June 2001                                                              The Megaphone                                                               Page 5

Where Are The Sharks . . . ?

On the loudspeaker the pilot was saying we would lose altitude as he flew lower and lower stopping at 300 feet above sea water. "If we ditch," he continued, "we will do it on the belly of the plane and not the nose." And ... if we come down on the belly we float longer than hitting the water nose first.

Well, it made perfect sense to me. Little did I or the rest of the passengers know it was all a premeditated lie on the his part.  He was losing altitude, couldn't help it, and wanted to say something so we wouldn't slip into mass hysteria.

Telling us much earlier that an SOS had been sent back to Hawaii, he had explained we had just passed the POINT OF NO RETURN when we flipped over. Three fighter jets were on their way to "observe" and mark our ditching location. They would be of no help to us though. At this time we spotted them and a  cheer went up!  We knew they couldn't help ... and yet ... how comforting to see  outside our windows, flying right beside us, these men, these pilots in small able bodied planes.  As they flew really close, I waved at one and he waved back.  As I look back over the years I realize they were a connection to the world of normal living, so necessary to see as we sat helpless ... waiting to die.

Many eyes stayed glued to the  remaining propeller as it trudged onward never spitting or coughing. The pilot marked off the miles over the loudspeaker as we flew closer to the water and Wake Island ... our destination from the moment trouble began.

I remember "25 miles" as we looked down and saw a large body of sharks. Nothing but silence over the loudspeaker as we saw the tiniest bit of land. There was no shouting for joy as we realized it was sink or swim time. "Ten" miles ... "four" miles. I'm sure sheer will on everyone's part ... crew and passengers alike, kept that plane skimming over the top of those whitecaps longer than normal.

We heard, "Heads down."  Our seats were all in an upright position.  Mark was awake and we put our heads down and our arms over and around our heads as per instruction. In our lifejackets we felt a bumping up and down motion as we hit the water sailing ... for a time, on the top of the waves.  Slowing down much too fast and finally stopping, the emergency doors were knocked open and we had minutes to jump out.

We were amazingly close to land ... !!!  I remember loud shouting as the first people jumped ... hitting the water and sharks and ... my God ... rock ... right under the surface of the water ... about four feet ... !!! It seemed like only seconds when it was our turn and we didn't have far to jump as the plane had settled on solid rock. I dropped Mark into waiting arms and jumped.  Surprised at the warmth and salty taste, we waded to shore and waiting arms to help us.

One hundred forty-seven passengers, six stewardesses and four crewmen walked to shore. No one lost their life and no one had a broken leg. There were 4 broken arms and assorted bumps and bruises. Mark and I didn't have a bruise between us ... praise God ... !!! And besides that ... not one, no not even one shark attack or bite ... !!!

We trudged up the runway toward the flight line waiting room.  Sitting and laying on the floor for the next 16 hours while they figured out what to do with so many people, we slept, cried hugged each other and talked ... never tiring of the retelling of the experience we shared. Little did we know ... we were stranded for the next ten days ... !!!

The immediate job of the island workers ... FAA people ... was to find supplies for the newborns in our group. No diapers and no food ... we all felt a sense of caring for these tiny people who had their future handed back to them.

Wake Island is a major refueling stop for JAL . . . Japanese Airlines.  The SOS went out long before they landed and assorted supplies were "donated" to our "family."

Daily Life Wake Island Style

After that first 16 hours, our situation began to slowly improve.  Up until then, there were Cokes, Pepsis, and candy to eat, nothing else, and no where to lay down but a bug covered floor.

Later, that first day, some of us walked down to the lagoon.  Heck, I didn't even know what a lagoon was! Wake Island is U shaped with the flight line along one complete side.  The bottom of the U to the sort of open top was the lagoon, filled with the most brilliant turquoise colored water I had ever laid eyes on next to an almost navy blue ocean, the colors were indescribably beautiful! Along the top of the U was a low lying coral reef. We were told that if we wanted to swim we would have to chase out the sharks as the tide was going out, so they could swim over the reef. Or we could kill some and eat shark meat.  I never knew of one being killed. We waited until the next day and then with long poles we yelled, hollered and whistled and scared those sharks back out to sea as the tide went out too.  The trapped water made a lovely swimming pool.

The men stripped to their shorts, and little ones went naked, but alas, what was I to do?  I was wearing a dress that I had had on since before leaving California.  I waded in, dress and all. None of us had any other clothes than what we were wearing!  This was my first experience with sea water. I soon regretted it as it left me itchy and I wanted to rinse it off. No fresh water for that. Later we were told where we could shower.  I recall showering and washing my clothes then putting all the wet clothes on, same as everybody else in our cozy little group of 157 people, including crew.

By the third day we were in good shape.  Food had arrived in large crates from the Flying Tiger Airline, movies and games, a few books and magazines. In the early '60s there were no VCRs, TV that far out, microwaves, disposable diapers, telephones, [no trans-pacific cable yet]  and most likely other things I've forgotten.  I had my first reconstituted milk and eggs. I ate my first C rations. We had no fresh fruit or vegetables.  We had lots of peanut butter and spam, not together.

In the following days I walked over every inch of Wake Island. It really was extremely interesting, living history  lay everywhere. Huge battles had been fought here between the Japanese and Americans, with many losing their lives on both sides.  I found ivy covered bunkers and rusty tanks, both American and Japanese.  I climbed on top of and old tank and peered down inside fully expecting to find human remains. Drats, not even a bone, and to think the war had ended just sixteen years before I was there.

To watch the tide go in and out was an amazing miracle to this land locked little girl. The wonders of nature I'd missed growing up in Indiana were becoming more apparent everyday.

One day while walking along the side of the flight line [runway], I found a very wide yellow strip running across the cement.  About five feet wide you couldn't have missed it. I continued on to where the runway met the sea, and there, as I had been told, was a sunken Japanese U-boat.  We had walked on to the shore over it and never noticed at the time.  Upon returning to the terminal, I asked about the wide yellow line and was told that was the point of no return. Once a pilot passed that point he was committed to the sky or the water.  There was not enough space left to stop.

I've given that term some thought this week, as I remember back on the events that took place so many years ago. We all have many "points of no return."  I link it with the JUST DO IT slogan.  More on that later.

Where Do We Sleep . . . ???

Along with the food came bedding, on that third day of being stranded on a desert island ... lovely clean smelling sheets and pillows. But where to put them?

One of our men spotted a couple of vine covered buildings and broke in to find they were deserted barracks ... Japanese style ... metal beds with thin straw mattresses ... bug infested. Remember ... this is the hard core tropics ... and you think our southern states have bugs ... ??? HA !!!

We all dove in and took the mattresses outside and shook and beat them ... leaving them in the sun. Later, with little hesitation  we made our beds. Mark and I shared one single bed as there were not enough for all to sleep at the same time.  Married couples were split up for sleeping. There was only two buildings and the women and children had one. I know I felt movement under our sheet but I was young and had more tolerance for bugs than now.  Just to lay down ... how sweet it was ... !!!

At the time, as it is now, it felt so awesome, so unbelievable to be laying on a bed that had held a Japanese soldier.  Was he still alive? Was he killed? I looked around for signs of him and of course there were none.

Julie (Stout) Duffitt '57