Controversy revolves around the tropical paradise of Wake Island, part of Eneen-Kio Atoll, the collection of three islands also known as Wake Atoll, located in the middle of the Pacific Ocean. The island is claimed by both the United States and the Marshall Islands. It is further claimed as an independent sovereignty in the name of the Kingdom of EnenKio.
Wake Island
The World Factbook, published by the CIA, states that the 2.5-square-mile Wake Island has no arable land, no crops, no forests or woodland, no indigenous inhabitants.
The population consists (as of the latest record from January 2001) of only one US Army civilian and 123 civilian contractor personnel. The island is economically insignificant, as all food and manufactured goods must be imported.
There is no domestic or international telephone system, no radio service, no television broadcasting. There isn’t even a harbor. However, despite its lack of agriculture or an economy, the island is rich in historical significance, warranting a lengthy and subsequently fascinating lesson on the history of Wake Atoll.
Discovered by Spain
According to Theodore Leverett’s history of the island on the Flags of the World website, “Wake Island was first discovered by the Spaniard Álvaro de Mendana in 1586, who named it San Francisco and claimed it in the name of the King of Spain. This claim was internationally recognized, the atoll being viewed as worthless…
In 1796 the Englishman Captain Samuel Wake of the merchant vessel Prince William Henry rediscovered it. He gave the atoll its present name, also carried by its largest island… On December 20, 1840, the USS Vincennes brought the explorer Charles Wilkes and the naturalist Titian Peale to the island where they conducted a series of surveys and eventually lent their names to the other two islands of the atoll…
The Treaties of Paris and Washington
During the Spanish-American War, an American troop convoy bound for the Philippines (then owned by Spain) stopped off at Wake. Major General Francis V. Greene hoisted the Stars and Stripes, then with 45 stars, there on July 4, 1898… The subsequent peace treaty [signed with Spain in December 1898 and approved by the US Senate in February 1899] which ended the war transferred Wake to the United States.”
The Treaty of Paris, signed by officials from the United States of America and the Spanish Empire on December 10, 1898, relinquished all Spanish claim of sovereignty over and title to Cuba, Puerto Rico, the island of Guam in the Marianas, all islands in the West Indies under Spanish sovereignty, and all islands within approximately 116 degrees and 127 degrees longitude east near and including the Philippine Island archipelago.
Concept and Diagram © Richard D. LeCour
Satellite Imagery © TerraMetrics
An amendment three years later (the Treaty of Washington) added several additional islands located southwest of the island chain of Palawan that had been omitted from the original treaty. No other specific islands or locations of any kind were mentioned.
Wake Island did not fall within the boundaries of either the Treaty of Paris of 1898 or the Treaty of Washington of 1900 as the atoll is located at approximately 166 degrees of longitude east of Greenwich.
This directly contradicts the common misconception that Wake Island was included in the spoils of war between the United States and Spain, as insisted upon by such historians as Stanley K. Schultz, Professor of History at the University of Wisconsin, but the language of both treaties is indisputable — neither of them include the tiny atoll 1,300 nautical miles east of Guam.
Wake as a US Military Base
However the island was acquired, the US Navy recognized the potential of Wake as a military base and contributed both materially and financially to the construction of Pan American facilities.
John Godfrey Borger
Photo © The Borger Family
The historical recollections of the original Pan American World Airways and the newsletter of The Pan Am Historical Foundation quote the then 21-year-old Junior Assistant Engineer for the S.S. North Haven, regarding the initial construction of the airbase.
“On March 27, 1935, the S.S. North Haven embarked from San Francisco for Honolulu, Midway, Wake, Guam, and Manila, to prepare bases for Pan Am’s flying boats to cross the Pacific. Wake was totally uninhabited; all we had on it were a hydrographic chart with no detail, and an article in National Geographic magazine…
We loaded into the ship 12 prefabricated buildings for Midway, and 12 for Wake. We loaded for each base two diesel engines to generate electricity, two windmills to pump water up and get water pressure, a Caterpillar tractor with interchangeable bulldozer blade and crane, and 4,000-gallon tanks for both aviation gas and water… On the deck we loaded two 38-foot power launches, one for Midway and one for Wake, and a 26-foot launch for Guam, intended for air-sea rescue…
Wake is made up of three islands. It’s true it was uninhabited except for birds; we had to wear hats. We’d planned to put the station on Wilkes Island, which is open to the sea, but the survey team found it was too low in the water. So was Wake Island. But Peale Island, on the far side of the lagoon, was okay. We unloaded the cargo into a storage yard on Wilkes Island, then built a 50-yard railroad (somebody by inspiration had brought light-gauge railroad track) to the lagoon. We put the small launch on a barge and, with the help of the tractor, we shoved it across the knee-deep channel between Wake and Wilkes. The launch towed the barges of cargo across the lagoon to Peale Island. Wake depended on rainfall for water, so we rigged canvases on the roofs, drained them into underground tanks, then pumped the water up to the windmills.
We had to clear the coral heads to provide a six-foot deep open landing area in the Wake lagoon for the M-130 to land. So we hung a length of a light-gauge railroad track six feet deep under a barge, and a launch towed the barge back and forth across the lagoon. When the track hit coral, it shook the barge, wakened the guy sleeping on it, and he threw a cork buoy with an anchor to mark the spot. Then Bill Mullahey and I, in a rowboat, rowed out to the buoys. Bill put on goggles he’d made out of bamboo, took a bamboo spear, and dove down and inspected the coral head… Bill surfaced and said, give me six, or eight, sticks of dynamite, dove back down and tied them to the coral. He resurfaced, I rowed us upwind as far as we could, and he pressed a magneto button and blew up the coral. We rowed back, picked up the fish the blast had killed, and brought them back for dinner. We did this [until] we cleared a pie-shaped landing area [where we] built a 400-foot dock.”
— John G. Borger
After the completion of the airbase and a 48-room hotel, Wake Island became one of the stopping points on regular Pan American flights for servicing and refueling of the famous “Pan Am Clippers”, four-engined flying boats. Pan American published a 24-page brochure in 1937 to promote the transpacific China Clipper service from San Francisco to Hawaii, Midway Island, Wake Island, Guam, Manila, and its final destination of Hong Kong.
“A tiny pinpoint on the vast Pacific’s map — five thousand miles from America’s mainland. A land unheard of until a few years ago — uninhabited, until the coming of the airway pioneers — became the scene of one of the most dramatic struggles in the history of American transportation. Here hardship, toil and thrilling courage overcame tremendous odds to set in final place four thousand tons of materials. Scarcely eight hours from Midway — another change in time — you are ashore in the early afternoon and the island is yours to explore… Down paths lined with magnolia are living quarters for the base staff, the power plant, the big refrigerators, a little hospital, a pergola where you will find an unusual collection of the little atoll’s lore – bits from ancient sailing craft that came to grief on the treacherous reefs that so effectively shelter the lagoon’s water for the flying clipper ships; heaps of coral in fantastic designs; sea shells of every form. Along the arcs of glistening beach you can find all these for yourself — and perhaps a dozen little hollow balls of glass — floats from Japanese fishing nets that have drifted half way across the Pacific…
Wake Island, so newly added to the world’s travel map, is already becoming a favorite vacation spot for travel-wise voyageurs. A beautiful, unspoiled land a world away from the hustle and bustle of modern life. A land reserved to those who fly, where every comfort and convenience, excellent food and expert attention are as much a part of your stay as the breath-taking sunsets, the soft thundering of the sea and its magnificent thirty-foot surf. Not soon can one forget these rainbow waters, soft deep sands, the friendly sun, the cool sweet trade winds blown from across the broadest sea.”
James W. Wensyel, in his article titled Odyssey Of The Wake Island Prisoners, states that the US Navy never lost sight of Wake Island’s military potential and turned the commercial airfield into a full-fledged defensive fortification, complete with 449 Marines, 71 Naval personnel, 5 Army radio operators, and 12 fixed-wing Grumman F4F-3 Wildcats fighter planes, all under the overall command of Commander Winfield S. Cunningham.
Japan Seizes Wake in World War II
“War with Japan was imminent, and an airstrip on Wake, about 2,000 miles west of Hawaii, would allow American heavy bombers to strike the Japanese-controlled Marshall Islands. And, if Guam were lost to the Japanese, Wake would be one of the closest American outposts to the Japanese mainland… [Early on the morning of December 8, 1941,] at 8:50 the Marines raised the American flag on its staff, something Marines did every morning all over the world… Not long after the flag raising, 36 Japanese Mitsubishi G3M2 Nell bombers crossed Wake in three V-formations. Soon their fragmentation bombs, accompanied by a steady drumming of machine-gun fire, tore the island to pieces… Japanese land-based aircraft from Roi in the Marshalls, later joined by aircraft from approaching Japanese carriers, pounded the atoll day after day. Before each attack, a dwindling number of American Wildcat fighters rose to meet them.
At 3 a.m. on December 11, a Japanese invasion task force commanded by Rear Adm. Sadamichi Kajioka, consisting of a light cruiser, six destroyers, two troop carriers and two armed merchantmen, confidently approached Wake’s beaches. Marine gunners let them close to 4,500 yards before their 5-inch naval guns opened fire. Their patience was rewarded with the sinking of one Japanese destroyer and damaging of the cruiser and three additional destroyers.
Photo courtesy of the U.S. Navy National Archives
Kajioka retreated, now knowing that Wake would not be taken without a fight. By the 21st, the last of the Wildcats had been destroyed in dogfights over the atoll… Japanese airplanes now roamed over the island at will, pounding American positions in preparation for a renewed attempt to seize the atoll.
In the dark, rain-swept early morning hours of December 23rd, Kajioka returned, his fleet bolstered by four heavy cruisers and various other warships, including landing craft, to assault Wake’s beaches with more than 900 well-trained infantrymen of the Special Naval Landing Force. At 2:35 a.m., the first Japanese landing barge ground ashore.
Soon a desperate battle was being fought across the atoll between groups of men fighting with rifles, bayonets, grenades and fists. The Americans fought hard, but more Japanese landed and pushed them toward the island’s center… Reports from the three islands were discouraging; there were simply too many Japanese and too few Americans… Cunningham, as the ranking officer, made the inevitable decision to surrender… Stunned defenders threw away rifle bolts, destroyed delicate range-finding instruments, drained hydraulic fluid from recoil cylinders and then surrendered. Eighty-one Marines, eight sailors and 82 civilian construction workers had been killed or wounded. The Japanese, however, paid a heavy price for their victory. The fight for Wake Island had cost them two destroyers and one submarine sunk, seven additional ships damaged, 21 aircraft shot down and almost 1,000 men killed.
Enraged by their losses, the Japanese treated their prisoners — military and civilian — brutally. Some were stripped naked, others to their underwear. Most had their hands tied behind their backs with telephone wire, with a second wire looped tightly from their necks to their wrists so that if they lowered their arms they would strangle themselves… The prisoners were then jammed into two suffocating concrete ammunition bunkers. Later they were herded to the airstrip and made to sit, naked, on the blistering hot concrete. When the Japanese set up machine guns nearby, most of the prisoners expected to be executed. That night, bone-chilling winds replaced the heat. The prisoners sat there, still waiting for food, water or medical treatment. The unfortunate prisoners remained sitting on the airstrip for two days. Finally, they were given food, much of it spoiled by the heat, and water, contaminated from being placed in unclean gasoline drums. Piles of assorted clothing seized earlier were placed before them… After returning his prisoners’ clothes, Kajioka, resplendent in white dress uniform and gleaming samurai sword, read a proclamation to the assembled prisoners. When he concluded, a Japanese interpreter informed the Americans that ‘the Emperor has graciously presented you with your lives.'”
After World War II
The defense of Wake was testimony to the valor and professionalism of the Marine garrison and its officers, December 11th being the only successful thwarting of an attempted amphibious landing by enemy forces in the Pacific throughout the war. The tale of the heroic battle for Wake Island inspired American soldiers worldwide. Almost four long years later, World War II ended, the prisoners were released, and control of the island was returned to the United States by the Japanese.
After a 7000-foot runway was paved over the existing coral runway in 1949, the island base also played a key role as a refueling stop for aircraft during the Korean War. And, as a result of the foresighted runway lengthening in 1959 to 9800 feet, the island was able to participate in Desert Storm in 1991, once again as a fueling station. Today, the former commercial airbase is used primarily by the US Army Space and Strategic Defense Command and for emergency landings of trans-Pacific flights. There are over 700 landings a year on the island.
An understanding of the history of Wake Island is fundamental for understanding the claims made by the Marshall Islands and the Kingdom of EnenKio.
Hi Louis, Yup, that could’ve been me, I was always trying to yank the upper brass’s (both the retired FMC and active Mil) chains. They didn’t regard me too highly when I grew long hair and beard. I worked in the cargo/passenger section of the terminal, and, after seeing so many fresh young faces going and body bags coming back, I felt that my radio program should insert a bit of levity to try to even things out a bit. I know I made a hit with the kids there, I received a lot of notes and letters from them the day I (sadly) went back to Conus. Glad to have made someone else’s day too! The only things I have left from Wake is a couple of pictures that my friend Andy Fleming took of me and one of the old post cards of the aerial view of the atoll. Lost everything else when I moved from Vegas. If ya want to correspond, my email is billmasters@midrivers.com – I now live in Glendive, MT. Bill “the Good Humor Man Hippy”
I Do remember one trip thru. wake to vietnam. our [c124] crew went to the old drifters reef to have a few. it was 68 or 69 i remember we were on what they called a 10 and 2, which meant you had 2 hr,s to have a few drinks and 10 hr,s of rest [no alchol] after 2 hrs at the drifters reef of drinking our aircraft commander [Lt/Col] looked at his watch and said well i guess it,s time to hit the sack, only 10 hr,s to takeoff, and the rest of said yea,yea, and we will see you in the morn sir, we all went to our quaters, had a few more drinks, and after about 30 min. when we fig. the A/C had went to sleep, we all headed back to the drifters reef to have some more fun, and there sit,s the a/c at a table with 2 VO and seven,s in frt. of him. we all laughed and sure enough got drunk, and after about 3 or 4 hrs of rest we tookoff max wt. Thank God airplanes dont have Hangovers
Your last paragraph talks about the SDI use of the island. In 1989 I was there with a crew that built built two new launch pads and remodeled several other buildings including part of the old control tower. Had a blast working there. I was very remote when someone wanted to leave the island. I supervised a crew of up to 45 construction workers. Did lost of diving on the south shore of the island over the wrecks of the Suva Maru and SS. Stoner. The coral reefs and coral heads were amazing. Saw the remains of the old Coast Guard station and the Pan American hotel out on Peale Island. If you were diligent enough WWII artifacts could be found along the south side of the island. Spent many hours in the “Drifters Reef” and the bowling alley. The island Air Force crew installed a satellite dish prior to my time there, so that they could receive HBO. The BOSC managers were American and the workers (TCN) were from Thialand. The Air Force had two officers and 5 sargents stationed at Wake.
I lived on Wake for almost three years 1950-1953. Although I was very young (born in 1950) I remember the sun, sand, water and wind, as well as all the stories my parents told me. My father “Scotty” Craik (Pan Am), mother Anne and sister Denise did two tours on Wake and one on Canton. We too have pictures of President Truman with my folks and holding my sister. After reading all the other stories it seems that there are many of us who would love to visit Wake, although it appears permission is very hard to get.. How about an organized reunion trip? Who would we have to contact to see about permission to visit our old home? It is part of the US isn’t it. Hopefully one of the intrested people know someone who can help to make this happen. Keep in touch jim@mcmappraisalservices.com.
To Tiffany—–In Reply to your letter posted on August 9, 2004
I saw your posting on Richards Ramblings about your uncle on Wake Island. My Father was also one of the 98. Wake Island survivors are having a reunion in Boise, Idaho on Sept 8-10, 2006. If you get a chance to read this before September 8th, please call me for more information. Floyd Forsberg, 406-932-4746 Big Timber, Montana
My uncle Redmond James Wilper was also one of the 98 men killed on Wake Island in October 1943. I had not heard about the reunion of Wake Island survivors to be held in Boise. I would like to hear more about the reunion. rjwilper@aol.com
I was there in ’89 on constuction mentioned on post 102 by John. Best 2 months of work ever. History all over the place. Would do a hitch again in a second.
My dad worked for the FAA on Wake during 67-68. As a kindergartner at the time, I have vague memories of the typhoon and the mess it left behind. It made for great show and tell when we got back to the states and regular school. My parents did take lots of pictures of the island and the typhoon damage so that helps the memory quite a bit. I’ve always been grateful that we had the experience of two years on the island.
Richard, a beautiful site.
my email is jdavid.sharp@yahoo.com
on wake june 1970- july1971.
ninth grade.
by far the most awesome of my 50yrs.
Eugene Delania’s sites and efforts are incredible…everyone should sign up. Thank you Eugene.
Richard i wish you could make everyone’s email available..we’re not spammers…
thanks Richard, for your site and history,
Dave Sharp
I had the pleasure of visiting Wake Island in March of 1998, after our C-5 lost an engine enroute to Guam. A friend of mine snapped a photo of our C-5, and another C-5 sitting on the flight line together. I wish I had a copy of it for my office. I have one photo I will try to find for some of the other websites. We were with the 509th Bomb Wing – B-2 Support. We spent roughly 36 hours on the island and I have wanted to return to show my family what paradise really looks like. I have been following the track of Typhoon Ioke for the last few days, and it looks bad for Wake Island. CNN and Air Force News are reporting that the island has been copmpletely evacuated due to the expected complete submergence of the island in the storm surge. The path can be traked via Google Earth.
HONOLULU The military has evacuated tiny Wake Island in the Pacific ahead of a typhoon with 155 mile-an-hour winds.
Ioke (ee-OH’-kay) is on track for a direct hit on Wednesday. And a weather forecaster in Honolulu says it “will probably submerge the island and destroy everything that’s not made of concrete.”
Two-hundred people, mostly American and Thai contractors, have been flown to Hawaii. They’re the only permanent residents of the island located 23-hundred miles west of Honolulu.
It’s good to see a few familiar names here — particulary Danny Bobbitt, who was the USAF vice-commander [or as I termed him, the commander of vice] when I went to work on Wake in 1988. I stayed for 18 years and left in March, 2006. As it turned out, my timing was good. Everything I owned in the world was on Wake and I hate to think of what I would have tried to salvage if I’d been limited to the one small suitcase that the evacuees were allowed. I’m hoping for the best for the island, but I’m afraid if there’s catastrophic damage, it’ll be impossible to find enough funding to re-create the place.
The only thing that bothers me about the web site is the credence that is given to the completely bogus ‘Enen Kio’ hoax. There is no historical or archaeological basis to support any claim by the Marshallese or any other entity of sovereignty over Wake. If they once sailed past the island and said, ‘my, isn’t that nice!’, that is not sufficient to claim ownership. The island has always been too remote, too barren, too desolate, too arid to support life until modern days of distillation, food preservation, transportation, etc.
The island was claimed for the US and a flag raised over it on the 4th of July, 1898. Formal possession was taken early the next year. From that time, there were a fairly regular succession of actions consistent with ‘sovereignty’. Botanical and zoological studies were conducted by the Bishop Museum in the 20’s. Pan Am developed the island as a stopover for it’s Clipper service in the 30’s. It was being developed as part of a defensive ring around the Hawaiian Island. It was defended against Japanese onslaught in the early days of WWII [no EnenKians were observed lending a hand humping ammo]. Finally, from the end of the war until now, the island has been continuously occupied and utilized as a strategically-located American military base.
That is what constitutes ‘occupation’; that is what constitutes ‘sovereignty’. Saying otherwise does not make it so
WRITING FROM KEY WEST…AFTER CHECKING HURRICANE STATUS THIS AM…FOUND OUT ABOUT SUPER TYPHOON HITING WAKE TODAY…AM BEYOND DISMAYED…SEEMS SURREAL…CAN NOT IMAGINE THE ISLAND DISAPPEARING…THEY PREDICTED 40 FOOT WAVES…(HAWAII) STARBULLETIN.COM HAS THE UPDATING NEWS…EVACUATED EVERYONE…LIVED THERE AS A CHILD IN THE 1950S…DAD WORKED AT THE CAA STATION…DOES ANYONE REMEMBER “BEAR” THAT RAN THE BEER BAR ? AND THE 1952 TYPHOON SEPTEMBER __?? JUST FOUND THIS SITE…DID NOT KNOW ABOUT THE REUNIONS OR WAKE ISLAND SPIRIT PUBLICATION…WOULD LOVE TO HEAR FROM ANY “WAKE ISLANDERS”…THAT ISLAND SHAPED MY SOUL/PSYCHE AND MY LIFE…..{MARCIE} ….CORNWALLCOLE@UK2.NET
I’m surprised — I thought I was pretty clear about my views on EnenKio. After all, Robert Moore, the man behind the fake government, has himself called me a “Bush åss-kìssër”, so I’m sure he knows where I stand on the issue!
As I write, Wake Island is being swamped by a super typhoon with unimaginable force. Who knows what willl survive? But worse-case scenerio could kill this island. When I worked there, I climbed around in the boonies and found VW sized boulders of coral reef well inland from prehistoric wash overs. There are 10 million gallons of jet fuel (correct me if I’m way off Ron) on the weatherside of the island. The new billion dollar runway resurfacing and the metal dump all potentially going into the lagoon. May God have mercy on Wake!
Charles Wilkes, commander of the U.S. Exploring expedition noted: “Wake’s Island is a low coral one, of triangular form, and eight feet above the surface…From appearances, the island must be at times submerged, or the sea makes a complete breach over it.” (Wilkes, 1844). The naturalist for the U. S. Exploring Expedition, Titian Ramsey Peale, described the island similarly: “The only remarkable part in the formation of this island is the enormous blocks of coral which have been thrown up by the violence of the sea.” (Poesch, 1961).
In my book there is only one paradise and I lived there for a year from June 1963 to June 1964 and what a memoriable year it was. Like most of you I am concerned and hope that the island survived Typhoon Ioke. I hope my little part of the island history survived. I was in the Air Force and in charge of the AF security personnel on the island. We were assigned there to provide security for only one aircraft. The same C-124, with the same crew came thru the same day each month. Never knew what was on board. So working for the AF only one day a month I decided to go to work for the “Colonel” who was military retired and the head guy in charge of Facilities Management Corporation at that time. I had three jobs with them. I ran the consession stand 4 nights a week at the “Windy Palace” outdoor movie, sold candy and drank beer. During the day I would rent bicycles and small boats to the crews stopping over on the island. Three nights a week I was the bartender at the “Drifters Reef” in the AF area. I remember one of the island bosses, T. K. (Ted) Awana, he thought I was crazy. Then there was Stanley Ho who was in charge of the FAA Police, he thought I was crazy too. I worked (AF job) for Colonel Roger P. Larivee and although he was the AF Island Commander, he spent most of his time in Hickham. He relieved Colonel Foote. All A great bunch of guys. Then there was Father Canice, the Franciscan Missionary Island Chaplain. What a great guy, he used to ride his little 3 wheeled skooter that the FAA gave him to use all over the island. Colonel Larivee decided that the AF should do it’s part in trying to keep Fr. Canice on the roads. One day a C-141 from Hickam rolled off a 1954 Ford convertible for Fr. Canice. At least that keep him on the roads most of the time. Several of us over a period of time helped contribute a little to the island. If you went to the AF billeting area, in front of the old FMC billeting office you noticed a 3″ Gun, an anchor from the Honolulu Dredging Company and a flag pole. It is amazing what you can accomplish at 2 A.M. with 2 cases of San Miguel, a weapons carrier with a winch on the front and a tilt bed trailer behind and a torch. The anchor we pulled out of the lagoon onto Peale Island and loaded on the tilt bed trailer. the flag pole we borrowed from the front of the old, old terminal building and the FAA was not happy about that midnight requisition. The 3″ gun we stole from the Japanese who had loaded it on flat barge in the tiny harbor and was taking it back to Japan for scrap. We thought no way, this is history and it would remain here on the island. Colonel Larivee said it created a international incident but we won the right to keep the gun and with the help of a sand blaster and cement from FMC we planted the gun into the ground. I was assigned to drive a bunch of British airman around on the overnight stop on Wake while they were on their round the world tour of their British Vulcan bombers. I think 5 or 6 aircraft spent the night on Wake Island. They didn’t sleep or rest, we went from the Drifter’s Reef, to the FAA Club, to the PAN Am Club, to the Navy SAR Bar. We had breakfast at the AF Chow Hall and then to the aircraft at sun up with lots and lots of oxygen. That was one of the best years of my life. Everybody got along and I hope it is still there after the typhoon this week. Let us never forget the military and civilians who gave their lives in defense of the island in WW II
Wake Island Typhoon Update: http://www.af.mil/news/story.asp?id=123026369
Air Force and Navy going by boat to survey the damage.
I was a MAC C-130 Loadmaster out of McGuire AFB in 66 making shuttles to Nam with one stop at Wake Island for repairs. We spent one or two days on Wake. I remember the beautiful sandy beaches, the outstanding sunset, the good time at drifters reef, the wood bridge and how it looked— like the ocean was higher than the island. It was truely a Pacific paradise for a 21 year old farm boy from Wisconsin. I have told my wife, children, and grandchildren about my experiences there but a person can not explain the beauty of this place to anyone else. It has to be seen to be appreciated. The experience will always be in my memories.
I would like to say hello to Ron Wheeler. Ron please e-mail me . I would love information on any of our friends we left behind on Wake. What about Rick and Rosie ? Did they get their boat out before the hurricane hit ? chiefforhire@hotmail.com
Looks like according to Air Force Link there was a lot less damage than anticipated.
Salutations all –
Yes we have evacuated our little slice of heaven and are currently “refugees,” in Honolulu, HI.
Yesterday, part of the Chugach BOS team, left for Wake with Air Force personnel to assess the level of damage and to see how long before we can head back home.
I am updating the images we have from the fly by assessment and once they are cleared by the higher-ups are being posted on the Wake Island web site. I will try to have new pictures daily, or at least as long as we have this great high speed internet here in Hawaii.
Ron – the island misses you and the call waiting has worked the same since you left!..
Mahalo –
Allen Woffard, Sheriff/ Peace Officer
Wake Island Airfield
http://www.wake-islandairfield.net
Dìçk –
Ricks boat is still there – Rosie is here and says hello.
Ron – Joe and the others send love.
The Air Force Link has some new photos posted on the web site of the first C-17 and recovery crew at Wake. In one of the photos I noticed a WWII gun on the ramp side of the Terminal Building next to the flag pole. I’m just curious to know if that is the same gun that was down in the old AF area, by the bridge to Peale. Since I almost went to jail in 1964 for stealing the gun by the bridge from the Japanese salvage company, I am just curious to know if it is still there or has it been moved to the Terminal Building?
My thanks to Allen Woffard for posting the photo’s on the Wake Island website. The photo of the Det 1 sign in the “Downtown Area” prior to Ioke answers my question. I’m so happy to see the anchor, gun and flagpole still there. A lot of San Miguel (in the brown bottle) and midnight requisitioning went into that project. What is so amazing about the place as I look at the photo’s 43 years later, is the hugh trees and palm trees. Don’t worry in a couple of years she will be as beautiful as ever. I know I am a Hurricane Charley survivor her in Florida. House was rebuilt and all the plants and trees came back, so give it some time and she will again be the paradise of the Pacific.