Post #85072 by tiki mick 1 on Wed, Apr 7, 2004 10:30 AM

When we were first approaching JI, I was already intrigued....you could be right on the island and miss it...

I wondered if ancient navigators from polynesia had ever set foot there, and what did they do there? It would be so hard to find this tiny speck of dry land!

When we got off the boat, I noticed a lot of strange things right off the bat....lot's of bumkers..all semi-underground...(they have some of these on ford island, pearl harbor too)
I immediatley guessed they were storing chemicals there, but it was also obvious when they told us to keep our gasmasks clipped to our web belt that something was going on...

The people were cool, but strange..it was like the oliver stone movie "u-turn"..or maybe even a twighlight zone episode...they were staring at us..and I think it is because day after day they are looking at the same faces...they were kind of wierd towards us!

Everywhere you saw military police..lot's and lots of them...

In the water near the reef, I saw what looked like large black trashbags floating in the water...they were huge manta rays...

There was a place called "shark shoot" were they dumped trash....the sharks were indeed thick as thieves....not somewhere I would like to fall in! (the website shows a picture of these same sharks..all hammerheads)
Our atoll tour guide told us of a giant eel that lived in a sewage tube...we did not believe him, but soon I saw what looked like a horse's head coming out of the tube...man, that sucker was HUGE!!

On a related subject, we use to sail alot to the small island of Kahoolawe..(did I spell that right?) at the time it was a naval bombing range..and we supplied the marines and SeaBees that lived there...we would anchor in the most pristine lagoon I have ever seen..the reef 90 feet below looked like it was right below the ship...we would wait for the dolphins, then go swimming and hope the dolphins would protect us!

Later, I learned that is had been returned back to the hawaiians as a sacred area..no haoles allowed!

I wonder if the same thing applies to JI..will the hawaiians (or anyone else) ever use JI for religious ceremonies?

All in all, I used to tell people about JI, and they never believed me! But the place was soo cool, beautiful and tranquil..the water so blue and green it almost hurt your eyes..but very hot weather! We were allowed to wear our jungle issue uniforms (australian bush hat...and lightweight ventilated boots and cloth)as did all the servicemen on the island..

Reading about it now, I find it kind of creepy that they stored nerve gas (which I suspected) and agent orange (great punk band, by the way)there...

Right now, I think it would be too cool to stand on the now deserted atoll, smoke a big fatty, and be the ONLY person within 800 miles! Talk about blissful solitude!!!

All you would have would be the sound of waves, seagulls and a few palm trees to look at...and then the long marches of endless waves with flying fish skimming the surface!!

The place is magical...not like anywhere else!!