| P-MAN IX Update #04 Hello Everyone!
We’ve had our first full day in Palau. It is great to get back to this wonderful country. But first, lessons learned.
1. By mistake, I left my raincoat out of my postal shipment to Palau. It was raining in Tokyo. 2. Beer distributors never cease to amaze me. Sudswerks beer in Guam. 3. As time goes on, people get to know us better and actually smile when we return. 4. Our plans always get altered the moment we start activities in Palau. 5. People remember us. 6. My 4 band world cell phone, isn’t.
So we flew across the pond to Japan and spent 4 days there. Details about that part of the adventure will come out shortly.
From Japan, Rebecca went home and I went to Guam. DOB and I stayed with friends of ours who are Continental pilots. They have a wonderful home overlooking the Pacific Ocean.
Spent many hours getting caught up and went to bed at a reasonable hour. My body was starting to adjust to the time zone.
On Valentine's Day, we
had a meeting with Don Shuster of the University of Guam
He talked, we talked, he showed us a map, we showed him the same map. He asked us questions and we asked him different questions. He made some interpretive statements and so did we. He called his wife to come over and help us decipher some Japanese military maps. His wife, Wakako Higuchi, is the leading expert on the Japanese military presence in Guam. Her dissertation is on the Japanese plans for Guam as part of the defensive strategy of the homelands. At least that’s what I heard.
After about 6 hours, we all agreed that we need to shift our search pattern about two kilometers north of where we’ve been looking for years. We have a hand-drawn map of the execution areas, maps from 1944 showing roads then and maps from today showing us how the roads have changed. And we have Google Earth. A very powerful tool to help us blend today, into yesterday’s images and maps.
Back to Phil and Jan’s for a quick change and out to the airport. Time to go to Palau.
Pat Scannon arrived from Honolulu. It’s always great to see the boss. We boarded, we left, we arrived in Palau 2 hours later.
On the plane, I met Joe, who is the head of immigration on Palau. Nice man and we had a great chat about BentProp, the problems of some people trying to get to the U.S. via Palau and about the recent bank failure in Palau.
Greeting us at the airport were Joe, Esther and Doyle Maldangesang. Doyle is Joe and Esther’s almost-two-year-old son. His full name is Doyle Colmer Eriang Maldangesang. So you can see why I have an interest in Palau beyond BentProp. We had hugs all around. Leis placed around our necks and made our way to The Truck Stop.
For those who are new to this story, The Truckstop (its real name is Bem Ermii) is a burger stand that makes fantastic milkshakes and burgers. I was only going to have a milkshake but when Pat and Dan ordered a burger, well, how could I let them eat alone?
Checked into our hotel and some of the same staff members from earlier missions were still there. They remembered us. That felt nice.
Chatted about the next day’s activities and went to bed.
Up for a 0730 breakfast at the restaurant next door. The restaurant in the hotel closed last year so we have to walk across the driveway to find something to eat. Well, at least until we go grocery shopping so we can cook for ourselves.
Today would be mostly meet and greets. We find if we tell all the officials of Palau what we are planning on doing, it goes much easier for us. We went to our own Embassy and met the Charge d' Affaires. We spoke with Senators and Governors from Palau. We made appointments to see the President and Vice President of this great nation. And we checked in with Rita from the Historical Preservation Office.
We have a delicate balancing act we have to do when we conduct our searches. We cannot dig or excavate for a number of reasons. From the U.S. Government Historical point of view, these are historical sites and should be preserved as is. They could also be final resting spots for U.S. Servicemen and should not be disturbed. From the Palauan point of view, it’s their land and nothing can be done by a foreigner without their knowledge and permission. We dust around the edges to make a case for JPAC (Joint POW/MIA Accounting Command) to petition the governments of both countries to allow them to excavate to repatriate the missing.
Rita has been great over the years, teaching us what we can and cannot do. We in turn follow her instructions and provide her with reports that fill in some gaps in Palau’s historical knowledge.
Spoke with a previous acquaintance and we got some good intel about new aircraft debris finds. Might be part of the aircraft that belongs to a wing we found 2 missions ago in a mangrove off Babelthuap.
Went to the Phone Company and found out my cell phone won’t ever work in Palau. Bait and switch from my cell phone provider. So I now have a calling card to keep in touch with Rebecca.
Stocked up on groceries. Went to the Post Office and retrieved gear bags and boxes. All of our stuff is now in country.
Out to dinner with Joe. Thai food. Then we went to the airport to pick up our fourth member of the team: Bob Holler. Bob is retired Air Force. He spent his 30+ years all as a para-rescue guy. This guy knows his stuff and is in shape. And he listened to us and brought a bag of really good whole bean coffee.
Since this is Bob’s first visit to Palau, we had to take him to The Truck Stop. And I stuck with my original idea of a milkshake only.
We got Bob settled into his room, set the hour for breakfast and off to bed everyone went. Except me. I wanted to type a little something before too many days go by. I know today’s update is short on pictures. I’ll do better in the future. Especially when we get out into the jungle.
That’s our story so far. More to come as time goes on. I hope all is well with you.
Blue
SKies, Flip |
- Main Site
- Expeditions
- Our Story
- Miscellany
