Descending the anchor lines on another Sunday morning into an abyss of Pacific blue, the shape of a plane begins to come into view, and not just one, but 2 right next to a thriving coral head, then 4 more off to the left in the sand. Where are we? In the airplane graveyard, which is just as its name suggests, a final resting place for airplanes. Unlike many of the other awesome wreck sites that can be dove here in the Marshalls, this one is not a tragic end for the Japanese or Americans during WWII, but rather, a dumping ground for American war planes, such as the SBD (silent but deadly) Dauntless, B-25s, C-45s, and Corsairs, which became obsolete after the war was over, so the Americans, one by one, pushed them off carriers into the water over 100 feet deep to rest in peace there forever.
It is a favorite dive spot for not only Kwajalein and Roi residents, but also for visitors, temporary duty workers, oceanic research groups, and many, many more. In fact, if you don’t dive, you can still see the planes on a little known DVE created by the Oceanic Research Group in 2004 called “The Silent Wrecks of Kwajalein Atoll. It’s a small piece of history, suspended forever in time at the bottom of the sea. Today was my third dive on the planes, and each time, I try to keep a count of all the planes I see. There are 13 in all, but I’ve never counted more than 9 before it’s time to head back to the surface.
The planes did not land all in a row or even all in the same way. There are planes shoved up next to coral heads, planes nose down in the sand with their tails sticking up 20 feet or so above their faces. There are planes without wings, maybe they lost them upon descent, and it’s hard to tell now whose wings were whose. I saw one partial wing in the sand by itself as I was descending, and one almost full wing stuck into the side of a coral head and partially on top of another wing of an almost fully intact plane as we neared to bottom. I wonder what it looked like to the sailors who helped guide these planes off the carrier unit as they watched them float into the deep. Some of the planes are in the sand upright and all by themselves, while others are groups together by twos or fours. It is quite a sight to see, and I look forward to someday getting around to seeing all 13 planes, but for now, I will relish having the chance to see a few of them more than once and to share the experience with good friends and beautiful, tropical weather to accompany us on our way there and back.
No comments:
Post a Comment