced war.

    1. Pagan island in the Commonwealth Northern Mariana Islands (CNMI)

    The U.S. Navy announced in March it would begin preparing the island for live fire training.

    2. Bikini Atoll in the Republic of the Marshall Islands

    On Bikini Atoll, the U.S. military conducted 23 nuclear weapons tests.

    View this video on YouTube

    The largest nuclear test the U.S. ever conducted was at Bikini Atoll.

    The people of Bikini were convinced to move, believing they'd be able to return after the tests were over.

    3. Enewetak in the Republic of the Marshall Islands

    Between 1948 and 1958 more than forty nuclear tests conducted at Enewetak.

    In 1977, the U.S. military began a cleanup process that mixed contaminated soil and debris with cement and buried it in a crater created by an atomic test on Runit Island in Enewetak Atoll.

    4. Kwajalein Atoll in the Republic of the Marshall Islands

    Kwajalein Atoll spans about 90 islets and the military owns 11 of the islands.

    In 2012, the U.S. military performed the largest and most complex missile defense test at Kwajalein Atoll.

    5. Culebra in Puerto Rico

    In 1939, the U.S. Navy began to use Culebra as a bombing practice site.

    By 1975, the use of Culebra by the U.S. Navy ceased.

    6. Vieques in Puerto Rico

    The U.S. military used the island for training exercises, involving ship-to-shore gunfire, and bombing by naval aircraft.

    A series of protests set of by the accidental bombing of a civilian in 1999, led the U.S. military to withdraw completely by 2003.

    7. Amchitka in the Aleutian Islands in Alaska

    Amchitka is now part of the Alaska Maritime National Wildlife Refuge.

    8. Makua Valley on Oahu in Hawaii

    The cleanup crew pulled 1000-pound bombs out of the valley.

    9. Pohakuloa Training Area (PTA) on Big Island

    PTA encompasses 108,792 acres and is the Army's largest training area in the Pacific.

    10. Kaho'olawe in Hawaii

    In 1965 the U.S. Navy conducted an explosives test called Operation Sailor Hat in which they detonated 500 tons of TNT. The blast was so big it created a crater.

    After decades of protests, the U.S. Navy ended live fire training exercises on Kaho'olawe in 1990.

    11. Kiritimati and Malden Island in the Republic of Kiribati

    The Partial Test Ban Treaty, signed in 1963, brought an end to U.S. and British testing in the region.

    12. Johnston Atoll

    It was used as an airbase, a naval refueling spot, a nuclear weapons testing site, and a chemical weapons dump.