Where have you been in the Pacific regions?

[kumukulanui]

Re: Where have you been in the Pacific regions?

Hey, Peter! <wave> Ten posts in 2 years? Ya gotta ramp that up a bit!

\m/ tutusue

I could lurk for England!

I got distracted - I lived in 4 countries in the last 2 years. I'm only back in the UK while I gather my breath...

Peter F

[Anitra]

Re: Where have you been in the Pacific regions?

Lived in Bay area, traveled down the CA coast and all the way to Cabo San Lucas via car/camping, Costa Rica, Ecuador, Peru, Galapagos (my fav!), Chile, Hong Kong, Bali.....southeast asia (does that count as Pacific?).

Really interested to visit more Pacific islands so hopefully I can get good rec's on that from this forum!

[Palama Kid]

Re: Where have you been in the Pacific regions?

While in the Navy, been to Guam, Midway, Philippines, Japan, Alaska, Washington, California & Mexico (if you count Tijuana).

Since move to California, up and down the Pacific Coast from Canada down to Mexico (still Tijuana).

[LocoBoy]

Re: Where have you been in the Pacific regions?

I'm probably one of the most un-worldly ppl out dea.....I've only been to Maui & da big island only once each . Not by choice, its been a matter of finances and responsibilities at home.

[Paul Ogata]

Re: Where have you been in the Pacific regions?

Besides Hawaii and the West Coast:

Guam, Japan, Singapore, Hong Kong, Macau, Chuuk, Pohnpei, Kosrae, Kwajalein, Johnston Island.

Excellent diving on Kwajalein. Beautiful underwater shipwreck in the lagoon, where the fish grow huuuuge. They say it's because the area is a fish sanctuary. It probably also has to do with the ship being radioactive. The U.S. military sank the ship in the lagoon after repeatedly using it in atomic blast testing. They were towing it back to port for scrapping, but it sank in the lagoon and that's where they left it. At least that's what my guide said. From the left one of his three heads.

Johnston, as you probably know, was a chemical/biological weapons disposal facility. Nasty stuff... Agent Orange, mustard gas, VX nerve gas, and stuff like that. I had to carry a packet of emergency syringes around in case the bad stuff leaked. They said you had so many seconds from hearing the alarm to "jab the needle into the fleshy part of your leg" and hurry over to the safe building. The guy there said, "You'll know you've been affected if you suffer the following symptoms: twitching, bleeding, blistering, vomiting and death." Oh, yeah, I'll be sure to see if I've come down with that death symptom. The birght side of that "symptom" is it will probably cut down on my spasmic barfing of blood.

Good times.

[Linkmeister]

Re: Where have you been in the Pacific regions?

Now wait a minute, Paul. There's no US Navy shipwreck in Kwajalein Lagoon, or there wasn't in 1975-1978 when I lived/worked there. The German ship Prinz Eugen is there, and there are a dozen or so Japanese ships (pictures here, but the Navy never sank one of its own there.

[helen]

Re: Where have you been in the Pacific regions?

Hmmm, I wonder if this is true. I know that the USS Pennsylvania was used as a target (as well as other ships) in an A-bomb test and then later sunk. I didn't think it would at Kwajalein.

[Linkmeister]

Re: Where have you been in the Pacific regions?

Hmmm, I wonder if this is true. I know that the USS Pennsylvania was used as a target (as well as other ships) in an A-bomb test and then later sunk. I didn't think it would at Kwajalein.

Hmm. From the Wikipedia article helen links to:

Repairs were made to enable Pennsylvania to steam to the Marshall Islands where she was used as a target ship in the atomic bomb tests at Bikini atoll during July 1946. She was then towed to Kwajalein Lagoon where she decommissioned on August 29, 1946. She remained in Kwajalein Lagoon for radiological and structural studies until February 10, 1948 when she was sunk off Kwajalein. She was struck from the Naval Vessel Register on February 19, 1948.

Ok, I spent nearly three years living on that rock and don't remember the Pennsylvania ever being mentioned (there's no tourist bureau, of course, but there was a "What to do on Kwajalein" brochure or something that the contractor companies published). If you go look at the Kwaj websites the ship isn't mentioned. If Wikipedia is to be believed, then I'm wrong, but it's very strange that I've never heard of it.

[helen]

Re: Where have you been in the Pacific regions?

I suspect that the Pennsylvania has been sunk outside of the lagoon, maybe at depth too deep to be visited by scuba divers. Anyway the Naval Vessel Register web site also list the Pennsylvania as being sunk off Kwajalein.

[Paul Ogata]

Re: Where have you been in the Pacific regions?

Link,

Thanks for jogging my memory. I think the US military commandeered a German warship after WWII and used that for the bomb tests. And that's the ship that was there. All I know is there was some great diving.

I gotta go back!

[Linkmeister]

Re: Where have you been in the Pacific regions?

Link,

Thanks for jogging my memory. I think the US military commandeered a German warship after WWII and used that for the bomb tests. And that's the ship that was there. All I know is there was some great diving.

I gotta go back!

What the heck were you doing there in the first place? Couldn't have been performing, right? There sure wasn't any kind of entertainment when I worked there, other than what we made for ourselves (softball, beer, diving, beer, boating, beer...).

[Paul Ogata]

Re: Where have you been in the Pacific regions?

Yep, believe it or not I was performing. I actually did a couple of shows there, one at night at the nightclub and another at (ugh) an elementary school. They didn't bother to say what kind of show it was going to be, so when the van pulled up at the school I figured that it was like the town gathering place. But then I peered inside to see 40-50 kids from 3rd grade through 6th grade. Woo hoo! I've never edited so fiercely so quickly before.

Since it is a missle range, I want to go back to see the test rockets come splashing down in the lagoon. Does that happen? Or is that where they launch them?

I think I still may have a Kwaj "love stick" somewhere in storage.

[Linkmeister]

Re: Where have you been in the Pacific regions?

Yep, believe it or not I was performing. I actually did a couple of shows there, one at night at the nightclub and another at (ugh) an elementary school. They didn't bother to say what kind of show it was going to be, so when the van pulled up at the school I figured that it was like the town gathering place. But then I peered inside to see 40-50 kids from 3rd grade through 6th grade. Woo hoo! I've never edited so fiercely so quickly before.

Since it is a missle range, I want to go back to see the test rockets come splashing down in the lagoon. Does that happen? Or is that where they launch them?

I think I still may have a Kwaj "love stick" somewhere in storage.

Heh. "Where's my blue pencil, Stat!"

Some missiles are/were launched from Roi-Namur, miles up the eastern side of the lagoon, but most of the missiles that get tracked are/were launched from Vandenberg AFB in Ca. and splash down in the lagoon.

(Aside: that range may have the most appropriate name of any military base ever. Since it's all about testing the Star Wars defense these days, it's been renamed for Ronald Reagan.)

[fenua]

Re: Where have you been in the Pacific regions?

I had the oppertunity to sail thru french polynesia for 1 year. first the marquesas then the tuamotus , tahiti, moorea,raiatea, huahine, borabora, what a wonderfull place!!!!! Living here on o'ahu , I get a little bit of that feel when taking a drive up the windward side towards kahuku. I think everyone (especially Hawaiians) should find time to visit these south pacific "pearls"

Nana,
T

[Bard]

Re: Where have you been in the Pacific regions?

I've been all up and down the US mainland west coast, two islands of Japan, and Hawai'i (O'ahu so far). Amazing places, all. Looking to expand that list