After a long wait...Truk.

[Doubler]

Victory at Sea soundtrack downloaded. All our bags are packed. Cameras, housings, domes and regulators stowed for carry on. Leaving o'early thirty Wednesday. Spending a day and half in Hawaii then off to Guam for a day and finally the Truk Odyssey. This is one of those trips that we promised ourselves long ago. In '93 I was stationed on Guam and due to the amount of work never found the time. Would have been much easier and MUCH less expensive if we had done it then but... so this is our retirement/25 anniversary/promised trip. Plan on a trip report with pictures, diagrams and video when we return. Any ideas where I can get vintage photos and video, done a internet search and didn't find much. My father was stationed on the Essex during this campaign. When I retired from the Navy I was stationed on Guam and had asked my Father if he wanted to come out for my retirement he said "Sorry son seen enough of that place during the war."

 

[slingshot]

Have a great trip. For pics, try the Naval Historical Center online photo library.

 

[Kevrumbo]

Checkout for background, this early four-part news piece "Ghost Ships of Truk Lagoon" from ABC San Fran/Oakland Bay Area affiliate KGO from 1986 (excellent historical report & interesting archival film on Truk wreck diving from only 25 years ago):

--Earlier 1980's footage from the Japanese Gov't recovery & cremation of the majority of soldier/seamen remains from the troopship Aikoku Maru and other ships (divers literally stuffing skulls & bones in mesh bags), and a ceremonial Shinto Funeral on the grounds of the Blue Lagoon Resort.

--The late great Kimiuo Aisek giving a dive briefing and remembering events back on the day of the raid as a seventeen-year-old eyewitness. (And a very young Gradvin Aisek, his son, as an interpreter during a tour of Eten Island).

--Footage of Al Giddings prying the hatch open to get inside the I-169 Submarine. . .

Ghost Ships Of Truk Lagoon Part 1 of 4 - YouTube

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Just finished watching again the 1969 documentary episode, "Lagoon of Lost Ships", from the Undersea World of Jacques Cousteau DVD set, about the re-discovery of the WWII wrecks of Truk Lagoon . . .and seeing how "pristine" they were to dive on just over 40 years ago. (Fantastic to see Jacques himself hovering above the "Heian Maru" ships lettering, just like we all did on our Truk visits!)

I've been going to Chuuk every year since 2007 (returning again this Oct '12), and in those four years even I have noticed the wrecks rapidly deteriorating condition. They're all nearly 70 years old, and according to veteran dive guides (like Chenny over at Blue Lagoon Dive Ops), they are in the end stage of final collapse and are becoming very treacherous to penetrate --they won't be intact much longer beyond ten years from now.

Have a great time! (Those stopovers in Honolulu & Guam will do much good for your energy level --it was tough after nearly twenty hours of continuous trans-pacific travel from Los Angeles, getting into Chuuk around 930pm still having to embark and set up gear onboard the Truk Odyssey for an early am departure the next day, and then literally crashing from exhaustion in my cabin afterward. . .)