As a young man struggling to find my path in this world, I
was unemployed and unable to fund my college education. A poster in my hometown post office
captivated me. You may have seen it or
similar posters: an attractive lass in a
sailor’s Cracker Jacks hinting coyishly:
“I wish I were a man. I’d join
the Navy.”
No doubt, today’s Navy is different than the Vietnam era
Navy. For one thing, I don’t think the
Navy uses the term WAVES anymore when speaking of female sailors. I understand that women now perform their duties
at sea side by side with their male counterparts. To me,
that’s a good thing.
The young lady in the poster may have attracted my
attention. What really captivated me about the Navy was dreams of escaping a small
Michigan hometown and sailing off to exotic places to see the world. The Navy sent me to the Pacific. As a result, the exotic ports of call I
visited included Manila, Beppu, Busan, Okinawa, and Sydney.
The Pacific is vast and not all its destinations are known
as well as those I just mentioned. Some
are downright obscure. Here’s a
geography quiz for you. Can you place
Woleai Atoll on a map? How about the State
of Yap? Maybe you’ve at least heard of
Micronesia? New Guinea?
In 1975, while under way on a cruise to Sydney, my ship, a
destroyer, received a short wave call from Woleai Atoll. The island was under siege by pirates. Hundreds of miles from nowhere, Woleai is a
territory in the State of Yap which is part of Micronesia. It sits roughly halfway between Guam to the
north and New Guinea south. Hundreds of
miles of ocean separate it from anywhere. During World War II, Woleai was a Japanese
army base manned by several thousand troops. By the 1970s, its small native
population’s only contact with the outside world was shortwave radio.
There is no harbor or piers adequate to handle a naval vessel
at Woleai. So, in a scene right out of
Hawaii Five-O, the local chief rode in an outrigger canoe before he came aboard
our ship to have dinner with our captain.
At the same time, we sent hospital corpsmen, boatswain mates, and a
young officer on the atoll to tend to some of the islanders who may have been
injured by the pirates. Visiting Woleai
felt more like 1870s than 1970s.
An AP article in Monday’s Herald Palladium reminded me of
another remote location in the Pacific.
Whereas I only visited Woleai for a day, I spent a year and a half in a
tour of duty as a petty officer, disc jockey and TV station broadcaster on
Midway Atoll. The naval battle of
Midway is one of the most famous of World War II and may have turned the tide
of war against the Japanese Imperial Navy which lost decisively.
A once famous sign on Midway reminded me daily that we were
stationed some 2,800 miles from San Francisco, 2,200 miles from Tokyo and 1,300
miles from Honolulu. Before the naval
station was decommissioned, Midway was home to a couple thousand sailors, dozens
of spouses and dependents, some civilian contractors, a bowling alley, and a
nine-hole par three golf course.
Midway is also home to the world’s largest colony of Laysan
Albatross. Adult Laysan are thirty or
more inches tall with a wing span of more than six feet. In the 1970s, there
were more Laysan Albatross on Midway’s islands than there were people. Thousands more.
Today, Midway is a bird sanctuary not only home to the
Laysan but many other exotic bird species.
No cats or dogs are allowed. Their
only enemies are sharks and man. Sadly,
the Laysan is at risk since the vast Pacific is now home to tons of floating
plastic debris. The Laysan and other
species often swallow or are entrapped by plastics. While the invasion from the Japanese Imperial
Navy could not destroy the Laysan, plastic refuse may be a more efficient
killer of the Gooney bird.
After you search for Woleai in Google, try visiting YouTube
and searching for Dancing Laysan Albatross.
The Laysan mating dance is a good chuckle. For the sake of the glorious Laysan and
other aquatic creatures, including those in Lake Michigan, please recycle and
use less plastics.
P.S. Original story which may have inspired the above:
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