Bon Voyage (almost) to the TIGHAR Hospitalers!

Just a week now till the next TIGHAR "expedition" launches: this one to the Colonial War Memorial Hospital in Suva, Fiji.  This is where the human bones found on on Nikumaroro in 1940 were last reported, just before World War II broke into the Pacific.  The hospital is a great old colonial structure, renovated and added to many times, and there's a good possibility that stuff like old unidentified bones could be tucked away in crawlspaces or attics.  In our first Bones Search in 1999 we were denied permission to search it (and wouldn't have had time anyway); the 2003 Fiji Bones Search focused on records research and interviews.  This project will focus on physical inspection.

The team is headed by Dr. Jon Overholt of Sacramento, CA, a medical doctor with lots of hospital experience.  Team members include architect Lonnie Schorer of northern Virginia, archaeologist Gary Quigg of Indiana, and Arizona's Karl Kern, who has proved able to do virtually anything, including squirming into small spaces possibly infested with small cuddly animals.  The Hospital administration is cooperating, and Richard Pruett of the U.S. Embassy is coordinating things and smoothing the way.  The team is equipped to search, document, recover anything discovered, and do ancillary historical and oral-historical research.  D-Day is May 7, with a return to the U.S. on May 22. 

Best of luck to all, and enjoy Fiji while you're about it!

Tom

Colonial War Memorial Hospital, Suva, Fiji