DIEGO GARCIA - The Footprint of Freedom  

Diego Garcia, a magnificent coral atoll, was originally formed eons ago by the shrinking of a now dormant volcano. As the volcano shrunk, populations of coral continued to grow, eternally pushing up towards the sun and surface, compressing further the generations of coral that lived before them. The original volcano, now shrunken and compacted, exists far below the Ocean surface. It looks like Captain Nemo's Island in Walt Disney's 20,000 leagues under the sea, only without the mountains. The lagoon that is centered in the atoll is home to the largest pre-positioned fleet of ships in existence.

The island shaped roughly like the outline of a foot, gives rise to its popular nickname, “The Footprint of Freedom.” Some 37 miles from tip to tip, DG remains mostly in its natural state with all species of animals under strict environmental protection laws. 

Seven degrees south of the equator, DG is located in the center of a vast expanse of tropical waters, far from inhabited land. Roughly 2,500 miles down from Bombay and approximately equidistant from Africa and Singapore. Special charter flights are brought in periodically to bring new workers in or those going on leave out. Other then those charter flights and military flights there is no other way of getting to this isolated island.  Rumor has it that the three letter designation code on luggage, NKP, stands for No Known Place. 

Discovered in the 16^th Century by adventurous Portuguese navigators roving the oceans in search of new lands and new sea routes for commerce, the islands remained uninhabited until the 18^th Century when French copra plantations were established. 

During a period of expansionism, Britain captured Mauritius from the French in 1810. Mauritius became a British Colony along with many of the Indian Ocean islands, which were controlled by the French, including the Chagos Islands.  One of those islands was Diego Garcia.

France ceded Mauritius and other Indian Ocean islands to Britain in 1814 but decided to let the islands be administered by Mauritius. In 1965 the islands were detached from Mauritius, with the full agreement of the Mauritius Council of the Ministers, to form part of the British Indian Ocean Territory (BIOT). Islands from the Seychelles group were also incorporated into BIOT but these were ceded to the Seychelles on independence in 1976. In 1966, under a published Exchange of Notes with the US Government, BIOT was made available for the defense purpose of the US and UK in the first instance for 50 years. In the following year the Crown purchased the island and bought out the plantation owners. The plantations were continued by a company acting as agents for the BIOT Administration on the understanding they would have to close if any of the islands were required for defense purposes. 

Now, the Territory is administered from London, under a Commissioner who is a senior official in the Foreign and Commonwealth Office responsible to the Secretary for the State and Commonwealth Affairs. It remains much as it has always been, a quiet area of the world, far from normal routes of travel or commerce. It's pristine beauty marred only slightly by the small outpost of civilization that it contains. The Indian Ocean that surrounds it remains pristine. The lagoon remains ecologically active and provides sport fisherman a wonderful place to try their luck.