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Author
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Topic: Kwajalin, and Wake Is.
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Pete Hawk
Pilot
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posted 10-27- 05:36 AM
   
Imagine, not long ago I landed at these Islands in the Marshall Island chain in a C-5 Galaxy. Picture that next time you are flying CFS II.  It was quite an experience. We even got to see some sunk ships off shore. Very creepy. The amount of WWII history around the Pacific is just amazing.(We also went to Guam and Pago Pago many times). Btw, I'm really enjoying CFS II, the effects are gorgeous, as are the sounds. IP: Logged |
jedi
Pilot
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posted 10-27- 12:00 PM
I got to do a tour flying C-130s with the RAAF about 10 years ago. One of the things we did was get pilots checked out flying around in the New Guinea highlands. Well, apparently the New Guineans regard things like crash sites as "shrines" and basically leave them undisturbed, other than allowing the removal of the remains for return to relatives, etc.Anyway, on one of these missions, we're cruising up the beach at 500' on the island of New Britain (where Rabaul was) and I see this shape in the water, not 50 yards offshore. So we circle around, sure enough--A6M Zero in about 20 feet of water.
Further along we find an overgrown field with an abandoned B-25 and a Ventura/Hudson sitting there, and a B-17 pancaked on a hillside (my crew actually knew the story behind that one, as they'd flown over it lots of times). Also visited Yamamoto's bunker on that trip, climbed around a ruined Japanese submarine base, and flew down into a Japanese seaplane base inside a volcano! There's some amazing stuff to be seen in the Pacific. Even the buildings at Hickam AFB in Honolulu still have the original bullet holes in the walls from the Pearl Harbor attack.
(unless some idiot has rebuilt the building to the current elevator-muzak standards).
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--jedi-- IP: Logged |
Jerry
Pilot
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posted 10-27- 01:10 PM
Wow! Cool story Jedi. ThanksIP: Logged |
Maaco
Pilot
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posted 10-27- 01:33 PM
Either of you guys have any pictures of the scenes you were telling us about?Love to see them. ~Maaco~ IP: Logged |
Pete Hawk
Pilot
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posted 10-27- 02:19 PM
Jedi, they are all still there, the bullet holes at Hickam AFB. That just blows my mind when I see that stuff there. I flew in a Jet Ranger Heli and got to hover pretty low over the USS Arizona in Pearl Harbor. That was incredible and I was surprised the pilot did it, but he was an ex-Vietnam Huey pilot and did some exciting flight maneuvers for the 4 of us with him that day.That was a cool story btw, thanks for sharing. Oh, originally I could've sworn I was in Off Topic when I started this thread, sorry. [This message has been edited by Pete Hawk (edited 10-27-2000).] IP: Logged |
Poniat
Pilot
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posted 10-27- 02:28 PM
Guys,
On or off topic, who cares, you can even graphitti it on the wall, just tell us more, please IP: Logged |
jedi
Pilot
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posted 10-28- 11:10 AM
Hehe OK, more on the "volcano base." (Hopefully I'm remembering it right).It seems the Aussies in the southeast part of New Guinea were being raided by Japanese flying boats. They'd scramble their P-40s, but they could never find the seaplane base. They'd do recons of all the Japanese bases in the area...no seaplanes. Unfortunately, the Japanese got a little predictable in their timing. So the Aussies (mighta been Kiwis in there too) decided to launch a high CAP, and wait. Sure enough, the raiders show up, but instead of shooting them down, the Aussies follow them home. To an extinct volcano which had worn down over the eons and filled with water, so that the crater was about 2 miles across. The base was down inside the crater (like in that James Bond movie), builit into the walls of the volcano. The "runway" was the lake in the crater. They had docks, maintenance sheds, etc all built into the sides of the hills. Until the next day that is  Unfortunately there was no room to build a runway for Zeros to defend the place... When I was there, you could still see some of the docks and the foundations for the buildings. No place to land a C-130 tho 
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--jedi-- IP: Logged | |
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