We're going back to Tinian

[GunnyGene]

The US is getting the old WW2 North Field back in to shape. But I doubt it will host B-29's this time around.

https://www.twz.com/air/massive-wwii-b-29-bomber-base-fully-reclaimed-for-future-pacific-fight

 

[Jeepnik]

Wow, and not a lot of press. Could it be the military is remembering to restrict information given to our enemies.

Also, they have this new Agile Combat doctrine. Oh wait, the Air Force had Prime Beef fifty years ago when I served. The idea was to take a group of airmen with all the specialties needed to take a hunk of bare ground and turn it into an airfield.

In one exercise we took a hunk of fairly flat desert and we're launching and recovering Phantoms in just over three days. We had been landing C130's within twelve hours.

It was quite a dance to watch. The air controllers were orchestrating not just incoming aircraft but air cover and reconnaissance flights as part of the exercise.

It was a several week exercise and by the time it was over we had an airfield with everything from chow halls to a small tent hospital, ammo storage and fueling capabilities. Even had some sun shades of aircraft maintenance/ repairs.

 

[XUSNORDIE]

The idea was to take a group of airmen with all the specialties needed to take a hunk of bare ground and turn it into an airfield.

I was surprised to learn when my Son the Seabee reported to Port Hueneme for "A" School that the Air Force also attended Seabee "A" schools. His class was a mix of Navy, Marine and Airman. I guess they wanted to learn from the best in the pop up landing strips/FOB business ;)

 

[ArizonaTea123]

Gotta pull some serious weeds out of the flightline. Wow

 

[Jeepnik]

I was surprised to learn when my Son the Seabee reported to Port Hueneme for "A" School that the Air Force also attended Seabee "A" schools. His class was a mix of Navy, Marine and Airman. I guess they wanted to learn from the best in the pop up landing strips/FOB business ;)

Not uncommon for one service to train members of another. I attended a couple of Red Horse aircraft arresting barrier classes. We had some sailors in those. The Navy used the same equipment as the Air Force. And, I recall seeing some Navy and Marine pilots training on Phantoms at airbases.

 

[GunnyGene]

Wow, and not a lot of press. Could it be the military is remembering to restrict information given to our enemies.

Also, they have this new Agile Combat doctrine. Oh wait, the Air Force had Prime Beef fifty years ago when I served. The idea was to take a group of airmen with all the specialties needed to take a hunk of bare ground and turn it into an airfield.

In one exercise we took a hunk of fairly flat desert and we're launching and recovering Phantoms in just over three days. We had been landing C130's within twelve hours.

It was quite a dance to watch. The air controllers were orchestrating not just incoming aircraft but air cover and reconnaissance flights as part of the exercise.

It was a several week exercise and by the time it was over we had an airfield with everything from chow halls to a small tent hospital, ammo storage and fueling capabilities. Even had some sun shades of aircraft maintenance/ repairs.

It's a little different when the natives are lobbing mortars and shooting at you. ;)

 

[Jeepnik]

It's a little different when the natives are lobbing mortars and shooting at you. ;)

That's what the Phantoms and Gunships were for.

 

[Lt92]

The US is getting the old WW2 North Field back in to shape. But I doubt it will host B-29's this time around.

https://www.twz.com/air/massive-wwii-b-29-bomber-base-fully-reclaimed-for-future-pacific-fight

Wow I wonder if the workers have found any "relics"?

 

[GunnyGene]

Wow I wonder if the workers have found any "relics"?

Maybe. This has been in work for a few years tho, so I suspect the site has been cleaned out of the good stuff.

 

[Johnny-Baseball]

My dad's destroyer shelled Saipan and Tinian during WW II.

 

[vlavalle]

The US is getting the old WW2 North Field back in to shape. But I doubt it will host B-29's this time around.

https://www.twz.com/air/massive-wwii-b-29-bomber-base-fully-reclaimed-for-future-pacific-fight

Interesting comment! If they really are making it usable for military purposes, I think that it would be B-52s facing China!

 

[pawncop]

My father flew out of Tinian and Saipan on the Honshu Hurricane. I was fortunate to have him share some of his stories about life on the island.

 

[gunzo]

Go to google maps, type Tinian Il. Scroll down & click on photos.

Lots of repetitive shots, but you can eventually see the shrines, memorials, relics, ruins, & current state of the island. Spent 3o minutes there this AM

 

[KIR]

Air Forces from different countries will pretty much be a stand-off with no one gaining an edge on the other. I forsee submarines obliterating whatever they wanted to... but then, the world will have gone by the way of dust particles...

 

[Jeepnik]

Air Forces from different countries will pretty much be a stand-off with no one gaining an edge on the other. I forsee submarines obliterating whatever they wanted to... but then, the world will have gone by the way of dust particles...

Pretty much the way On The Beach portrayed the end. But interestingly, The World, The Flesh and The Devil picks up at the end of On the Beach.

 

[DeletedMember275]

Not uncommon for one service to train members of another. I attended a couple of Red Horse aircraft arresting barrier classes. We had some sailors in those. The Navy used the same equipment as the Air Force. And, I recall seeing some Navy and Marine pilots training on Phantoms at airbases.

This has been going on for decades. When I went to (Army) Small Arms Repair school back in '73, there were more Marines in the class than Army. The Army also trains Air Force machinists and welders, and wheel vehicle mechanics.

 

[Sam Summey]

Marines are moving to Tinian, they are having to leave Okinawa, but the US doesn't want to loose our presence in the Western Pacific.

 

[KIR]

On The Beach is a fave book/movie of mine. Fred Astaire was awesome! Not just a great dancer, singer, entertainer, but also a great actor!
End of the world stories always interested me. Possibly because I remember watching early morn TV when nuclear weapons were tested in Nevada and televised. This was around 1950. I would wake up in the morns from a nightmare/dream where a nuclear weapon exploded and nearby, I was riding a rearing white horse (I was a fan of the Lone Ranger too). I would wake up to this nightmare/dream for a decade or so, until I turned 18.
Any Psychiatrists here, care to analyze that? :eek:
My ex-gf went to Tinian where she worked at the casino there. Beautiful place according to the pics she sent me. I am curious about the runways and I know they have to be extended for a B-52 to takeoff from. Much more then a B-29 would ever need. I doubt there would be much time for an "alert crew" to take off in time if missiles were fired at the island from a nearby enemy though.

 

[vlavalle]

My father flew out of Tinian and Saipan on the Honshu Hurricane. I was fortunate to have him share some of his stories about life on the island.

How wonderful that must have been! Did he mention how long a flight it was to Japan and back? How old was he when he passed? I had an uncle that joined the CRAF in 1940, and his plane crashed in March 1945 in England.

 

[blume357]

KIR, I was born in 1957 and I had pretty much the same type of dream often in the early to mid 60's... usually in the dream I was in the back seat of the car with my parents driving and I would look out the back window and see the blast from the nuclear bomb. Now I've got to go look up where this Tinian is.

 

[GunnyGene]

KIR, I was born in 1957 and I had pretty much the same type of dream often in the early to mid 60's... usually in the dream I was in the back seat of the car with my parents driving and I would look out the back window and see the blast from the nuclear bomb. Now I've got to go look up where this Tinian is.

Get ready for a deep dive into WW2 history. The island was taken by US forces in July of '44 and is where the B-29's launched from to nuke Hiroshima & Nagasaki.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Battle_of_Tinian

 

[eveled]

When ever Tinian comes up my first thought are about the poor crew on the Indianapolis.

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/USS_Indianapolis_(CA-35)
The story is told in the movie Jaws. The most epic piece of cinematic storytelling every.



After the summer of 1975 my nightmares involved sharks.

 

[Threespears]

My dad's destroyer shelled Saipan and Tinian during WW II.

My dad was in the invasion of Saipan , Tinian, and Okinawa . He was in the 2nd Marine Division.
Dad told a lot of stories about the war.
My Uncle was on Guadalcanal as a Marine. He didn’t speak about the war.

 

[Johnny-Baseball]

My dad was in the invasion of Saipan , Tinian, and Okinawa . He was in the 2nd Marine Division.
Dad told a lot of stories about the war.
My Uncle was on Guadalcanal as a Marine. He didn't speak about the war.

Your family and mine were in the same places. With dad aboard, his destroyer (DD398 USS Ellet) saw action at Guadalcanal, Kwajalein, Eniwetak, Palau, Saipan/Tinian, the Bonins Islands, the Philippine Sea (including Great Marianas turkey shoot), Guam and Iwo Jima. They were on the way to Okinawa when Halsey steered the fleet through a typhoon, causing major damage to my dad's destroyer (as well as many other ships). So, his ship steamed back to San Francisco for a major repair. The war ended before the ship was repaired.

Before dad boarded his destroyer, it escorted the Enterprise and Hornet on the Doolittle raid, the Coral Sea, Midway, Tulagi, and Savo Island. His ship was in a who's who of Central Pacific WW II action.

More than 50% of his class of destroyer was sunk or damaged beyond repair during the war. Close to the same loss ratios as bombers in the European theater.