Tinian Airfield Light
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During the summer of 1944, 30,000 Marines from the 2nd and 4th Marine Divisions wrestled control of the small island of Tinian, part of the Marianas chain, from its 8,000 Japanese defenders. The campaign to take the island was the first time that napalm was ever used in combat. After its capture, Tinian became a base for long-range American B-29 bombers to attack the Japanese home islands. Massive air raids involving hundreds of B-29s were launched against Japan from Tinian and neighboring Saipan, just to the north. With six runways and more than 50,000 troops, the island became the busiest air field in the Pacific, and was home to the 20th Air Force. Tinian’s North Field alone could accommodate the entire 313th Bombardment Wing, consisting of some 265 B-29s. Each of the four runways at North Field was more than 1 ½ miles in length, with more than 10 miles of taxiway around and between.
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| In late July 1945 the cruiser USS Indianapolis delivered to Tinian the components of what would become the first atomic bomb, “Little Boy.” On August 6, 1945, the B-29 Superfortress Enola Gay took off from Tinian bound for Hiroshima with “Little Boy” in its bomb bay. Three days later, another B-29, Bockscar, took off from Tinian with a second atomic bomb, “Fat Man,” bound for Kokura, which the flight crew found obscured by clouds and so shifted to their secondary target, Nagasaki.
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Because “Little Boy” and “Fat Man” were substantially larger than conventional bombs which were loaded into the aircraft from beneath using wheeled carts, two large concrete-lined pits were created on the airfield into which the atomic bombs were placed and then raised into the B-29s.
Ironically, the streets constructed on Tinian by US Navy Seabees all are named after famous New York roadways – Broadway, 8th Avenue, and 86th Street – although this is purported to be purely coincidence, rather than as a nod to the Manhattan Project.
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After World War II, the U.S. Army Air Corps had no use for the airbase on Tinian, which became overgrown and, located at the far northern tip of the island, largely forgotten for a time. However, the two atomic bomb loading pits remain today. According to local legend, a coconut tree growing in “Atomic Bomb Pit Number 1” has never produced normal shaped fruit.
In the post-war years Tinian, Saipan, and the rest of the Marianas became a U.S. protectorate. In the closing decades of the 20th century the U.S. Navy began to use parts of Tinian – including North Field – as a training facility. In 1985 North Field was designated by the Secretary of the Interior a National Historic Landmark. Although a National Park Service study in 2001 concluded that “North Field Tinian is one of the most significant World War II sites in the Pacific,” the possibility of it becoming a component of the National Park system is remote, given the Navy’s use of the island for training through at least 2033, when their lease with the Marianas government expires.
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One US official visiting the island in the early 1960s noticed that many of the lights which originally lined the runways were broken. Recognizing the history of the airfield, he had one of the large lights removed. It later was converted into a punchbowl and given to Rear Admiral W.F.A. Wendt, commander of the U.S. Navy Forces, Marianas and Deputy High Commissioner of the Marianas District of the Trust Territory of the Pacific Islands. The unique punchbowl saw use at several parties at his headquarters in Guam.
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After retiring from the Navy in 1971, Admiral Wendt eventually settled in Virginia Beach. One of his neighbors was a fellow retired Navy officer, Commander Richard Clark. Before his death in 1997, Admiral Wendt presented the punchbowl to Commander Clark. In October 2007, the punchbowl – which is still quite easily returned to its original appearance as a runway light – was given by Commander Clark to the MacArthur Memorial.
This artifact is quite possibly one of the last surviving examples of its kind from the Tinian airfield. A shoulder patch worn by personnel assigned to work on the Manhattan Project is one of the artifacts on exhibit in the World War II gallery in the MacArthur Memorial. With the acquisition of this landing strip light, the Memorial now has two very rare items associated with the onset of the atomic age.
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