USCG LORAN Station

On July 24, 1944, U.S. Coast Guard Construction Detachment D (Unit 211) arrive aboard USCG Balsam to begin construction of the LORAN facility at the easternmost tip of Nikumaroro. LORAN stands for LOng Range Aid to Navigation. Precisely timed signals from pairs of transmitters allow a receiver to calculate its position between the two transmitters. Two pairs of transmitters are needed to locate the receiver in particular position.

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On September 29, 1944, the Gardner LORAN goes on the air. The station is staffed by 25 men as USCG Unit 92. The commanding officer, Ensign Charles Sopko, restricts his men to the immediate area around the station and limits their contact with the colonists to prevent “fraternization.”

Sometime in late 1944 or early 1945, PBY supply pilot Lt. (jg) John Mims sees the Gilbertese settlers using an aircraft control cable as a heavy-duty fishing line leader. Asked about its origin, one of the Gilbertese replies that, “When our people first arrived a few years ago there was an airplane here.”

In December, 1945, the Loran station is de-activated and abandoned.

In March, 1946, a Coast Guard work crew disassembles and secures the station’s LORAN gear in the Quonset huts formerly used as living quarters. Floyd Kilts, a Chief Carpenter’s Mate involved in this work, later (in 1960) tells a San Diego newspaper reporter that one of the Gilbertese told him of “the skeleton of a woman with American shoes and the skull of a man” found by the island’s first settlers in 1938.