Has any attempt been made to find any Coastguard personnel that was stationed there? It is possible a few are still alive. My husband was stationed at two remote Loran stations - I was with him on one of them and I can testify that the guys found ingenious things to occupy their time. I understand they were told on Gardner Is. not to fraternize with the natives, but the natives weren't told not to fraternize with them. Isolated duty was a year at a time and it would be difficult, no matter what the rules, to contain the personnel in that small of area.
Thyra, TIGHAR has made extensive efforts to find and interview the Coasties who manned the LORAN station during WWII. Your question is best answered by reviewing this thread (http://tighar.org/smf/index.php/topic,153.0.html).
Another piece of reading about the LORAN station is in the Ameliapedia (http://tighar.org/wiki/Loran).
Thank you for the reply - I did do a search before I replied or for that matter even joined, but I could not find that Thread - sorry, but this site is rather complicated and I didn't want to add to it.
Not sure if this website has been noted in any of the Coast Guard Loran station posts, but it's very interesting and has some photos I haven't seen before.
http://www.loran-history.info/Gardner_Island/gardner.htm
Welcome, Gary. Glad you're digging into the history of Nikumaroro. Fascinating plethora of info about that tiny island!
Yes, that URL is shown in the Ameliapedia article USCG LORAN Station (https://tighar.org/wiki/USCG_LORAN_Station) that was created over 7 years ago by Marty.