[Dixiecapt]

I got an E-mail from Dan who runs one of the VMF-213 Memorial Websites, the same whom gave me the VMF-213 Data.

Check it out, its about our Mystery Location!!

Roy

http://agw.bombs-away.net/showthread.ph ... post984473

I take it from reading this that you are Dixiecapt and are working with tater?

Your "phonetic spelling" idea is a good one. I zoomed in on the map I sent to you and also did not locate Lolabinauri or anything that looked like this. I will call Steve and ask him to triple check this. Steve originally transcribed Lt. Winnia's diary, and at times had difficulty deciphering his scratches. Though I am sure he no longer has the original diary in his possession, I do think he has scans or photos of it. One of the small tasks I helped him with was in the spelling of names as I had official rosters and the like.

I will also email, or perhaps call, some of the pilots who were there at the time and see if they have any recollection of this obscure location.

I thought it quite humorous one poster's comment that maybe it had been bombed off the map. The Lola island, does not look too badly to me either, I am unsure why the thought is that there must be a airstrip on the island, perhaps it was artillery, patrol boats or otherwise.

Steve did include a table of locations mentioned in the diary in one of our correspondances, indicating some of the code words as we recently emailed (Knucklehead, Buttons) and he had Lolabinauri in the table, but no explaination.

Dan

[Zorin]

Any news on Lolaninauri? What did it stand for?

[Dixiecapt]

Dan McAnarney Of this VMF-213 Memorial Website thinks that either, Lt. Winna wrote down the phonetical spelling of something he heard, or mis heard, OR that when his partner was copying the hand written diary that they might have transcribed the name wrong.

(Dan has been a huge help to me, all that are interested should visit his website: http://members.cox.net/~vmf-213/ )

[vonofterdingen]

A note I received in answer to the Loabinauri question:

We got your inquiry from our director who was asked by someone else in Wycliffe. He had checked with the Solomon Islands Ministry of Lands but they said they were only aware of an island called Lola in the VonaVona lagoon. Our family actually has visited the resort on Lola, so when I was at Lambeti, the government station at the other end of the airstrip, I asked a couple of older men who run a charter boat service from here to Gizo if they knew of another name for Lola. They said they thought it had more of a name but couldn't quite remember what it was. Lolabinauri sounded right.
That is very possible because it looks like a word from the Roviana language and grammar.

As you know, this area is steeped in World War II history. When we first arrived we talked to a couple of the men who actually were part of the rescue of JFK. There are Japanese caves and guns and the whole area is covered in coral made by the Americans as places to park the planes once they had gained control of the airstrip.