Didn't know how to categorize this so I'm stowing it here. Has anybody ever landed, docked, been stationed, or washed up on Wake Island? On my first flight over the Pacific in 1969, (on Braniff Airways), we landed on Wake to refuel. From where I sat it looked like a spec on the water as we approached. It also seemed we had just enough runway to come to a stop. We were allowed off the Boeing 707 to stretch and look around. I changed into whites during the stopover there. It was hot and bright, and would seem like an unpleasant place to be stationed. Anybody who had to live and work there should be awarded a medal.
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I landed on Wake Island in 1990 headed to Okinawa with NMCB Four. We had to re fuel a A1011 that the battalion had chartered to fly us to Okinawa. Everything that I've read on this page is pretty much accurate. When we landed we were allowed to get of the plane and walk around, I head to the chapel and signed my name in the visitor log. Very desolate place, and very hot and windy.
after boot i jumped a MAC flight to subic. we stopped at wake to refuel. only thing i remember is when i walked off the plane that tropical heat floored me. god was it hot !!!
I have a paperback book about Wake Island. The title is "Given Up For Dead". Good book!
Landed on Wake when heading to my first tour of duty in Japan in 1962 from Hawaii.
Iit was dark when I was briefly there,but it seemed to be a very LONELY place to be stationed....Much later,after boarding my first tin can,we tied up @ MIDWAY a time or two,and I was able to walk around there for a short time,and watched the "GOONIE BIRDS" trying to get airborne,@ coming in for a landing.It was so hard for them to get up into the air,but once airborne, they were very graceful,but when they came in for a landing,they lost ALL CONTROL,and came in FLIPPING END-OVER-END! I was later told that was why they got that name: GOONIE BIRD...
I In Jan.1957,I flew in a 4 prop US Air Force piston driven aircraft from Frisco..( Treasure Island ) Cal. at about 2100 and later dropped in at Wake to re-fuel,and was escorted to the mess hall for chow,and then boarded the aircraft to resume my flight to Subic Bay.Much later,my tin can steamed into Midway Island,which kinda reminded me of Wake & Kwajalein...hot,humid,but thankfully windy.
Another island I got to visit that was a WWII battle was Tinian. While on deployment to Guam 92 - 93 have way through our deployment we shut down our projects and spent a week having a mini FEX "field exercise" there. The end of the island that we were at night you could look across the water and see the lights over on Saipan. One time during our stay then had the Air Force practice doing low level resupply runs and on one of the runways they came in low and pushed a plait out the back of a C-130 which had food loaded on it and I guess the parachute didn't open up right and the palette landed up side down and they had milk, eggs, etc spread all down the runway. What a good job the Air Force did for us that day........hehehehe no wonder we use to call them Club Med
on my first flight to the PI I flew on MAC and we stopped there to refuel in the middle of the night. when the door opened the heat was like a blast furnace.
You're right about the civilian construction workers, that is why the Seabees were formed. During WWII the Seabees were the oldest, the first ones that were taken were in their late 20's and older and all were journeyman level or higher. Master carpenters, electricians, plumbers, welders, mechanics, and equipment operators.
Hi Adrian, I worked on a small Tanker delivering JP-5 She is the TransPacific, there to Wake Island.Yes, the mooring there was a nightmare since we did a 4 point mooring both on the Bow and Stern, with both Anchors let go. We made fast to anchor Bouys. Mind you, this is only less than 800 Yards from shore, and you can hear and see the waves breaking in the beach. Enough to put hair on your chest. Thats' if the surf was not too rough for the approach to begin with, otherwise, canex, try tomorrow. We spent 3 days discharging the cargo on a floating hose. Anyway, we were invited ashore to visit this desolate atoll to whom one would think God forgotten about.The Island is probably riddled with artifacts, like Iwo Jima, but its very hot, and miserable, oh and windy, of course. Its has the airstrip there, a small exchange and club, with Thai Nationals working there.Lots of Pine trees. Oh yeah, and the sunken wreck of the Jacpb Stoner nearby where we moored. I was glad to leave, and worked going that for 3 years, from 2007 to 2010.
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