Named after the day of its recorded discovery,\u00a0Ascension of Jesus<\/a>, Ascension Island was an important safe haven as a coaling station to mariners and a refueling stop for commercial airliners back in the days of international air travel by\u00a0flying boats<\/a>.<\/p>\n During\u00a0World War II<\/a>, it was an important naval and air station, especially providing\u00a0antisubmarine warfare<\/a>\u00a0bases in the\u00a0Battle of the Atlantic<\/a>.<\/sup>\u00a0Ascension Island was garrisoned by the\u00a0British Admiralty<\/a>\u00a0from 22 October 1815 to 1922.<\/p>\n The island is the location of\u00a0RAF Ascension Island<\/a>, which is a\u00a0Royal Air Force station<\/a>, a\u00a0European Space Agency<\/a>\u00a0rocket tracking station, an Anglo-American\u00a0signals intelligence<\/a>\u00a0facility and the\u00a0BBC World Service<\/a>\u00a0Atlantic Relay Station. The island was used extensively as a staging point by the\u00a0British military<\/a>\u00a0during the\u00a0Falklands War<\/a>. Ascension Island hosts one of four ground antennas that assist in the operation of the\u00a0Global Positioning System<\/a>\u00a0(GPS) navigational system (others are on\u00a0Kwajalein Island<\/a>,\u00a0Diego Garcia<\/a>, and\u00a0Cape Canaveral<\/a>).\u00a0NASA<\/a>\u00a0operates a Meter Class Autonomous Telescope (MCAT) on Ascension Island for tracking\u00a0orbital debris<\/a>, which is potentially hazardous to operating spacecraft and astronauts, at a facility called the John Africano NASA\/AFRL Orbital Debris Observatory.<\/p>\n In 1501, the Portuguese navigator\u00a0Jo\u00e3o da Nova<\/a>\u00a0sighted the island on\u00a0Ascension Day<\/a>\u00a0(which fell on 21 May that year) and named it\u00a0Ilha da Ascens\u00e3o<\/i>\u00a0after this feast day.<\/sup>\u00a0Dry and barren, the island had little appeal for passing ships except for collecting fresh meat, and was not claimed for the Portuguese Crown. Mariners could hunt for the numerous seabirds and the enormous female\u00a0green turtles<\/a>\u00a0that laid their eggs on the sandy beaches. The Portuguese also introduced goats as a potential source of meat for future mariners.<\/p>\n In February 1701,\u00a0HMS\u00a0Roebuck<\/i><\/a>, commanded by\u00a0William Dampier<\/a>, sank in the common anchoring spot in\u00a0Clarence Bay<\/a>\u00a0to the northwest of the island. Sixty men survived for two months until they were rescued. Almost certainly, after a few days they found the strong water spring in the high interior of the island, in what is now called Breakneck Valley (there is a much smaller water source, lower on the mountain, which was named Dampier’s Drip by people who probably misinterpreted Dampier’s story).<\/p>\n It is possible that the island was sometimes used<\/sup>\u00a0as an open prison for criminal mariners, although there is only one documented case of such an exile, a\u00a0Dutch<\/a>\u00a0ship’s officer,\u00a0Leendert Hasenbosch<\/a>, set ashore at Clarence Bay as a punishment for\u00a0sodomy<\/a>\u00a0in May 1725.<\/sup>\u00a0British mariners found the Dutchman’s tent, belongings and diary in January 1726; the man’s remains were not found. His diary was published in translation in London later that same year, under the title\u00a0Sodomy Punish’d<\/i>.<\/sup><\/p>\n Organized settlement of Ascension Island began in 1815, when the British garrisoned it as a precaution after imprisoning Napoleon<\/a>\u00a0on\u00a0Saint Helena<\/a>\u00a0to the southeast.<\/sup>\u00a0On 22 October the\u00a0Cruizer<\/i>-class brig-sloops<\/a>\u00a0Zenobia<\/i><\/a>\u00a0and\u00a0Peruvian<\/i><\/a>\u00a0claimed the island for\u00a0King George III<\/a>. The\u00a0Royal Navy<\/a>\u00a0designated the island as a\u00a0stone frigate<\/a>, HMS\u00a0Ascension<\/i>, with the classification of “Sloop of War of the smaller class”.<\/p>\n The location of the island made it a useful stopping-point for ships and communications. The Royal Navy used the island as a\u00a0victualling<\/a>\u00a0station for ships, particularly those of the\u00a0West Africa Squadron<\/a>\u00a0working against the\u00a0slave trade<\/a>.<\/sup>\u00a0A garrison of\u00a0Royal Marines<\/a>\u00a0was based at Ascension from 1823 and Colonel\u00a0Edward Nicolls<\/a>\u00a0became the first commandant.<\/sup><\/p>\n In 1836 the\u00a0second\u00a0Beagle<\/i>\u00a0voyage<\/a>\u00a0visited Ascension.\u00a0Charles Darwin<\/a>\u00a0described it as an arid treeless island, with nothing growing near the coast. Sparse vegetation inland supported “about six hundred sheep, many goats, a few cows & horses,” large numbers of\u00a0guineafowl<\/a>\u00a0imported from the\u00a0Cape Verde<\/a>\u00a0islands, rats, mice, and\u00a0land crabs<\/a>; he agreed with the saying attributed to the people of St Helena that “We know we live on a rock, but the poor people at Ascension live on a cinder.” He noted the care taken to sustain “houses, gardens & fields placed near the summit of the central mountain,” and cisterns at roadsides to provide drinking water. The springs were carefully managed, “so that a single drop of water may not be lost: indeed the whole island may be compared to a huge ship kept in first-rate order.” In commenting on this, he noted\u00a0Ren\u00e9 Primev\u00e8re Lesson<\/a>‘s remark “that the English nation alone would have thought of making the island of Ascension a productive spot; any other people would have held it as a mere fortress in the ocean.”<\/p>\n In 1843, botanist and explorer\u00a0Joseph Hooker<\/a>\u00a0visited the island. Four years later, Hooker, with much encouragement from Darwin, advised the Royal Navy that with the help of\u00a0Kew Gardens<\/a>, they should institute a long-term plan of shipping trees to Ascension. The planted trees would capture more rain and improve the soil, allowing the barren island to become a garden. So, from 1850 and continuing year on year, ships came with an assortment of plants from botanical gardens in Argentina, Europe and South Africa. By the late 1870s\u00a0Norfolk pines<\/a>,\u00a0eucalyptus<\/a>,\u00a0bamboo<\/a>, and\u00a0banana trees<\/a>\u00a0grew in profusion at the highest point of the island,\u00a0Green Mountain<\/a>, creating a tropical\u00a0cloud forest<\/a>.<\/p>\n Between 1872 and 1889, the permanent population of the island was listed as HMS\u00a0Flora<\/i>\u00a0(Tender), under the orders of the\u00a0Commander-in-Chief, Cape of Good Hope<\/a>.\u00a0HMS Flora (1844)<\/a><\/i> had been the guardship at Ascension from 1865 to 1872 before being ordered south to become the Simonstown depot ship. Five ratings died while on a recreational boat trip in 1879.<\/p>\n In 1899, the Eastern Telegraph Company installed the first underwater cable from the island, connecting the UK with its colonies in South Africa.<\/sup>\u00a0In 1922,\u00a0letters patent<\/a>\u00a0made Ascension a dependency of Saint Helena.<\/sup>\u00a0The island was managed by the head of the Eastern Telegraph Company on the island until 1964 when the British Government appointed an\u00a0Administrator<\/a>\u00a0to represent the Governor of Saint Helena on Ascension.<\/sup><\/p>\n During\u00a0World War II<\/a>, to supply and augment extensive amphibious aircraft antisubmarine patrol operations ongoing from the early days of the war, the United States built an airbase on Ascension Island, known as “Wideawake”,<\/sup>\u00a0after a nearby colony of\u00a0sooty terns<\/a> (locally called ‘wideawake’ birds because of their loud, distinctive constant (day-and-night) cawing chatter).\u00a0<\/sup>The airbase, which was under construction by the 38th Combat Engineer Battalion of the\u00a0Army Corps of Engineers<\/a>, was unexpectedly visited by two British\u00a0Fairey Swordfish<\/a> torpedo planes on 15 June 1942. According to one of the pilots, Peter Jinks, the planes were fired upon before being recognized as allies. The Swordfish had to land on the unfinished airstrip, thus becoming the first aircraft to land on Ascension Island proper\u2014which had long served as an anti-submarine warfare<\/a>\u00a0base for\u00a0Consolidated PBY Catalina<\/a>\u00a0flying boats<\/a>. The event was commemorated with a postage stamp 15 June 1982.<\/p>\n The airfield was used by the US military as a stopping point for American aircraft crossing the Atlantic Ocean on the way to theatres of operation in Europe and Africa. American\u00a0bombers<\/a>\u00a0based at Wideawake were engaged in the\u00a0Laconia<\/i>\u00a0incident<\/a>.<\/p>\n The only local military action during World War II occurred on 9 December 1941. At around mid-day, the\u00a0German submarine\u00a0U-124<\/i><\/a>\u00a0approached\u00a0Georgetown<\/a> on the surface with the intention of sinking any ships at anchor or shelling the cable station.\u00a0Fort Bedford, a two-gun shore battery at Cross Hill, above Georgetown, fired on the submarine. The guns scored no hits but the U-boat submerged and retreated. The battery remains largely intact to this day, together with its guns,\u00a0BL 5.5 inch Mark I naval guns<\/a>\u00a0removed from\u00a0HMS\u00a0Hood<\/i><\/a>\u00a0during a refit in Malta in 1938.<\/p>\n The airbase fell into disuse following the American departure at the end of World War II.<\/p>\n With the\u00a0Space Race<\/a>\u00a0and the\u00a0Cold War<\/a>, the Americans returned in 1956. Wideawake Airfield expanded in the mid-1960s. The runway, with its strange hump, was extended, widened, and improved to allow its use by large aircraft, and later to act as an emergency runway for the\u00a0Space Shuttle<\/a>, although the Shuttle never had to use it.<\/sup>\u00a0At the time, it was the world’s longest airport runway.<\/sup>\u00a0The\u00a0United States Space Force<\/a>\u00a0uses the island as part of its\u00a0Eastern Range<\/a>.<\/sup>\u00a0NASA<\/a> established a tracking station on the island in 1967, which it operated for more than 20 years before closing it down in 1990.<\/p>\n Ascension was the shore terminal for the furthest down range installation of the Atlantic\u00a0Missile Impact Location System<\/a> (MILS), an acoustic system for locating splashdown of test nose cones.\u00a0<\/sup>The MILS hydrophones that were located in the\u00a0SOFAR channel<\/a>\u00a0for broad area coverage have played a significant role in long range acoustic transmission studies and incidents. The island’s location makes it a first point of Atlantic reception for acoustics from the other oceans. As an example the Ascension hydrophones received and the site processed signals generated near\u00a0Heard Island<\/a>\u00a0in the\u00a0Indian Ocean<\/a> some 9,200\u00a0km (5,700\u00a0mi; 5,000\u00a0nmi) from the Ascension arrays and passing around Africa.\u00a0The Ascension array was one of those involved in the\u00a0Vela incident<\/a>\u00a0acoustic signal in which there were correlated acoustic arrivals with the time and estimated location of the double flash detected by the\u00a0Vela satellite<\/a>.<\/p>\n A joint\u00a0Government Communications Headquarters<\/a>\u00a0and\u00a0National Security Agency<\/a>\u00a0signals intercept station was also established on Ascension during the Cold War.<\/sup>\u00a0The island retains a role in space exploration: the\u00a0European Space Agency<\/a>\u00a0now operates an\u00a0Ariane<\/a>\u00a0monitoring facility there.<\/sup>\u00a0The\u00a0BBC<\/a>\u00a0Atlantic Relay Station was installed in 1966 for short-wave broadcasts to Africa and South America.<\/p>\n In 1982 the British\u00a0task force<\/a>\u00a0used Ascension Island as a\u00a0staging post<\/a>\u00a0during the\u00a0Falklands War<\/a>. The\u00a0Royal Air Force<\/a>\u00a0deployed a fleet of\u00a0Avro Vulcan<\/a>\u00a0bombers and\u00a0Handley Page Victor<\/a>\u00a0tankers at the airfield. Vulcans launched the opening shots of the British offensive from Ascension in\u00a0Operation Black Buck<\/a>. The RAF also used the base to supply the task force. Because of the increase in air traffic during the war, Wideawake, with up to 400 movements of all types each day, was one of the busiest airfields in the world for a short period.<\/sup> The Royal Navy’s fleet stopped at Ascension for refueling on the way. Following the war, the British retained an increased presence on the island, establishing\u00a0RAF Ascension Island<\/a>, and providing a refueling stop for the regular airlink between RAF Brize Norton<\/a>\u00a0in Oxfordshire, and\u00a0RAF Mount Pleasant<\/a>\u00a0in the\u00a0Falkland Islands<\/a>.<\/p>\n As of 2004, it was reported that the\u00a0Composite Signals Organisation<\/a>, an arm of\u00a0GCHQ<\/a>, continued to operate a signals interception facility at\u00a0Cat Hill<\/a>\u00a0on Ascension.<\/sup>\u00a0As of 2007\u00a0NASA continued to list Ascension Island as a “downrange site” used for range safety instrumentation.<\/sup>\u00a0In particular, the Post-Detect Telemetry System used to acquire launch vehicle\u00a0telemetry<\/a> includes a station on Ascension.<\/p>\n In 2008 British diplomats at the United Nations Commission on the Limits of the Continental Shelf (UN CLCS), requested sovereignty over 200,000\u00a0km2<\/sup> (77,220\u00a0sq\u00a0mi) of submarine territory around the island. This would enable exploration into new reserves of oil, gas and minerals, though none are thought to exist.<\/p>\n The 2009 Constitution order ended Ascension’s status as a dependency of St Helena and provided for one Governor of the combined Overseas Territory of St Helena, Ascension and Tristan da Cunha.<\/p>\n In 2016, the United States Department of Energy started operating a mobile climate research facility on the island. It is operated by the\u00a0Atmospheric Radiation Measurement Climate Research Facility<\/a>\u00a0(ARM) near the South East Crater, south of the Green Mountain summit. The field campaign requires the mobile facility to be operational for about 17 months until October 2017.<\/sup><\/p>\n The island hosts one of four dedicated ground antennas that assist in the operation of the Global Positioning System (GPS) navigation system (the others are on Diego Garcia (British Indian Ocean Territory), Kwajalein (Marshall Islands), and at Cape Canaveral, Florida (US)).<\/sup>\u00a0NASA and the\u00a0Air Force Research Laboratory<\/a> operate a Meter-Class Autonomous Telescope (MCAT) on Ascension as part of the deep space surveillance system for tracking orbital debris, which can be a hazard to spacecraft and astronauts.<\/sup><\/p>\n The main island has an area of approximately 88 square kilometers (34 sq mi). A volcanic peak rising from 100 kilometers (62 mi) west of the Mid-Atlantic Ridge<\/a>, much of the island is a wasteland of\u00a0lava<\/a>\u00a0flows and\u00a0cinder cones<\/a>; forty-four distinct dormant\u00a0craters<\/a> have been identified.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n The main economic activity on the island is centered on the military bases at Wideawake Airfield<\/a>, and the BBC World Service’s Atlantic Relay station. The\u00a0Ministry of Defence<\/a>\u00a0estate and facilities are managed by the infrastructure support provider\u00a0Interserve<\/a>\u00a0Defence.\u00a0Serco<\/a>\u00a0runs the airport services and\u00a0Sodexo<\/a>\u00a0provides catering and domestic facilities. A former feature of Ascension was a 70,000-tonne tanker permanently moored offshore that was operated by\u00a0Maersk<\/a>\u00a0as a bulk fuel facility. In December 2002, this was replaced by an on-shore Petroleum Supply Depot under military management, with fuel still being delivered by a chartered tanker,\u00a0Maersk Rapier<\/i>, which operates on an MOD resupply contract for both Ascension and the\u00a0Falkland Islands<\/a>\u00a0every two months. Fuel for the island is transferred via a floating hose, which is connected to the on-shore depot at the island’s pier head and to the ship at anchor.<\/p>\n The main export items are\u00a0Ascension Island postage stamps<\/a>, first issued in 1922, and, since 2010, commemorative coins (which are legal tender but non-circulating) and commercial fishing licenses for long-line tuna fishing vessels operating to ICCAT quotas.<\/p>\n A secondary export is the international internet domain code\u00a0.ac<\/a>, which small UK educational colleges and science museums are favoring due to its similarity to .ac.uk<\/a>, the domain code reserved for well-established UK educational institutions. In December 2013,\u00a0The Pirate Bay<\/a>\u00a0(one of the most well-known file piracy websites in the world) moved to .ac following the seizure of their\u00a0.sx<\/a>\u00a0website.<\/p>\n Until 2002, tourism was virtually non-existent because of the inaccessibility of the island to transport, the absence of guest accommodation and the need for a sponsor. Limited air travel has, however, been made available in recent years to the public by the RAF, and the Georgetown Obsidian Hotel and a number of guest cottages have been opened. All visitors are required to obtain an entry permit before travelling.\u00a0Sport fishing<\/a>\u00a0is the main attraction for many of the visitors. The island also boasts what is sometimes called the worst golf course in the world.<\/p>\n Access to Ascension Island is via air or sea and neither of these approaches feature regular commercial access.\u00a0 The RAF offers some seats on select flights to the island from Brize Norton Air Base in Great Britain.\u00a0 In theory, access could be managed via private vessel if the proper permits were obtained in advance.<\/p>\n The\u00a0flag of\u00a0Ascension Island<\/a>,<\/sup>\u00a0part of the\u00a0British overseas territory<\/a>\u00a0of\u00a0Saint Helena, Ascension and Tristan da Cunha<\/a>, was adopted on 11 May 2013.<\/sup>\u00a0The flag is a\u00a0blue ensign<\/a>\u00a0design, defaced with the\u00a0coat of arms of Ascension Island<\/a>.<\/p>\n Two draft proposals for an Ascension Island flag were presented to the Island Council at its meeting on 30 July 2010. Following a public consultation, a final design was published in January 2012 and if approved by the Governor, will be submitted to the\u00a0College of Arms<\/a> for approval.<\/sup><\/p>\n The draft proposals were made public in September 2010. Both are blue ensigns defaced with the proposed coats of arms.<\/p>\n The Ascension Island Council approved a final design for a\u00a0coat of arms<\/a>\u00a0in January 2012. Following the agreement of the Governor of St Helena, Ascension and Tristan de Cunha, the design was submitted to the College of Arms for formal be a blue ensign defaced with the proposed arms.<\/sup> The arms received royal approval in August 2012 and are now in official use by the Ascension Island Government.<\/p>\n An unofficial flag was used to represent Ascension Island at the\u00a0Thames Diamond Jubilee Pageant<\/a>\u00a0in June 2012. The flag was a blue ensign defaced with the coat of arms proposed in January 2012. An image of this flag appeared in the official flag guide to the event published by the\u00a0Flag Institute<\/a>.<\/sup><\/p>\n A final design for the island’s flag was agreed by the Ascension Island Council in November 2012 and received approval from HM the Queen in April 2013.<\/sup>\u00a0This flag was raised for the first time on 11 May 2013.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" The flag of Ascension Island, part of the British overseas territory of Saint Helena, Ascension and Tristan da Cunha, was adopted on 11 May 2013. The flag is a blue ensign design, defaced with the coat of arms of Ascension Island.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":9600,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"site-sidebar-layout":"default","site-content-layout":"default","ast-site-content-layout":"","site-content-style":"default","site-sidebar-style":"default","ast-global-header-display":"","ast-banner-title-visibility":"","ast-main-header-display":"","ast-hfb-above-header-display":"","ast-hfb-below-header-display":"","ast-hfb-mobile-header-display":"","site-post-title":"","ast-breadcrumbs-content":"","ast-featured-img":"","footer-sml-layout":"","theme-transparent-header-meta":"default","adv-header-id-meta":"","stick-header-meta":"default","header-above-stick-meta":"","header-main-stick-meta":"","header-below-stick-meta":"","astra-migrate-meta-layouts":"default","ast-page-background-enabled":"default","ast-page-background-meta":{"desktop":{"background-color":"","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-gradient":""},"tablet":{"background-color":"","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-gradient":""},"mobile":{"background-color":"","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-gradient":""}},"ast-content-background-meta":{"desktop":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-5)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-gradient":""},"tablet":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-5)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-gradient":""},"mobile":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-5)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-gradient":""}},"footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[66,8,59,5,6,7,29,60,13],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.smoketreemanor.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9273"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.smoketreemanor.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.smoketreemanor.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.smoketreemanor.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.smoketreemanor.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=9273"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.smoketreemanor.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9273\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":9601,"href":"https:\/\/www.smoketreemanor.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9273\/revisions\/9601"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.smoketreemanor.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/9600"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.smoketreemanor.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=9273"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.smoketreemanor.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=9273"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.smoketreemanor.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=9273"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}![\"\"](\"https:\/\/www.smoketreemanor.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/7\/2021\/08\/Ascension-Island-on-the-Globe-300x300.png\" "\\"\\"")
<\/a>History:<\/h2>\n
Discovery:<\/span><\/h3>\n
![\"\"](\"https:\/\/www.smoketreemanor.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/7\/2022\/02\/Portuguese-Galician-navigator-Joao-da-Nova-300x292.jpg\" "\\"\\"")
<\/a>Organized settlement:<\/span><\/h3>\n
![\"\"](\"https:\/\/upload.wikimedia.org\/wikipedia\/commons\/thumb\/3\/3e\/ASCENSION_ISLAND_-_GEORGETOWN.jpg\/220px-ASCENSION_ISLAND_-_GEORGETOWN.jpg\" "\\"\\"")
<\/a>Botany:<\/span><\/h3>\n
![\"\"](\"https:\/\/www.smoketreemanor.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/7\/2022\/02\/Charles-Darwin-228x300.jpg\" "\\"\\"")
<\/a>Early government:<\/span><\/h3>\n
World War II:<\/span><\/h3>\n
![\"\"](\"https:\/\/upload.wikimedia.org\/wikipedia\/commons\/thumb\/0\/03\/Ascension_Island1.JPG\/220px-Ascension_Island1.JPG\" "\\"\\"")
<\/a>Later military involvement:<\/span><\/h3>\n
![\"\"](\"https:\/\/www.smoketreemanor.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/7\/2022\/02\/Comfortless-Cove-300x225.jpg\" "\\"\\"")
<\/a>Twenty-first century:<\/span><\/h3>\n
![\"\"](\"https:\/\/upload.wikimedia.org\/wikipedia\/commons\/thumb\/8\/8c\/Ascension_Island%2C_Wideawake_Airfield_%281%29.JPG\/222px-Ascension_Island%2C_Wideawake_Airfield_%281%29.JPG\" "\\"\\"")
<\/a>Geography:<\/span><\/h2>\n
![\"\"](\"https:\/\/www.smoketreemanor.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/7\/2022\/02\/Topographic-Map-of-Ascension-Island-300x243.png\" "\\"\\"")
<\/a>Economy:<\/h2>\n
![\"\"](\"https:\/\/upload.wikimedia.org\/wikipedia\/commons\/thumb\/1\/19\/Stamp_Ascension_1937_1.5p.jpg\/200px-Stamp_Ascension_1937_1.5p.jpg\" "\\"\\"")
<\/a>![\"\"](\"https:\/\/upload.wikimedia.org\/wikipedia\/commons\/thumb\/4\/4e\/ASCENSION_ISLAND_-_DEVIL%27S_ASHPIT.jpg\/260px-ASCENSION_ISLAND_-_DEVIL%27S_ASHPIT.jpg\" "\\"\\"")
<\/a>Transportation:<\/h2>\n
Flag of Ascension Island:<\/h2>\n
![\"\"](\"https:\/\/upload.wikimedia.org\/wikipedia\/commons\/thumb\/7\/7c\/Flag_of_Ascension_Island_%2822370829902%29.jpg\/220px-Flag_of_Ascension_Island_%2822370829902%29.jpg\" "\\"\\"")
<\/a><\/h3>\n
![\"\"](\"https:\/\/www.smoketreemanor.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/7\/2022\/02\/Flag-of-Ascension-Island-300x150.png\" "\\"\\"")
<\/a>