Any pics?
I know how you feel. Back in the mid 80s, I was traveling from Oahu to Anchorage in a C-130. We stopped at Midway to get fuel. That was quite an experience.
Thank you for posting this. I was just researching the civilian employees of --- I think ---Pacific Construction Inc. on Wake when the Japanese invaded. Not sure that's the right name. Don't have my notes to hand.
I thought they were sent to a prison camp in China and died there. The civilians I mean.
Thanks ever so much for the first hand account.
Appreciated.
Just curious, were you Space A or on duty?
It was a sureal experience for me. I spent a few days trere in the 80's and 90's.
Is that the one where MacArthur only shook hands with Truman and didn't salute him? Truman was real mad that an Army officer would fail to salute his Commander-in-Chief and it contributed to Truman's thinking that MacArthur was getting to big for his britches.
I've never been to Wake but I was able to fly down to Iwo Jima when our Squadron was in Okinawa.
I don't think I can describe the feelings I experienced while standing at the top of Mount Suribachi, looking down at the beach where the Marines landed. It was a very powerful moment.
I have some pics somewhere, I'll have to dig them out and scan them so I can post them. They are truly unbelievable.
Semper Fi.
BUMP! with thanks for a good read. (My ambition is to visit Bikini Island some day.)
Have been through Wake several times while in service, shuttling troops to a different war. Also been through Christmas Island in the Marshall Islands, 1400 miles due south of Hawaii, another tiny island that was a refueling point in WWll. It is truly a memorable experience to have seen these places that we have read about and wondered about.
One of my earliest memories was when I was 4 years old and we were forced to land on Wake Island. Our Pan Am Clipper was having landing gear trouble on the way from Tokyo to Hawaii and we landed there in order to get it fixed. I remember blinding white sand and quonset huts and little else.
Never having been in the miltary, I don't know what this sentence means: "All the billets are unaccompanied." Please explain.
aircraft revetments built during the time Wake was occupied by the Japanese.......
This news to me....Japan never occupied Wake Island...they tried!!!!
Several years ago I visited Wake Island on the KMCAS to Okie flight. We spent two hours refueling and I walked down to the beach. I vaguely remember traps for landing craft still on the beach. Although, they are probably there to still secure that island.
Neat post. There is a maintenance guy who visits the island on a regular basis that is a ham, I worked him a couple of times, pretty cool.
BTW
On the terminal building is the legend "Wake Island: Where America's Day Really Begins." This is because Wake is the closest US territory to the west of the international date line. - they forgot to add "except Alaska".
Time, it appears, has a way of standing still on an island, yet time on the mainland seems to go by twice as fast...
I'll never forget flying into Wake Island in May of 1965. The weather was beautiful with a many scattered popcorn clouds. From the air the island is a beautiful sight. Driving from the airstrip to the mess hall we passed a few WWII aircraft mostly buried in the sand and a concrete bunker or two. There were a few other well rusted vehicles half buried in the sand but it was impossible to tell what kind of vehicle they had been.
Thanks for bringing back one of my favorite memories.
Very interesting post. Thank you... :o)
ping