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There are HOW MANY US Territories?

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“Super Typhoon Yutu, with sustained winds of 180 mph, is on a trek through the Northern Mariana Islands. The storm is roaring across the U.S. islands of Saipan and Tinian, part of the island chain, and will become one of the most intense storms on record to hit U.S. soil.” The Washington Post October 24, 2018 Wait, what?  Those islands are US soil?  Really?  Maybe I used to know that…… or maybe it is something they tried to teach me in school. So, that “surprise” has had me wondering about what other places there might be that I didn’t know were part of the U.S. in some way, and I finally got around to checking and I think I have it figured out.  I thought it was worth sharing. As you might expect – we’re dealing with US government matters here – it’s complicated. Just to confuse things, there are different names used for places that are not among the 50 states plus the District of Columbia: Territory, Commonwealth, Protectorate, Possession and Insular Area.  Insular Area s