Almost Paradise Pt 38 Odds and Ends

(14 March 87) Constable Joe came to work today with a cast on his right foot. He told me that a couple of days ago a child molester broke into his home on Ebeye while they were sleeping and tried to steal his son. The boy screamed and Joe came to the rescue. He pulled a muscle in his leg after kicking the assailant and chasing him off. I asked him if he called the police and he shook his head.

“No. That would make everything worse. I have to take care of it myself.” On Ebeye the police are considered worse than the criminals.

Joe didn’t get a look at the man in the dark so he’s still on the loose, waiting for another victim who strikes his fancy. That’s a terrible burden for a man to bear, having to leave his family alone with a deranged creature lurking nearby.

(26 March 87) Construction work is underway at Illeginni Island. As I walked down the road to the trailer I noticed a Marshallese resting on his haunches in front of the launch hill. He was cooking a defeathered bird on a wooden spit over a small fire he had made. My constable told me it was one of four black birds he had killed with his slingshot. I have noticed a decrease in the bird population since the Marshallesse have been on the island. Another month and I don’t think there will be any left.

(29 March 87) Illeginni. 1300 hours. I could see our patrol boat, the Q-260, two islands south of us. We were advised that a mine from World War II had been found in the lagoon, waiting for a ship to reach out and touch it. I heard it was either a 1,000 or 1100 pound mine. The boat pulled to a spot a half mile off the reef oceanside and idled while overhead an Army chopper circled between the Q-260 and the reef.

After a third pass the mine was detonated by radio, sending a black cloud filled with dirt and coral several hundred feet up. Seconds later, a powerful shock wave reached us, slamming into buildings and causing a sharp pain in my eardrums. I could feel the coral beneath me move as the tremor moved around the atoll.