The JimAnna Chronicles

This afternoon, was again spent playing in the water. We left on a boat out of the small harbor just a few hundred yards down from our house. We headed north to again visit Double Reef. It’s about a half an hour to get there, so we had a little time to enjoy the scenery [...]

Today, Anna and I hiked out to two different destinations. The first, we had visited earlier this year with my parents and the second was a brand new hike (for us at least). The impetus for the hikes today is that there is another group of six cadets from the Air Force Academy. They’re again [...]

This post is for all those who have never had the opportunity to attend a military retreat or retirement ceremony. A few weeks ago, I had the opportunity to help with the planning and execution of a retirement ceremony for our vice wing commander, Col Stephen Wolborsky. He had served is country honorably in the [...]

Yesterday was Guam’s 62nd Liberation Day. It commemorates July 21st as the day American military returned and defeated the occupying Japanese force during WWII. Each year, there is a huge celebration and parade to commemorate the event. While we didn’t go to the parade, we did celebrate with a BBQ with some friends. We went [...]

A couple weeks ago we went to the southern end of Guam for a fiesta. For those of you who aren’t familiar with that tradition here on Guam, here’s my understanding of how it works. Fiestas are the national pastime of the island. This is the only place (that I know of) that people take [...]

Today, we took our largest group on the hiking trails of Guam. There were 23 people who came with us to Tarzan Swim Hole. We wanted to go somewhere easy to get to and had water to cool off in. Here’s the group by the water. As you can see, the main attraction was the [...]

***Please read the entry Iwo Jima: 1945 and Part 1 first*** Perhaps the most poignant part of the whole trip was our time on Mt Suribachi. There is a memorial to both the American and Japanese forces on top. Here is the American Memorial on the top of Mt Suribachi. From wverything I have seen [...]

***Please read the entry Iwo Jima: 1945 first*** Last week, I had the rare opportunity to visit a sleepy little island about halfway between Guam and Japan, called Iwo Jima. It was the site of a ferocious battle in World War II. Here is how we got there and back, the venerable C-130 transport aircraft: [...]

Iwo Jima. This is probably the image that comes to your mind when you think of that small island in the middle of the Pacific Ocean: Now, imagine this (the rest of the story): The date was 18 February 1945, D-Day to capture the critical island of Iwo Jima. This was the next island in [...]