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John A. Love
P. O. Box 8789
Denver, Colorado 80201
December 15, 1980

To: VPB 54 Members and Wives:

In addition to Christmas Cards, Ann and I thought you all might be interested in an account of a trip we made with our Family in October.

Telling the family that I wanted to show them where I won the war (I recognize that all of you made some contribution), we invited our son, Andy and his wife and our daughter, Becky and her husband, to go with us to Micronesia. Although there would be other stops, our ultimate destination was to be Peleliu in the Palau Group. This was for at least two reasons --

First, in 1944 I was on Peleliu when I first was notified of Andy's birth, and second, I had, in that same year, been shot at from Koror when picking a F4U pilot out of the water and I wanted to look at that situation from the other side.

We flew from Denver on Continental to Hawaii and spent the night. Early the next morning, we boarded Air Micronesia for an island-hopping tour west. Air Mike operates two 727's with the forward roughly one-third of the plane devoted to Cargo space.

Our first stop was Johnson Island. It really hasn't changed much from the last time I saw it. It is still tiny, devoid of foliage, and my candidate for the best place to get "Rock Happy" in the Pacific. They had some sort of secret military activity there and we were not allowed off the plane.

Our next stop was Majuro. It looks much the same, but I was most interested in the thatched roof shed that serves as a terminal and the gathering of natives come to see someone off or just to watch the planes come in. I don't remember seeing many Micronesian natives during the war, with the possible exception of a few who had been imported to work at the "Hotel" on Palmyra. They are not bad-looking people - certainly better than the Melanesians on Guadalcanal - or even Rennel Island.

The next stop was Kwajalein. This island hosts an Air Force operation of some sort. It has a good air strip, a normal sort of military terminal and the other aspects of a military base. My memory of it was after it had been intensively shelled and bombed. It was. therefore, somewhat of a shock to see some renewed vegetation and a well-kept golf course alongside the airfield.

On to Ponape. I had not been there during the war. It was a beautiful, if hot and humid, volcanic pacific isle with lush vegetation. We took on quite a load of natives with much luggage - flowers in their hair and a true aroma of the Pacific.

Then on to Truk. I remember the image I had of Truk during the war was an almost impregnable fortress. It doesn't look that way now. The fine harbor, as you have probably read carries more than its share of sunken Japanese ships which are readily visible through the clear water.

Our final stop for the day was at Guam. We spent the night in a very acceptable hotel/motel kind of facility and dined well. Guam and Saipan are drawing increasing numbers of tourists, primarily Japanese, and seem to have a reasonable economy. They, nevertheless, seem to have slipped in their agricultural endeavors, and have to import almost all of their food.

The next day we headed southerly, stopping first at Yap. The airstrip there is the shortest on the tour - some 4200 to 4400 feet in length and a somewhat nervous experience to watch the landing from the cockpit. I am sure it is the original Jap strip, and I couldn't help but remember Willie Sneed ducking out of the clouds to make a strafing run with one of our lethal PBY's. There are several rusting Zeros near the field and I tickled my fancy by believing that Willie had done them in.

One other comment on Yap - when we landed, most of the passengers rushed off to a nearby stand and bought large supplies of Betel nuts. I don't know whether Yap is the only source, but it seems to be doing a land office business.

The pilots were courteous enough to let me ride the cockpit and to make a tour down to Peleliu. It looked more familiar from the air that it did on the ground. (I am enclosing a picture.)

Then on, at last, to Palau. After the tour we landed on a Coral strip on top of a little hill in the southern part of Babelthuap. It must be the same strip that Bob Pinckney almost landed on by mistake thinking it was the strip at Peleliu.

By old bus over unbelievable roads we made our way to Koror and a decent hotel owned by Continental. A sightseeing trip around Koror was not memorable except for the realization of the fact that it was a flourishing city under Japanese rule. It is not flourishing now.

The next day we had arranged for a native boatman to take us the 20 or 30 miles down to Peleliu. He had a small fiberglass boat with a fairly powerful outboard and the trip was outstanding. We traveled through the area called, I believe, the Floating Islands. IT is beautiful water studded with tiny rock islands that have been eroded at the water line to an appearance of an urn crowned by a mass of foliage. We caught a few fish, which we cooked on one of the white sand beaches for lunch, the kids went scuba diving and snorkled, and all had a wonderful time.

Peleliu is now home for about 400 natives, gathered in a small village on the northwest corner. We were able to get a Japanese pickup and tour the island. The first thing that hit me was that the whole island is covered with heavy tropical vegetation. My memory pictures it as pure coral and as barren as Johnson. The second anomaly is the fact that there are substantial concrete buildings, or rather their remains on the westerly side of the island. I had no idea that there was anything more than the airstrip and the ridge where the Japanese were holed up when I was there.

On the ridge, by the way, we examined an elaborate cave with a Japanese gun still in place, and looked over several tank hulks below, both Japanese and American. I had thought I would be able to pick our the site where our tents were. However, although the strip is there and fairly familiar, the vegetation is such that I could find no hint of our occupancy.

We went to the landing beaches and I was a little sentimental as I recalled for the family the loss of some 9,000 boys. Looking at it my son-in-law asked a troubling question - why did they do it? We, I think, know why, but times have changed and I am troubled that this generation doesn't.

An interesting coincidence occurred on our departure. Again in the cockpit I was listening to a radio transmission of the Regan-Carter debate while we were flying over Ulithi atoll.
And so we returned by much the same route, stopping over on Maui for a few days or R & R.
I apologize for the length of this communication, but thought some of you might be interested. Ann and I hope you have the Merriest of Christmases and a wonderful New Year.

Sincerely,

John A. Love