Saul Austerlitz is a writer in New York. One evening in June, my friend Alex and I stood in the baggage claim of Terminal 4 at JFK, anxiously awaiting the arrival of people we had never met before.

said as of Thursday the 900 troops deployed to the island base include 334 Marines from 6th Marine Regiment out of Camp Lejeune, North Carolina; 216 members of the National Guard; 160 Navy ...