Truk Lagoon Dive Trip

yep, i went all the way to Micronesia to go scuba diving and it was pretty cool. Truk lagoon (sometimes called Chuuk) was the location of a major battle of WWII in the pacific. 3 of us made the rather long trip to the other side of the world to experience a bit of World History first hand.

It was February 1944, when the US decided on a little payback for Pearl Harbor. Many called Truk the Japanese Pearl Harbor.

It was the home base for the Imperial Japanese Navy's combined fleet. The attack was called "Operation Hailstone" and it pretty much devastated the Japanese.

Although a couple of their "Super Battleships" left Truk the day prior. Vice Admiral Marc A. Mitscher's Task Force 58 had five fleet carriers (Enterprise, Yorktown, Essex, Intrepid, and Bunker Hill) and four light carriers (Belleau Wood, Cabot, Monterey, and Cowpens), embarking more than 500 planes. Supporting the carriers was a large fleet of seven battleships, and numerous cruisers, destroyers, submarines, and other support ships.

The U.S. attack involved a combination of airstrikes, surface ship actions, and submarine attacks over two days and appeared to take the Japanese completely by surprise. In total the attack sank three Japanese light cruisers (Agano, Katori, and Naka), six destroyers (Oite, Fumizuki, Maikaze, Hagio, Isogu, and Tachikaze), three other smaller warships, and 32 merchant ships. Some of the ships were destroyed in the anchorage and some in the area surrounding Truk lagoon. Many of the merchant ships were loaded with reinforcements and supplies for Japanese garrisons in the central Pacific area. Very few of the troops aboard the sunken ships survived and little of their cargos were recovered...

So, we climbed aboard a dive boat and spent the week looking at the sunken remains of the Japanese Navy. A truly amazing experience. Most of the dives were quite deep. Our deepest dive was 188 feet to the San Francisco Maru where we saw a battle tank on the deck, a cargo hold full of land mines, various ordinance, and all kinds of paraphenalia from the crew.

There were a lot of Saki bottles everywhere. Apparently, the Japanese sailors liked to drink.

Our first dive was to penetrate a ship at 120' through a torpedo hole and then make our way through the engine room. Coming around one of the corners, i came face to face with a skull that was wedged between two beams.

Apparently, that sailor had a bad day.

Here I'm checking out the cockpit of a Japanese Zero.

All in all, i had a good trip. Between my trip to the Ukraine and this trip, i've gotten a pretty good first hand feeling for WWII.

While swimming through the interior of one of the sunken ships, i came upon a bathroom with a small sink, mirror, and toilet. My main thought was that these were just average guys who were swept up in the massive current of world events. Maybe that will serve to broaden my mind to todays realities and the costs of war.

This is a beached whale that we tried desperately to rescue. My humanitarian work is never done...