I was invited to go to Truk in late 1969. I had known about "Mysterous Truk" from stories I read right after World War 2 had ended, and being interested firstly in aviation had read everything I could find of the disappearance of Amelia Earhart and Fred Noonan. I never met a Micronesian who knew anything first hand about her, leading me to believe that the rumors she had crashed near Pakin in the Ponape group were just rumors.

Aircraft Crashes
One thing I did learn about an aircraft crash was to ask, where's the engine(s)? In the water or on the land, if the engine is left where it was, it serves as a mute testimony to the fact that an aircraft has crashed somewhere in the vicinity, unless it was at an airport as a spare, or something like that. Even while diving off the north side of the runway (modern airport) of Moen, I have seen engines in the water, too far from shore to have been just rolled into the sea to get rid of them. (See? That's how I learned about the American Navy wreck on Eninganimu-I was diving and shooting fish and came upon the engine in the water. Then, I went to shore and sure enough, there was a portion of the wing buried in the sand. Later, I spoke with the family owner of the land, Risa, and learned of his finding the plane and pilot remains after the war.

Moen Map
As you know, there are no street names and so forth on islands. The usual directions are, up there, down there, toward the mountains, and toward the sea. So, when one gets to a new area the cardinal question one asks is, where is up there? The direction being indicated, everything else falls into place. Hawaii is like this too. So, I think I can draw you a verbal map, which you can put down on paper, and while going over the way to present it to you, I recalled another wreck site.

Make Your own Map of Moen!
Place an 8 x 10 sheet of blank paper before you, with the long direction (11) going from left to right. The top of the paper is West direction, Left of the paper is East. Top of the paper points to Tol, left side of the paper points to Dublon Island (Tonoas) .At the left end, in the middle, draw a vertical line about 2 inches long, up and down. At the middle of that line, draw a horizontal line rightward three inches long. You shud now have a letter "T" laying on its side. Label the top of the vertical line as Neauo, Contl Hotel, old seaplane launch ramps. Label the bottom of the vertical line, to Wichap Village and hanger/caves. Now, at the right end of the horizontal line you drew, draw a 1 inch vertical line upward.

Japanese Aircraft Crash Site
At the junction of these two lines, Label Risa's house (him being the one who discovered the crash site on Eningaminu). Here is where there is also a crash site. Risa told me in explanation of a large three-bladed mangled prop I saw on the ground, that there had been an airbattle overhead, and the Japanese plane was shot down, landing exactly where the prop still was. The next day, a truck from the airfield came and loaded the wreckage onto it and took it away. Pilot(s) were killed. It's a pretty good sized prop, far larger than a Zero, but was single engine. The pilots seat, on a pedastal, was mounted right outside Risa's hut. It was aluminum and perforated as I recall. I sat in it. Also, part of his hut had as a side a section of corrugated aluminum. This has zonc chromate on it, so I suspect it is from the PBM Martins that were caught in the 1946 typhoon.

Mwan
At the top of the last vertical line you drew 1 inch long, draw a line to the right parallel to the top of the paper about 6 inches long. Top side of the line is seaward, bottom side of line in mountainward. In the middle, (three inches) label Nemete village (this is where I lived). This village is generally known as "Mwan". One inch to the right of that, put a mark on top of the line, label that Boat Pool. Below it on the other side of the line, a dot labelled Post Office. One inch to the right of the Boat Pool/Post Office mark, draw a vertical line toward you (mountainward) three inches long. One inch down the line, a mark on right side, label this Jail. (Ding Ding oh yes! there were Japanese Military who lived in the tall grasses here a number of years after the war ended without being caught. They were finally caught stealing garbage and repatriated to Japan - No further details).

Hospital
Still coming toward you one inch from the Jail site, draw a vertical line to the left one inch long. At end of that line, label current hopspital. Now this hospital is on top of a hill. At the base of this hill is where the Val is, below the hospital. (There's an inland trail here that runs all the way back to Nemete village where I lived. It was originally a road, and there are lotsa places to explore along here. Barracks sites with huge cauldrons to cook rice in and so forth. I once came across a complete cowling from a Zero, painted black. Had the two indintation for the 7.7mm guns on the top. It was in perfect condition, but no one could tell me where the rest of the plane was. I was very frustrated). There's lotsa interesting stuff around here below the hospital-it was the terminus of the old fighterstrip and I was told the hill the hospital sits on was actually a hanger cave and there were plane(s) in it when the Japanese dynamited the entrance closed-what a fantasy to break thru the seal and find intact aircraft waiting for you!!! Now, please go back to the long horizontal 6 inch line you drew. At the right end label it Japanese airfield, present day Continental Air Lines airport. Nothing is to scale here. These are landmarks only.

Spy On Truk
There was a spy parachuted in during WWII this is an interesting story. I met a crew member on the B-24 who brought him in from the Philippines and dropped him during the night. Can also tell you from a lady I met the results of his spying on a group of just-arrived aviators.

PBM Martin Seaplane Wrecks
Wreckage of two PBM Martins. They were anchored there and during the typhoon of 1946 and were destroyed. The gull-wings were apparent, even from 1969 thru 81. They are about 1/4 mile or less off shore when standing directly east of them.

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