Ombre Ga’chong: I yearn to make our home better for us all

By Lee Webber

Hafa adai taotao Guam — Howdy – Aloha Kakou — Good Morning or whatever floats your boat!

Given the reality that more Marines are coming combined with our new Missile Defense system, typhoons, local politics and the fun and endless games that combination conjures up, offer plenty to write about. It may also be a little like the ring tone on my cellular phone, “the good, the bad and the ugly!”

The good part of it all is that there will be no lack of subject matter for me to sink my mind and keyboard into.

Before I begin though, I thought it best to give readers (many of whom are new to the island) a sense of me and from whence I came and how long I have called Guam home.

After arriving on Guam in the late summer of 1968, compliments of Viet Nam War (I had been attached to Delta Company 3^rd Reconnaissance Battalion, 3^rd Marine Division in the Republic of Viet Nam as an FMF Corpsman), I was stationed at USNH Guam until June of 1970. 

I worked there in the office of general military training where I spent a lot of time administering exams and showing old Victory at Sea movies.

Very shortly after my arrival I met Frank Portusach a retired merchant seaman and WWII survivor. He and his family had a laundromat and small store/bar across the street from the Naval Hospital. He went on to become Mayor of Hagatna Heights (Tutujan) for nearly 16 years.

I managed to get myself a part-time job (when not standing duty), cleaning the laundromat and closing it each evening.  Frank (my future father-in-law) would then invite me over to the family store, feed me, and I would listen to stories about Guam spun by Frank, Mom Lorenzo (Frank’s mother) and Bill Hughes (my future wife’s grandfather on her mother’s side who was captured on Guam and survived as a prisoner of war in Kobe Japan) and Uncle Greg Perez. 

Good fortune smiled upon me and I met Frank’s daughter, a lovely Chamorrita from Hagatna Heights, June Portusach, and we were married in the fall of 1969. We have two sons and a daughter and now three grandchildren and another on the way.

Growing up in a family of newspaper folks, after my discharge from active duty I went to work for the Pacific Daily News in the commercial printing area, moved to the position of Circulation Manager/Director, to Director of Community Relations, on to Director of Marketing and finally was named Publisher in September 1983 and President January 1, 1984.

During my years as Publisher of the PDN I was also given the opportunity to serve as Director of Operations for USA Today international for the Asia Pacific region from 1985 thru 1990, overseeing the launch of the first USA TODAY print site in Singapore, outside of the United States. This additional responsibility included overseeing the sales and distribution of USAT International throughout the Asia/Pacific Region that we developed into some 26 nations.

My work here at the Daily News as President and Publisher continued for 24 years through September of 2007 when I was transferred to Hawaii as President of Gannett Pacific and President and Publisher of the Honolulu Advertiser. In May of 2010 Gannett sold The Honolulu Advertiser and I returned home in early August of 2010.

So, after a little more than 40 years of working in the communications industry I retired from active work as a publisher.

Upon my return to Guam I decided to write a column about the happenings in this part of the world that I love and have called home for the past 56 years.

My plan was and is to actively and aggressively cover people and events that impact the lives of our islands, this great blue Pacific region and their people. 

The vast majority of this effort will be fun, but some of it will be serious; some, maybe even very serious. 

My desire is to bring a smile to your face, at times a tear to your eye but to always prick your thinking and challenge you to work together to make Guam, Micronesia and the balance of this great blue Pacific a better place for every man, woman and child who call it home. My desire is to assist others in raising the quality of life for everyone.

You deserve nothing less from this column.

As I close this particular column and since we will celebrate the 248^th Anniversary of the United States Marine Corps (November 10^th of this year) there’s one very important person (at least to me) who is missing, my longtime friend Sgt. John Gerber. 

I miss him, his jokes, frustrations with politicians, his seemingly boundless energy and his endless smile. A day doesn’t pass that as I drive my car up the back side of Nimitz hill past the Veterans Cemetery that I don’t pause and bid him good morning. Guam is certainly a lesser place because of his absence. 

Let’s make Guam Great Again!

Esta.

_____

Lee P. Webber is a businessman and civic advocate, the former publisher of the Pacific Daily News, a former president and publisher of the Honolulu Advertiser, and a former director of operations for USA Today International/Asia