One of my additional tasks has been trying to track down a Marshallese Boat to carry a deceased U.S. Army Soldier (Marshallese Citizen) to his desired final resting place on Ujae Atoll (140 Miles West of Kwaj). In the Marshallese Culture the funeral process can last a very long time. The Soldier's funeral was held today on Ebeye the most populated islet in the Atoll. Picture Below.
Ebeye is a 3000 meter by 800 meter islet just north of Kwaj. It is supposedly the most densely populated piece of land in the world (ref. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ebeye), 13,000 people live there literally on top of each other it is also pleasently known as the "Slum of the Pacific". I have been to many a slum in my Army adventures (Pristina and Gilijane, Kosovo; Tikrit, Baghdad, Sadr City, Babylon and Najaf, Iraq; and Brompton of course). Sadly, its not an Army post without a nearby shady town, think Daleville of Fort Rucker or Fayetteville of Fort Bragg and Ebeye is it for Kwaj.
In an effort to save your tax dollars I passed on using our own Army Marine assets to take the remains and the Marshallese family for the four day burial process and instead tried to outsource at a significantly reduced price by contacting the Marshallese owner of an inter Atoll cargo boat. The boat was intended to bring about 30 people and the remains to Ujae Atoll. So my boat warrant officer, our host-nation officer, our Marshallese translator, and I hopped in our small dual engine boston whaler style boat and speed over to Ebeye to due a safety assessment of the cargo ship. This was my first visit to Ebeye and upon our arrival we were swarmed by little kids. The translator asked the oldest looking one to keep in eye on our boat and I think slipped him a buck or two but I wasn't looking to closely at that transaction. So we left the boat and headed over to the RESSLYN the suggested cargo boat for the journey.
Picture looking into the RESSLYN from the Ebeye dock.
The RESSLYN was unloading food supplies to include a giant pig as we approached.
While the boat was only three years old one could tell that it hadn't quite been maintained to USCG safety standards. We talked with the boat captain and he gave us permission to board the vessel. Not that I knew what I was looking at but I wanted to provide some cover for our boat warrant and make sure he wasn't held a gun point and forced to serve as a cabin boy. The upper deck was good looking but had limited charts of Ujae Atoll not that we had any better charts, thank goodness for GPS. After boarding the ship we went down below to checkout the engine room and made an assessment that it should be renamed the oil room since everything was covered in oil. The fire suppression system was non-existent and there was a half-naked marshallese man sweating it out on the repair of a transmission both were very very scary. In addition the boat only had two life rafts for just ten people so all around a bad selection for our desired mission but the owner and captain tried their best to offer up their services at a premium price. I am still in the market for a ship so if any of you know of any high quality Marshallese fishing or cargo boats let me know. (Update: We found a boat! RMI government owned...). After we got back from Ebeye having stopped in the hardware store for some WD-40 for our Bikes and eyeballing some good looking Southern Fried Chicken, I headed over to the small boat marina for a boating orientation class. Beth and I are both getting certified to drive all the rental boats so we can go out fishing, SCUBA diving or adventuring among the atoll's islets. I think I have gone on long enough but needless to say it was another great day on the Atoll.
~Kevin
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