evidence: On Sept. 29, 1994, the U.S. Air Force issued a six-month permit to the Department of the Army to use Wake Island. Perhaps best known for its role in World War II, Wake Island was a U.S. Territory with no permanent residents. [...] Two days later, on Oct. 1, the U.S. Army Space and Strategic Defense Command, as the executive agency for the Ballistic Missile Defense Organization, or BMDO, assumed custody of Wake Island. Using the Starbird facilities constructed in the 1980s, Wake Island would support the Theater Missile Defense Critical Measurements Program and serve as a launch venue for Theater Missile Defense, or TMD test programs, launching target missiles toward the U.S. Army's Kwajalein Missile Range located in the Republic of the Marshall Islands.