The recent disclosure of a military emails discussing how the military can buy local support for proposed military activities in the Pågat have caused an uproar in Guåhan (Guam). Kaua’i writer and film maker Koohan Paik pointed out another facet to the the Marianas Variety article. The article referred to an earlier incident involving racist comments made by officials overseeing the military expansion in Guam:
The Speaker said she was reminded of a past incident when We Are Guåhan member Cara Flores Mays was having lunch at a local restaurant and overheard a conversation between military personnel and Guam residents, one of them, Lee Webber.
“They treat us like we are the enemy and we’re not. We want this to work for our people too. Is that too much to ask. I’m very upset about this,” said Won Pat.
Won Pat was referring to a November 2010 conversation that Mays overheard, which included then-Joint Guam Program Office Director of Communications for Washington D.C. and Guam Paula Conhain, Lee Webber, a former Marine, and Lt. Col. Aisha Bakkar of the Marine Force Pacific Public Affairs Office. Conhain has since been removed from this position.
Paik noted a new revelation: also present at the lunch conversation overhead by Ms. Mays was Lee Webber, the publisher of the Pacific Daily News in Guam. In 2007, Webber also became the publisher of the Honolulu Advertiser, Hawai’i’s largest news daily prior to its acquisition by the Honolulu Star Bulletin. Here’s a bit of Webber’s biography from an earlier Honolulu Advertiser article:
Webber, 60, has worked at the Pacific Daily News for 37 years and had been publisher since 1983.
He was raised in a Pennsylvania town that was so small Webber said no one would recognize it.
His father was a master machinist at a tool and die company and his mother worked for a semi-conductor parts manufacturer.
“She told me that when I was small, I said that I wanted to live in the Pacific some day,” Webber said. “I’ve done that. I’ve stayed in the Pacific the entire time.”
During the Vietnam War, Webber served as a Navy corpsman attached to a Marine unit with Delta Co., 3rd Recon Battalion, 3rd Marine Division in Khe Sanh, during the Tet Offensive of 1968, considered by historians to be a major turning point in the war.
He then served his final two years at the U.S. Naval Hospital in Guam when, in 1970, “I walked out of the back door of the Navy and into the front door of the newspaper,” Webber said.
Stephen Nygard worked for Webber at the Pacific Daily News as a reporter, business editor and managing editor before leaving to start a rival monthly business magazine.
He called Webber “an extremely effective operations manager. I remember him coming up through the circulation and marketing side of the newspaper. Lee projected a good image and established it (the Pacific Daily News) as a good reflection of the community. He leaves it in good shape for his successor.”
Webber and his wife, June, will celebrate their 38th wedding anniversary this year. They have a son, Lee II, 29, and will bring their 15-year-old daughter, Marilyn, who will enter a new school as a 10th-grader. Another son, Robert, died at the age of 8.
Webber also will bring his Harley-Davidson motorcycle and a love for archery, pistol, rifle and shotgun shooting, and scuba diving as an NAUI-certified instructor/trainer.
“I’m looking forward to diving in Hawai’i,” he said.
Webber, 60, has worked at the Pacific Daily News for 37 years and had been publisher since 1983.
He was raised in a Pennsylvania town that was so small Webber said no one would recognize it.
His father was a master machinist at a tool and die company and his mother worked for a semi-conductor parts manufacturer.
“She told me that when I was small, I said that I wanted to live in the Pacific some day,” Webber said. “I’ve done that. I’ve stayed in the Pacific the entire time.”
During the Vietnam War, Webber served as a Navy corpsman attached to a Marine unit with Delta Co., 3rd Recon Battalion, 3rd Marine Division in Khe Sanh, during the Tet Offensive of 1968, considered by historians to be a major turning point in the war.
He then served his final two years at the U.S. Naval Hospital in Guam when, in 1970, “I walked out of the back door of the Navy and into the front door of the newspaper,” Webber said.
Stephen Nygard worked for Webber at the Pacific Daily News as a reporter, business editor and managing editor before leaving to start a rival monthly business magazine.
He called Webber “an extremely effective operations manager. I remember him coming up through the circulation and marketing side of the newspaper. Lee projected a good image and established it (the Pacific Daily News) as a good reflection of the community. He leaves it in good shape for his successor.”
Webber and his wife, June, will celebrate their 38th wedding anniversary this year. They have a son, Lee II, 29, and will bring their 15-year-old daughter, Marilyn, who will enter a new school as a 10th-grader. Another son, Robert, died at the age of 8.
Webber also will bring his Harley-Davidson motorcycle and a love for archery, pistol, rifle and shotgun shooting, and scuba diving as an NAUI-certified instructor/trainer.
“I’m looking forward to diving in Hawai’i,” he said.
And:
LEE P. WEBBER
Title: President and publisher, The Honolulu Advertiser
Age: 60
Family: Wife, June Portusach; children Lee II, 29; Marilyn, 15; Robert, 8 (deceased)
Military experience: U.S. Navy corpsman, 1966-1970
Military awards: Presidential Unit Commendation (two awards); Navy Unit Commendation Medal (two awards); Vietnam Service and Vietnam Campaign Medals; National Defense Service Medal; Meritorious Unit Commendation Medal
Professional awards (partial list): Gannett Chairman’s Ring for Fifth President’s Ring (2003); Gannett Award for Sixth President’s Ring (2004); Gannett Top Ten Publishers (1988, 1989, 1990, 1991, 2002, 2004)
Past president: Pacific Area Jaycees; Guam USO Advisory Council; Rotary Club of Tumon Bay; Air Force Association, Arc Light Chapter (twice); Navy League of the United States (twice); Guam Running club; Archery Association of Guam
Board memberships (partial list): Civil Defense Advisory Council/Guam Homeland Security; Guam Chamber of Commerce Board, chairman (also chairman of chamber’s Armed Forces Committee); Guam Visitors Bureau; Make-A-Wish Foundation; Micronesian Divers Association; Robert Michael Webber Dyslexia Foundation; University of Guam Board of Regents; American Red Cross, Guam Chapter; Boy Scouts of America, Chamorro Council, district chairman; Guam Special Olympics Committee; Harvest Baptist Church; Juvenile Justice Board, Guam
Work history: Circulation manager, Guam Publications Inc. (1970-1976); director of community relations, Guam Publications Inc. (1976-1979); marketing director, Guam Publications Inc. (1979-1983); president and publisher, Guam Publications Inc. (1983-2007)
Hobbies: Archery, shooting, motorcycles, scuba diving, underwater photography
This is another example of how entrenched military-corporate interests in colonized islands like Guam and Hawai’i continue to discolor and distort the narrative.
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