SOUTH PACIFIC - MICRONESIA  TRUK LAGOON------------------------------ The masts of these sunken war ships now stand as silent sentinels, monuments to mankinds thirst for war and carnage, grave stones for the long forgotten. Over the decades they have been slowly transformed by the sea to a Garden of Eden forged by the hands of Neptune. Overgrown with a lush variety of hard and soft corals that host a wondrous world of sea life. As you descend upon these behemoth ships you dive into history, past now long silent machine gun turrets draped with rusting belts of bullets. The light becomes diffused by silt from the wreaks carried on the currents. You may pass an overturned jeep on the deck, the driver long since gone. As you round the bridge and the bow comes into sight large links of the anchor chain disappear over the rail out of sight into the deep. You may encounter a resident grouper that now calls this place his home. Schools of fish flash hither and yon as if assigned some mission to complete the only crew on this ghost ship. Rusting lanterns and signal lights, a phone on the deck-missing receiver, no calls will be made from this booth, service long since discontinued. The gapping maw of the hold comes into sight and you descend into its open jaws to see what might be found, a feeling of ghostly presence grips one like some cold and clammy hand. At this point you must turn on a lite to see your way taking great care not to stir up silt. Penetrating only as far as I can look back and see the open hold. Going any further without special equipment and training is asking for big trouble. If the silt is stirred up the visibility can drop to zero and you will not be able to find your way out again. Not much is left but large crates, drums of oil and gas now rusting into history. Here and there some broken dishes or a sake bottle, perhaps rice bowl. All these wrecks were part of the massive Japanese fleet in the South Pacific during world war two. The Japanese used Truk Lagoon as a staging area for much of their fleet stationed there when not at sea. All were sunk during U.S. bombing raids, in shallower water you will find many of the Japanese planes such as the Betty bombers and fighter planes called zeros some still intact. You can slip into the cockpit and envision yourself high in the air out over the great pacific. All throughout the South Pacific you find the remnants of this war in places like Palau, Solomon Islands, Biak, Guam and the like. Tanks buried up to their turrets on sandy beaches and now toys for children to play on. Mankinds folly calls it the last Great War, as if there is something great about war.