2-front-the Missing Black Box

The Missing Black Box, Author Tom McGoldrick

THE MISSING BLACK BOX

BY TOM MCGOLDRICK

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The Missing Black Box, Author Tom McGoldrick

1st Printing as Star Wars in the Pacific ISBN 1-4208-4297-8 by Authorhouse.com and now republished by Lulu.com as “The Missing Black Box” May 2007 This book is fictional to satisfy the requirements of the times. No part of this book may be reproduced in any form without written permission from the Publisher Copyright, Tom McGoldrick

OTHER BOOKS BY THIS AUTHOR If you are interested in more real life adventure stories I encourage you to read the following books. “Retirement Riches in the Pacific” ISBN 1-4137-0995-8 published by Publish America. And now republished by Lulu.com as “The Purpose Driven Retirement to the Marshall Islands”. My Life Story by Tom M. A Recovering Alcoholic ISBN 1-4208-4201-3 was first published by Authorhouse.com and is now republished as “My Obsession With Alcohol and My Recovery” published by Lulu.com . “On the Road to Recovery Thanks to AA Meetings” ISBN 1-4116-7552-5 published by Lulu.com describes much of my years of sobriety “ is now republished by Lulu.com as “Return to a Proper Purpose Driven Life Style Thanks to AA Meetings”. “Odyssey of the Auditor Interns of 1965” ISBN 1-4116-7688-2 published by Lulu.com is an account of an entire career spent traveling and working for the government. Also check out Mobipocket.com for all my books as e-books. Go to mobipocket and search on McGoldrick. And, go to http://lulu.com/tjmcgoldrick7 and to http://mcgoldrickadventurenovels.blogspot.com/ for previews and for links to publishers and book sellers.

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The Missing Black Box, Author Tom McGoldrick

Dedication This book is dedicated to the real cloak and dagger men and women of each and every country, and to those who want to be, whatever their age. There is a bit of the spy and sleuth in each of us. Therefore, we tend to enjoy participating in spy and sleuth actions from the armchair in the safety of our own homes, reading the latest thriller or watching a short version on TV. How much of each is based on actual happenings, and how much on fiction? We often never know in our lifetimes. That is because each world power, in an effort to protect their national security, classifies many actions and seals the lips of the participants. After fifty or more years, when the relevancy seems mundane, the grandchildren of the people who lived through the events sometimes get to read the government accounts made public in print. Much of the sting and agony has passed by that time, and about all the grandchildren can say is "Oh, so that was what Grandpa used to get so upset about." A few years ago, I happened to mention to a co-worker that I had copies of video tapes of the atom bomb testing in the Pacific. She asked if she could see them. Her father had been involved in the Manhattan Project during WW II, and she remembered vividly being moved late at night, lock, stock and barrel from their home in one city and state to another a number of times, without any goodbyes or forwarding addresses. Her comment after viewing the tapes was, "Thank you. I had hoped I would have seen my father in the videos. He spend many months out in the Pacific and came back with badly sunburned arms and face and never talked about his work. I had suspected, and now I know. The video tapes put my mind at ease." All actions by governments are actions by men. Men intend to do the right thing to preserve the way of life of their country without unduly harming others. However, the unduly harming others often gets rationalized as, "It is okay to lose a few lives to save the multitudes." This book is not judgmental. It only tells a story of what might have happened on a Pacific atoll during the last days of the cold war. The book is fictional and any resemblance of characters in the book, events or places to actual is purely coincidental.

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The Missing Black Box, Author Tom McGoldrick

THE MISSING BLACK BOX TABLE OF CONTENTS Page TITLE PAGE...............................................................………….........................I COPYRIGHT and OTHER BOOKS BY THIS AUTHOR………………… …..…II DEDICATION………………………………......................................…………….III TABLE OF CONTENTS ......................................................………….............. IV FOREWORD ..........................................................................………….......... V Chapter 1- PEACE CORPS ASSIGNMENT………………………………….….…1 Chapter 2- VISIT TO VLADIVOSTOK ………………………………….…………..7 Chapter 3-CONTRACT ASSIGNMENTS………………………………………....17 Chapter 4-WELCOME TO THE ISLANDS……………………………………..…31 Chapter 5-NURSING ON EBEYE..........................................…...………..........45 . Chapter 6-BEACH COMBING................................................…………............58 Chapter 7-ISLAND OF THE BIG PX......................................………….............67 Chapter 8-DOLDRUMS AND TYHOONS..............................………….............86 Chapter 9-MEDICAL SUPPLY TRIP TO GUAM ………………………..…….…95 . Chapter 10-INCOMING MISSILE............................................….……….........124 Chapter 11-WHERE DID THE BLACK BOX GO ?......................…….….…....139 Chapter 12-VACATION TO POHNPEI...............................…..…….................143 Chapter 13-DENIABILITY & SECURITY......................................……….........160 Chapter 14-THE ADVENTURE IS WINDING DOWN...................…………….167 Chapter 15-IMPLOSION IN THE STRATOSPHERE...................……….........172

FORWORD IV

The Missing Black Box, Author Tom McGoldrick

The author of this book had the opportunity to live for eight years on two Pacific Island atolls and to visit a number of other atolls. An atoll is any number of coral topped islands which form the top rim of a dead volcano. Atolls may be circular, oval, or a combination thereof and might have a central island surrounded by a lagoon with an outer ring of islands like Pohnpei. While living there, the author was immersed in the cultures in a way not available to a tourist. This was because he married girls from Pohnpei and from the Marshall islands and liked to live with the people. It was through relationships established with local people that he was able to not only look on and hear what was happening, but also to participate as an active member of the social groups. Island girls are like butterflies. They are beautiful, full of life, and fly from one flower to another. They do not stay very long with one man. They love their man, but they also love and enjoy other men.

Before traveling and living in the Pacific, the author had read a number of travel and adventure books about the Pacific and had difficulty understanding why certain places kept popping up in the books, Hawaii, Wake Island, and Guam to mention a few. After living in the Pacific, the answer became obvious. There is an awful lot of water and very little land in the Pacific Ocean area. And, the prevailing winds and ocean currents caused large sailing ships to pass by those few places where there was land. And later, lack of adequate fuel supply for steam ships and for airplanes continued to cause the ships to stop in those

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The Missing Black Box, Author Tom McGoldrick

lands. During the years of the propeller passenger planes, Wake Island, an open ended atoll, to be the second stop for the transcontinental clippers. The first stop after departure from San Francisco was Hawaii, slightly less than fuel capacity distance, and the second was Wake. On the wall in the Wake Island air terminal is a map showing how the flights fanned out from Wake North and West like a hand to five different destinations in the orient, all within reach of one more tank of fuel. The grand wooden hotel on the island lives on only pictures, however, because it burned down before WW II.

We use places as crossroads because they are natural crossroads for the type of conveyance we are using in our journeys. Those crossroad places often have well known fabulous hotels and bars. Some are still interesting tourist attractions today but the real life is as it always was, with the people wherever we are. When we stop and listen to old people tell stories of the past, we can learn a lot about the history of places that is in no history books. It is that history that is the spice added to the adventure of travel and life in far off place.

During the middle of the nineteenth century, when there were many whalers in the Pacific Ocean, Jaluit Atoll was the center of civilization of what is today the Republic of the Marshall Islands. After W.W.I, Germany took over

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The Missing Black Box, Author Tom McGoldrick

sovereignty. That lasted until the invasion of the Pacific Atolls and islands by the Imperial Japanese. During the occupation, the Japanese used Jaluit atoll as their headquarters for that area and two of islands were heavily fortified. Other atolls had seaplane bases and land based fighter squadrons. After the Allies conquered the Imperial Japanese, the Pacific Islands were freed and put under the Trust Territory of the Pacific. They were remanded to the protection and care of the United States. In the early 80's, the Marshall Islands chose the republic style of government with the United States similar to Pohnpei, which had a few years earlier chosen a federated style. These choices enabled them to have unlimited free access for their citizens to the US like Puerto Rico residents have. Guam and Saipan chose other styles of government. After the Marshall Islands had chosen their style of government, the only portion of the Trust Territories of the Pacific remaining was Palau. Even today, that area has not chosen a style of independent government. This seemingly quiet and tranquil Pacific backwater, Jaluit Atoll has seen much action during its history. It is the setting for this novel. For those readers who want to find the place on the map, it is located about halfway between Hawaii and Guam, and is almost on the Equator.

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