I personally am not in Kwajalein. We have relocated our dive shop onto Pactick Space Force Base in Florida. We kept the Dive Kwaj name as Space Force has linage to Kwaj. Even though I live in Florida, I still work remotely supporting Kwaj.
Last weekend a series of waves hit the island of Roi-Namur which in located in the Northern part of Kwajalein Atoll. There was no loss of life, but some of the buildings were damages or flooded. Right now the local team is evaluating damages and I would think developing repair plans.
The good news is the Local Marshallese inhabit a nearby island (third world living conditions) and the waves did not hit their island.
Here is a little background.
The U.S. Army leases a few of the 79 islands in the Kwajalein Atoll for military testing and radar monitoring of the skys. Other government and educational institutes also use the area for research, e.g. NASA, NOAA, MIT to name a few. Roi-Namur (Roi for short) is the second largest island the U.S. leases and sits in the northern part of the Atoll. Kwajalein island is the largest, shares the same name as the atoll and is the southern most island and local HQ for the U.S. The island of Ebeye is the most populous with approximately 25,000 Marshallese. The U.S. does not lease Ebeye.
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Kwajalein Atoll sits about 235 miles southeast of another famous atoll, Bikini. During the Nuclear testing (24 tests, aka bombs) Kwajalein serviced as the HQ and launch site. Its general location is halfway between Hawaii and Australia. It is in Time Zone #1, just west of the International Dateline and just above the equator.
Kwajalein and Roi were scenes of a heavy WWII battle in 1944. As a result there are approximately 50 wrecks in the lagoon. At the end of the war over 100 aircraft were dumped into the lagoon. And finally, after the first two atomic bombs were detonated on the Bikini Ghost Fleet, the Prinz Eugen, a Nazi Heavy Cruiser survived, but damaged, towed to Kwajalein, the capsized in the lagoon. It is now our most famous dive sites. The Prinz became famous as the escort ship for the Bismarck and by some accounts fired on the HMS Hood first…don’t know for sure as I wasn’t there. There at least 10-15 shipwrecks within Blacktip DPV range from Kwajalein’s shores. Here is the bummer part, only people on official military orders can dive Kwajalein or if you are on your way to Bikini on a liveaboard.
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Back to the Roi Wave Video, the young lady standing in the doorway and got hit with the wave is the owner of the Kwajalein Dive Center. The videographer is one of the atoll’s most talented dive instructors. The diving world is a small pool.
Showcases our dive shop and some of the dive sites arou d kwajalein Atoll.
www.kwajdivecenter.com