Portal:Oceania/Selected article/August, 2006

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Wake Island (also known as Wake Atoll) is a coral atoll in the North Pacific Ocean. It is an unorganized, unincorporated territory of the United States, part of the United States Minor Outlying Islands. Wake is located to the west of the International Date Line and is one day ahead of the 50 states.

Access to the island is restricted and all current activities on the island are managed by the United States Air Force, the United States Army, and Chugach McKinley, Inc., a civilian base operations and maintenance services company.

Although Wake is officially called an island in the singular form, it is actually an atoll comprising three islands (Wake, Wilkes, and Peale) surrounding a central lagoon.

The largest island (Wake Island) is the center of activity on the atoll and features a 9,800 foot (3,000 m) runway.