Wyatt Olson

Wyatt Olson is based in the Honolulu bureau, where he has reported on military and security issues in the Indo-Pacific since 2014. He was Stars and Stripes’ roving Pacific reporter from 2011-2013 while based in Tokyo. He was a freelance writer and journalism teacher in China from 2006-2009.

@WyattWOlson

olson.wyatt@stripes.com

An elderly man is shown seated while wearing a blue shirt with U.S. flags and Navy ships and planes and a hat reading “Pearl Harbor Survivor.”

Sailor who watched first bombs drop in 1941 Pearl Harbor attack dies at 102

Ken Stevens, who as a 19-year-old sailor aboard the USS Whitney saw the first bombs dropped on Pearl Harbor during the Japanese surprise attack in 1941, died this week in Powers, Ore. He was 102.

The bridge of a U.S. military vessel is shown with a ribbon of foreign flags flying above it.

Army seeks to overcome watercraft ‘gap’ with leased vessels, local repair work

Pete Hegseth, wearing a dark blazer, shakes hands with a military general in camouflage uniform and hat.

Pentagon proposal to merge combatant commands draws criticism from GOP lawmakers

A man carries a cardboard box up a ramp into a moving truck on the edge of a driveway with an open garage door in the background.

Senators seek answers from Transportation Command about delayed PCS moves

A military member in camouflage pants and olive green shirt lifts dumbbells with each hand while exercising in a gym.

Hegseth orders review of fitness, grooming standards for all service branches

Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth has ordered a “rapid” services-wide review of existing standards for military physical fitness, body composition and grooming, according to a Pentagon news release.

A black-and-white 1940s-era image of a ship upside down in the water, with rescue workers standing on the hull and support boats next to it in the foreground.

After decades lying unknown, USS Oklahoma sailor to rest at Arlington

John G. Connolly, the chief pay clerk who died aboard the USS Oklahoma in the 1941 surprise attack on Pearl Harbor and became the namesake of a warship that served off Iwo Jima and Okinawa, will be buried with full military honors at Arlington National Cemetery on March 27.

A black-and-white, World War II-era portrait of a Navy sailor in uniform.

One of the last US survivors of Pearl Harbor dies at 102

Jessie A. Mahaffey, one of the last remaining survivors of the sinking of the USS Oklahoma during the 1941 Japanese surprise attack on Pearl Harbor, died March 1 in Alexandria, La., at the age of 102.

People in floral shirts and flower leis hold a bowl of shrimp on a beach with palm trees in the background.

Former USAID official says agency shutdown could cede Pacific islands to China

The Trump administration’s dismantling of the U.S. Agency for International Development is a boon to Beijing’s designs on Pacific island nations and weakens America’s national security, the former China policy lead for USAID told lawmakers Wednesday.

A man in a yellow reflective vest stands on a ladder propped up against a blue water tank.

Researchers use dye to track water flow beneath Navy fuel facility in Hawaii

University researchers are using a florescent dye in the aquifer near Pearl Harbor to better understand the flow of water beneath the Red Hill Bulk Fuel Storage Facility, as they continue to monitor clean-up efforts at the site of a massive jet fuel spill three years ago.

A mooring quay in Pearl Harbor bears the name of the ship that was anchored there on Dec. 7, 1941. A National Park Service preservation project has repaired the quay and removed the name.

Park Service works to preserve ‘silent sentinels’ of surprise attack on Pearl Harbor

The National Park Service is engaged in a multiyear preservation project on six battle-scarred mooring quays in Pearl Harbor to repair decay and return them to their 1941 appearance.

A mover loads a service member’s household goods into a truck in Pacific Grove, Calif., May 11, 2022.

Virginia senator troubled by ‘failures’ in DOD’s streamlining of military moves

U.S. Sen. Mark Warner is urging U.S. Transportation Command to take immediate action over “failures” in pickup and delivery of household goods for hundreds of relocating military families under a sweeping overhaul of how items are shipped and stored.

A soldier in dress uniform and white gloves places a wooden case into a casket, while another soldier in dress uniform stands at attention next to the casket.

Remains of dozens of WWII, Vietnam War troops brought to Hawaii for forensic identification

The Defense POW/MIA Accounting Agency’s forensic lab in Hawaii has begun analyzing dozens of human remains retrieved from Laos and the Philippines in recent weeks in hopes of identifying U.S. service members who were killed in World War II and the Vietnam War.

A woman in a yellow reflective vest, white hard hat and blue rubber gloves takes a water sample from a well.

Study tentatively links migraines to Navy’s fuel-tainted tap water in Hawaii

Individuals exposed to jet-fuel tainted tap water near Pearl Harbor in late 2021 were more likely to experience new migraines and esophagus inflammation than others living nearby but not exposed to the water, according to a Defense Department study released last month.

Top Pacific commander warns of rising ‘axis of autocracy’ in region

The United States and its allies face an “emerging axis of autocracy” with China, Russia and North Korea assisting each other in their military ambitions, the top U.S. military commander in the Indo-Pacific said Thursday.

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