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 good-
byes 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

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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 half-

way between Hawaii and Guam, and is almost on the Equator.

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