A couple of weeks ago the people on Roi had their big annual event, the Chili Cook Off. Since so many people went to the cook off, they ran two boats up there that holds about 100 people. Both boats were full early. Roi is 50 mile to the north and three hours by boat. Does anyone see where this is going yet? I'll give you a hint, the winds were up and the the waves were big. Yeah, many people were sick for the last two hours of the trip. Thank goodness I did not get sick but it was a very long trip. I will spare you the details and skip over to the good food and activities. Roi is a smaller island and there are only 60 to 70 people living on the island right now. It was also the site of some very intense fighting and the Japanese were heavily fortified on the island. The American ships bombed the island for 22 consecutive days before attempting a landing. I learned all this on the tour that I was lucky enough to be a part of. The ruins on the island are much better preserved on Roi than those on kwaj.
Here are a couple of gun emplacements. These are 135 mm gun if I correctly remember. These guns are so well preserved that I was amazed. Never seen anything like this.
Here is a Japanese ammunition storage building. Looks like it was hit pretty hard during the raids. Some of the raids lasted for hours. Just being in an area where something like this took place was somewhat weird. Never have I seen first hand the effects of bombs and bullets that were aimed to destroy.
This is a place called headquarters. The Americans made is so once they had established control of the island. Most of the building is missing due to erosion over time. I am sure that the bombs didn't help the preservation of the structure.
On to the fun stuff. 
Well there you have it, Roi-Namur. This place once started out as four separate islands and the Japanese made it into two and could cross between the two parts at low tide on the reef. When the Americans occupied it they made a land bridge between the two islands to make one big island. On one half is the air port and all the dorms where those lucky few that live make their homes. On the other half is all the mission critical stuff like the radars. There is also a jungle that covers an underground hospital that was built before WWII started. Some say that is haunted. I think that one of those ghost chasing teams from tv should come and explore the myth. :)
Does this look like a fun place or what? The entire lagoon side of the island is beach. I need to just go up there for a long weekend and set up my hammock in a great location and just hang out the whole time. What do you think?
During the cook off there was a fund raising event that some people had to sit in a chair while others threw pie in their face. The ones in the chair are some of the island "big shots" from kwaj. Here is a great pic of my big big boss getting knock out of his chair. This was great!
This was a lot of fun. This was a good chance for some of us to unload some frustration in a very fun way. And the kids had a blast with it too.
Here is our Lieutenant just after he was ambushed by all those kids. He is the next step under the Commander of the island. Great fun. The food was great I am glad to say that I did not have to endure another boat ride back to kwaj. I was given the oppertunity to stay on the island for the weekend and just get on a plane back. That place was a ghost town at sunset. There was never anyone out riding their bike or just walkint around. Some where at this wonderful little place called the Outrigger. This place serves the best hamburger in the Marshall Islands by far. It was some good eatin'.
I hope you all enjoyed reading about my Veterans day weekend. Hope to hear from you soon.
