| P-MAN XIV Update #09 - To Peleliu and back with the National Archaeologist 26 March 2012 Well, today did not go exactly as planned. We had hoped to depart from the dock at 0800, but had to push it back to 0900. Three errands had to take place: Flip had to drop off his laundry; Pat needed to purchase a new dive computer; and we needed to pick up our group insurance policy. Safety first in all cases. The first change to our plan was that Aquaman (Cut) could not join us. Cut had something come up and just could not show us the location of the engine he's found. We'll have to move that to another day. We were joined by Suzanne Finney, Palau's official resident archeologist and our point of contact at The Bureau of Arts and Culture. She wanted to collect a jawbone, found last year down on Peleliu, that might belong to a U.S. serviceman. Some time last year after the bone was found, it went missing. This year, it returned. So rather than wait much longer, we joined forces to collect it. We fired up the boat and took off. It had been raining cats and dogs all morning before we pushed off, but the rain stopped for the ride south to Peleliu. By chance, we met an old friend at the Peleliu dock who just happened to be driving by: Dave McQuillen from Cleared Ground. He knew where the jaw bone was and offered to show us. And we met the Governor of Peleliu. He heard we were coming down and he came out to say hi.
Dave said "follow me" and took us to the bone. After the bone was collected by Suzanne, Dave gave us a quick tour of the trails they've been building through the battlefield. When it's all done, visitors will have a great experience touring this famous battle site for the Marines, yet do it safely with all the UXO removed. After that quick jaunt, we were taken to a new find. Suzanne had been told that a full skeleton with a helmet had been found. Stories like this abound around Peleliu but she felt she had to check it out. About 30 yards from the road, up a little hill, was a Japanese fighting position with a lot of bone in it, along with a piece of a helmet. Odds are this is a Japanese soldier. Suzanne wasn't set up to do this recovery so it will wait for another day.
Since Cut wasn't going to take us to his new find in the water, we had to figure out what to do next. We headed the boat back north to Neco Marine, and enroute we decided to hike another rock island since we already had our hiking gear with us. We dropped Suzanne off and then headed back to Ngeruktabel island to do some preliminary work prior to our real excursion into that steep coral jungle. But the closer we got, the hotter it seemed to get and the less desire we had to hike. So almost as if one mind had thought of this, we all said "let's go back to the Corsair." We spent a bit of time diving on the aircraft and finally found the data plate we'd been seeking. We're still confirming all the pertinent facts and figures, but from what we can tell the pilot survived the crash and was rescued. The airplane was a Goodyear FG-1 Corsair. And it is still going to be a great dive site when it is opened to the public.
Back to base with a good feeling about the day. Out to dinner at The Taj. Normally, we just ask Robert the owner to order for us. And normally it's a huge amount of food. So we asked for a Robert "Lite" order and he did just that. Still the best food around, and this time in just the right amount so as to not bloat us out. Again. Back at the hotel when we walked up the stairs to get to the apartment we saw the ROV team working to make sure the vehicle will be ready for tomorrow. We're briefing at 0730 and Buck will conduct the technical portion of the brief for the ROV team. Then we'll do a split day again, to let everyone work with the vehicle on a known site (the Corsair). Then the next time they are on the water, it'll be after big game. - Flip Colmer |
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