At this site on Kosrae in 1942, a US submarine put ashore a lone commando whose mission was to obtain the Japanese code book used at the radio station.
By blowing up a nearby fuel depot, the commando created a diversion that enabled him to enter the station, grab the code book, and escape back across the reef and out to the waiting submarine. This remarkable story was later made into the 1959 Hollywood film, Up Periscope! Towards the end of the war, the Japanese blew up the station so that it would not fall into US hands.
My students and I chose this site to conduct the field portion of the survey training so the Kosrae historic preservation team could have the resulting model when we were finished. We also located positions for a LIDAR scan scheduled to happen later in the week. The class went very well and the students were impressed with Civil 3D’s Figures and Description Keys functionality.
On my blog, I have posted several photos of the remains of the station and the class in the field.
VIDEO Berlin Sigrah, the Kosrae Historic Preservation Officer tells a little bit about the local villagers and their struggle during the war in this video.
VIDEO On the beach at the radio station Simpson Abraham, Director of the Kosrae Island Resource Management Agency, discusses the other problem that Kosrae is facing: shoreline erosion.
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