WAKE ISLAND

I got to go on land to Wake Island just before we left. One of the Air Force guys on the island gave us a great tour in a school bus. The island has a pretty amazing history. Wake was attacked at the same time as Pearl Harbor, ending in the surrender of the American forces to the Japanese on Dec.23, 1941, and the capture of all remaining men on the island. The captured men were kept to perform forced labor, building much of the existing infrastructure. On Oct.3, 1943 the Naval aircraft Yorktown raided Wake and the Japanese Rear Admiral Sakaibara ordered the 98 remaining men, mainly American civilian contractors, executed. Today, the island serves as a fueling station and is managed by the US Air Force. The US Army also has a missile facility. There are many Thai nationals that help maintain the island. We received about 35 of the islanders on the ship for Hi'ialakai tours. They seemed as excited to get off the island for a short while as we were to later get off the ship! Overall, they all seemed pretty happy living on Wake.

This is just one of the many examples of the infrastructure built by the WWII prisoners

This is POW Rock. One of 98 captured civilian workers escaped when the others were massacred by machine gun, and carved this over their mass grave. 5.10.43 is the date they were captured. He was eventually captured and beheaded.

The Thai workers on the island have little hangouts all over called the Beach Houses. Apparently each one is like a neighborhood bar with its own little spin, personality, and food etc.

The bar was closed :(

Fueling next to the aircraft carrier

Thought I would share some photos from when we first left for this trip and went to the fueling pier. We had to snuggle up next to this insane Aircraft Carrier. It was massive and very impressive. I could not fit the entire view in my camera...

The Laysan Island Rescue Mission

Many of you have asked about the rescue the Hi'ialakai just did. I am sorry I do not have better photos of the actual action, but I stayed on the ship and the island was too far for my camera to get good photos. However, I have photos of the launch and return, and can share some details of what the crew did.

We sent two small boats in to get 7 people off the island. Their camp was completely wiped out in the middle of the night. Our one small inflatable boat (called the Avon) went in with a rescue swimmer and he got the people from the beach to the boat-it was too rough to beach the boat. That small boat can not hold many people and took them to another small boat, called Safe Boat, which brought all 7 back to the ship. While they came aboard, the Avon went back and retrieved some possessions the 7 people were able to rescue quickly the night of the tsunami-personal things. My roommate and I received one of the girls from the island and she is sleeping on our floor. Most of them came on with no shoes and wet, so we gave them some clothes (until they got their back packs) and got them settled. They seemed very happy to see fresh food and take warm showers...and sleep! Many of them have understandably had trouble sleeping since the tsunami. Above all though, they wanted internet to let their loved ones know they were safe aboard a ship. Their stories are really amazing and a humbling reminder of how short life is and just how lucky we all are.

We are now in transit to Midway Island, to drop them off tomorrow morning. We have hit some pretty good seas and are rocking a lot right now. Then we will head to our original destination before we got this call, Wake Island, to do some work. In port Saipan after that. I will be sure to keep you all posted! Lots of love, Lauren

Laysan in the background

The Avon, in the foreground, and safe boat headed out for the rescue

Swell coming in the N side of Laysan

Safe boat returning with the weary Laysan group.

Gaetano and Jamie back safely from the mission.