I was very worried that the tsunami would wash up on the island and cause considerable damage, especially given that the straight line from DG to the earthquake epicenter is open ocean.
Posted on 12/27/2004 3:59:26 AM PST by margieelisabeth
They are all FINE on Diego Garcia, the quake wasn't even felt. My son is stationed there and we recieved an email from him last night. This is also a small bit of information that may help us all understand why a tsunami most likely (never say never) could hit there.
Diego Garcia is at the top of the Chagos Trench located just to our east (hence the island chain name of Chagos Archipelago). This trench is very deep and the steepness of the grade from the trench to the top of the island does not allow tsunamis to build up before they were to come on shore.
Thanks for the info.
Well, it looks like are dirt aircraft carrier could hold its own.
Some good news out of this awful situation. There was considerable concern for DG. Thanks for the information.
Very interesting info. My son was also stationed on Diego Garcia - for years, because he kept requesting to go back. He loved it because he's a big fisherman, and there's some impressive fish hanging out around there. When he wasn't flying, he was fishing.
Good luck to your son, and I'm glad he was able to get in touch with you. Hope he likes fishing!
Ooops.
Well, it looks like OUR dirt aircraft carrier could hold its own.
Note to self: Read TWICE, post ONCE.
Apparently there are still tons of fish there! This was in his note. "AFETS and Safety caught 50 lbs of fish Thursday and we had them cooked up, yellow fin tuna, sweet lips, red snapper, and grouper."..
My son loves to fish too..And snorkel, which I guess is perfect there too. I wonder if they need a spare mom there??? *grin*
Doesn't belong to the US. It's British Indian Ocean Territory.
Good news. Thanks for posting.
Thanks for posting this.
Thanks so much for that update.
"AFETS and Safety caught 50 lbs of fish Thursday and we had them cooked up, yellow fin tuna, sweet lips, red snapper, and grouper.".."
I am so jealous!
". I wonder if they need a spare mom there??? *grin*"
I was reading the DG website last night and saw that they only accept unattached service folk for duty.
No marrieds, couples or kids.
Thank you for letting us know this good news.
Actually, it's not ours, it's the Brits.
But as they're our best ally on the planet, they let us use it. . .
Yes thats true, I guess my posting should have read something like "Den mother" or Dorm mom.
Since they live in tents and its a small island, no families. My son left a 2 month old baby (and her first Christmas) to be there. But such is Military life. I grew up an Air Force Brat and wouldn't change a thing. There is definately more good then bad. We're proud of all our servicemen and women....
Tell him to watch out for Hector...
welcome..thanks fopr the info...glad you signed up to post such good news..
Ok, just sent him email warning him about Hector. (I'm sure that will get me an interesting email back). Who or what is Hector??
Don't be so hard on yourself..Consider slack being cut..(G)
This if are was the and so if not.
This is the news I have been searching for--thank you for the update! Thank God your son is safe.
If we don't mock 'em, who while?
Found this while surfing, lots of salty language.
War Stories from Paradise (Diego Garcia) http://www.zianet.com/tedmorris/dg/80.html
There ya' go!
Sigh of relief. It was alarming to read on FR yesterday that Diego's highest point was 20 feet.
Good news indeed!
Thanks, God bless you, your son and all yours.
To: Poseidon
Ok, just sent him email warning him about Hector. (I'm sure that will get me an interesting email back). Who or what is Hector??
20 posted on 12/27/2004 4:48:37 AM PST by margieelisabeth
Hector is a very large shark known to be lurking around the lagoon at times.....
I would have guessed it was the currents, Diego Garcia is just below the equator and the water flows against the wave from Sumatra...
You son REQUESTED to go there???
Well, he got to save a ton of money, thats for sure, there is NOTHING to do there except fish, swim, watch tv, listen to shortwave...get freeflights to wherever American MAC flights are going that day...
I think you really have to LOVE fishing to want to be there. He said that it has sort of ruined him for fishing back here, though. He lives in Northern California, so when he goes offshore it's cold and rough, and there are no huge exotic species coming up on their rods.
When you posted this I slapped my head and said I could've had a V8!?!?!?!
All kidding aside I am glad they are ok...
I have been to the "Footprint of Freedom" many times when I was in the Navy back in the 80's...
All that was there back then was a sorry excuse for an American temporary bearthing for transient personnel...A hospital/clinic manned by both American and British personnel (permanently billeted, echhhh) and a rather large runway capable of handling pretty much anything we could fly in there...With plenty of sharks to clean up stuff on the ends of the runoff of that runway...hehehe (local joke)
Ohhh, almost forgot...A couple of British pubs...(invitation only!!!)
Good thing we had our own Alcohol Support Unit (ASU) down the path/road from them...hehehe
Pitchers of beer were .25 cents...hehehe
Hey! What else were we going to do???
Having been there in that part of the world it hurts to see those places and those people where I stood on the very beach (Patong Beach) and know some very bad things happened to some of them...
It is amazing how slow the story developed over here after it happened...
I hope all continues to go well for you...
Good news! Thank you for letting us know.
Dear mom: Most people with a minimum education would not worry about an earthquake hitting Diego Garcia. It is the location and the shape of the nearest coastlines and their effect on a tsunami wave resulting from a very seismically active area, the Pacific Ocean, that's the problem.
I agree, I wasn't concerned about the earthquake itself. Living in Los Angeles since 1979 we've been through a few of our own 'big ones'...The tsunami was my concern.
Are sounded nice.
Good morning & welcome to FreeRepublic. Thanks so much for posting this. My husband and I were just saying again this morning, "But what about Diego Garcia?"
This is most welcome news. And congratulations on that new little granddaughter!
I was very worried that the tsunami would wash up on the island and cause considerable damage, especially given that the straight line from DG to the earthquake epicenter is open ocean.
-Eric
Hector is a 28+ foot hammerhead shark that used to live in the lagoon on Diego. It's been awhile so he may be gone by now but I'm sure the legend lives on. And there's truth to it. I saw a picture taken over the side of a ship. There was a 28 foot work boat along side the ship and you could just make out the image of Hector in the water. By the way, he was longer than the work boat...
Fishing stories and photos from DG
http://www.zianet.com/tedmorris/dg/fishing.html
Woohoo! Thanks - I'm forwarding it to the Big Fisherman himself! He'll probably want to reenlist.
Welcome to FR! What a wonderful first post! Thanks for setting a lot of minds at ease about our military over there.
I'd like to thank everyone for making this a good experience for me, it was my first post on any board, but I was just so thrilled about things being ok, AND after knowing how disapointed I was in not finding any information out myself till I heard from my son, there just wasn't any hesitation in posting so anyone concerned could find out the good news. Some of the posts have given me goosebumps because I know in the 'sighs' and thank you's, there is deep relief (just as I felt). And those make me smile 'almost' as much as the email did. Thanks again! And I'll continue to try and post on things that come up but hopefully nothing as worrisome or heartbreaking as what happened over the weekend. Happy New Year everyone.
You're very welcome!
No no...read twice, post twice, that way it'll help you remember what you said. (Its an age thing)
Happy New Year, margieelisabeth! Those of us who have connections with Diego Garcia were thrilled by this thread!
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