In August of 1983 I was transfered to Loran Station Iwo Jima. At the time all I knew about Iwo Jima was that translated it meant "sulfur island", there was an extinct volcano - Suribachi, and that the U.S. & Japanese fought a long hard battle for possession of it.

I was to spend one year on the island in what was then termed "restricted duty". There was a USCG installation of about 28 men, and a Japanese installation of about 50 men. You flew out to the island and you stayed the entire year, unless you got injured, went wacko or had business at Yokota AFB. Once a week there was a logistics flight from Yokota, sometimes due to weather this did not happen. There were no phones, there was a MARS station - thanks to all you HAMS who help with that. Water was always a problem. If it rained we had water. If it didn't rain we had to cut back on water usage - shorter showers, less laundry. We had one typhoon while I was there. It made you think of how remote you really were.


These are my pictures from that year. The subject matter varied from day to day. Some of the pictures you may see here may disturb some of you (if you are easily disturbed don't look at the Cave Pictures). Everything you see in the pictures is real. Nothing is staged, nothing is faked.

The picture quality is not that great as they are scanned from 20 year old negatives. I took the pictures that you will see here, so if you have any questions email me and I will respond, it just may take me a little time.