Clipper, Vol. 8, No. 20, September 25, 1952

              17th YEAR PACIFIC-ALASRA DIVISION
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Read From California to Calcutta, From Alaska To Australia
20th YEAR PAA HAS FLOWN IN ALASKA
Vol. 8 No. 20	PUBLISHED BY THE EMPLOYEES OF PAN AMERICAN WORLD AIRWAYS	September 25, 1952
TYPHOON OVER WAKE
Atoll Island Ravaged by Wind and Rain But No One Is Seriously Injured; Eyewitness Tells Story
Plans to Rebuild Wake Are Already Under Way
Work to Start Nov. 15, Finished In Six Months, Says Cal Yaggy
Wake will be rebu'ilt, and we should do it in less than six months, PAD officials at SFO headquarters promised at Clipper deadline last Friday.
Meantime there is much immediate and preliminary work being done. The first job was digging out and setting up tents for living quarters. This has been done. The second job was to produce water and power. That had been done by Thursday, September 18. A new salt water well has been dug and four stills are in operation converting it into fresh water.
Refrigeration for meats and other perishables has also been set up.
As auxiliary to the water supply the company also had on hand several thousand cases of beer and this has been drunk in lieu of water during the time water was hard to get.
A new utility plant is to go up, or Pan American will purchase utilities from CAA’s plant, whichever should be cheaper.
Finally the destruction wrought by the typhoon has hastened plans that have been developing over the past 2V2 years to construct a new permanent compound. This construction will consist of five family quarters, three crew quarters, two single quarters, and the aforementioned Pan American Guest House.
According to Ground Operations Manager Cal Yaggy. materials and supplies for the aforementioned (Continued on Page 2)
A tiny coral atoll, a speck in the vast Pacific, two thousand miles from any continent and almost a thousand miles from any other notable island—but an atoll that rose to take its place with world-important geographical landmarks because men wage air war and have taken to commercial air travel in a big way—this island stands today denuded except for debris, raped of all the facilities men planted there except about 10 per cent of the buildings and seven planes.
For some time, in fact, on Monday, September 15, as up to 140 mph typhoon winds lashed the little V-shaped saucer of land and the cloudbursts broke over the Quon-sets on the flat face of Wake, it seemed to the seven hundred souls huddled there in wartime bunkers that the mighty ocean which created Wake from its teeming sea-life was about to take it back into her bosom. It was considered almost a miracle that none of Pan American’s 230 employees there was injured, and only four slightly hu'rt out of the whole copulation.
But we need not rehash what the daily newspapers have already told us, or tell again the history of Wake. Suffice it to say the small wishbone-shaped island, and its even smaller companions, the islets Peale and Wilkes, separated only by narrow channels, were first sighted by the Spaniards in 1568, charted and named “San Francisco.”
The uninhabited atoll was next “discovered” in 1769 by the British
Captain William Wake, and in 1840 a U. S. exploring expedition under Commodore Charles Wilkes visited Wake but made no claim. The next year the island was formerly annexed to the United States. The Japanese took it and fortified it during their conquest of the Pacific.
With the opening of Pan American’s Pacific-Alaska Division in 1935 Wake became an important stepping stone to the Far East. After the war in October 1945 Pan Am re-established its facilities there, and took over maintenance of buildings for the Civil Aeronautics Authority. The buildings consisted of a Terminal Building at one end of the taxi strip, a utility plant, a dispensary, an outdoor theater, and various quonset buildings, and the island itself has a total area of 2000 acres.
Now Jet us hear what has happened to Wake and its people, from an eye-witness of the great typhoon, who arrived in SFO last Thursday. He is Frederic Henry Messiter, Pan American Port Steward, assigned to Wake, and whose stateside home is at 8463 Rincon avenue, Sun Valley, Calif. I think you will agree he turns out to be a very fine observer. He said:
“We knew there were winds of 60 mi. per hr. brewing as early as Sunday afternoon but of course we didn’t know whether it would hit us. We didn’t have the slightest idea that a typhoon would come our way when we went to bed Sunday night. The air was calm and cool.
Panair Club Halowe'en Party And Dance Set for Oct. 24
Plans are under way for another PAN AIR Club party and dance under the able chairmanship of Wilson Emery, Plane Service, Dorothy Clingingsmith, Social Chairman for the Club, announced today. Date will be October 24th and place the popular Devonshire Country Club in San Carlos. Jack Reed and his Society Orchestra have been engaged for the evening and it is rumored our PAA “professional” dancers, the folk dance and ballroom groups that have been “cutting rugs” monthly in the Cafeteria under instruction this past year, will show off their skills with a few specialty numbers.
Save the date—program includes a drawing for a grand prize of $50 and miscellaneous other merchandise prizes.
Then suddenly at 1 a. m. we were awakened by a strong wind, quite strong, I would say blowing about 40 or 45 miles an hour.
“The wind came from a southerly direction over the lagoon. By 12 o’clock I would estimate it had reached a velocity of 140 mph. It had also covered the island full circle—I mean it had made a 163 degree turn as typhoons usu'ally do and had blasted us from every point of the compass. But the heaviest blows came over the lagoon and I think that’s what saved us from being washed off the island.
“For a time, however, it really looked as though the sea was coming in, even from the lagoon. The torrents of rain and the thick spin-(Continued on Page 7)
Panorama of Wake Island as it was before the typhoon.