WHERE THE PAST IS ALWAYS PRESENT

IN THE SOLOMON ISLANDS’ MUNDA REGION, THE REACH OF HISTORY IS FELT EVERYWHERE, FROM UNTOUCHED WRECKS BELOW TO PROUD VILLAGES ABOVE, AND WONDERS NATURAL AND MAN-MADE COMPETE WITH ISLANDERS’ WARM SMILES TO WIN DIVERS’ HEARTS

- BRANDON COLE

There was a time when history had nothing to do with my scuba diving, when the past and geopolitics did not intrude on my marine biologist musings. Exploring the shipwrecks of Truk Lagoon changed something inside me—dive after dive, I was staring at the reality of World War II, and a piece of the big, messy picture that was humanity more than 75 years ago.

And just like that I was hooked. When a die-hard wreck diver friend said I needed to visit the Solomon Islands, the hands of fate immediately busied themselves organizing my next dive expedition.

Which is how I find myself 50 feet below, hovering reverently beside the Douglas SBD-4 Dauntless dive bomber aircraft flown by Jim Dougherty of the U.S. Marine Corps, shot down by the Japanese over Rendova Harbor on July 23, 1943. I’m grappling with what he must have felt a split second before his plane crashed into the sea and darkness closed in. Even more unfathomable is what Dougherty must have experienced revisiting this site 52 years later, donning scuba gear to look into the cockpit that was nearly his coffin. The memories that must have come flooding back. …

Dougherty’s remarkable story, told by filmmaker Kevin Juergensen in Lost Warriors of the South Pacific, would have been enough to lure me to Munda, on New Georgia Island in the Solomons’ Western Province. Add eight more—at least—WWII planes, stunning coral gardens, plunging walls and the fascinating and friendly culture of the Solomon Islanders, and it became imperative to submerge with Dive Munda without delay.

HAPI ISLANDS, HAPPY DIVERS