thedrifter
07-11-08, 06:00 AM
Saipan, a treasure-trove of WWII weapons
SAIPAN - There were 18 of us aboard the French-built, 40-passenger Cape Airlines ATR-42 turbojet as we flew toward this military significant, tropical island in the Western Pacific.
Taking off from Guam during a heavy rainstorm, our plane soon passed over Tinian, another of the 15 islands that, like Saipan, comprises the U.S. Territory of the Northern Mariana Islands, a political unit separate from the Territory of Guam that lies 125 miles southwest of here.
As my fellow passengers (Saipanese returning from holidays and Japanese tourists) and I looked down at Tinian, I could barely make out the airfield where on Aug. 6, 1945, the B-29 Superfortress "Enola Gay" piloted by Lt. Col. Paul Tibbets Jr., took off for Hiroshima, Japan, where it dropped the atomic bomb nicknamed "Little Boy" that destroyed Hiroshima and took an estimated 140,000 lives.
Three days later, another Tinian-based B-29, the "Bockstar," flown by Maj. Charles Sweeney, dropped a second atomic bomb on Japan, this time upon Nagasaki. The bomb, nicknamed "Fat Man," destroyed Nagasaki as well and caused 80,000 deaths.
On August 15, the Japanese surrendered, ending the War in the Pacific and the Second World War, as Nazi Germany had surrendered three months earlier.
As our little plane flew past Tinian en route to Saipan, I remembered that Col. Tibbets, Maj. Sweeney and their flight crews were members of the Army Air Force's 509th Composite Group that trained under top secret conditions at Wendover Field on the Nevada-Utah border prior to being shipped to the Pacific and their history-making missions over Hiroshima and Nagasaki.
In another few minutes, Saipan appeared on the horizon, and as we descended to land at Saipan's International Airport, we flew over Agingan Beach on the island's southwest side, where 20,000Marines under the command of Lt. Gen. Howland "Howling Mad" Smith launched the amphibious assault on Japanese-held Saipan on June 15, 1944.
The ferocious battle was to last three weeks and cost the lives of 3,500 Americans, 30,000 Japanese and 400 native Saipanese. Two weeks later, Tinian also fell to the Americans with a loss of more than 5,000 Japanese and 400 U.S. troops. In another 13 months, the "Enola Gay" and "Bockscar" took off from Tinian's field on their devastating missions.
During my three-day stay on Saipan, I spend several hours exploring the many WWII battle sites scattered over the 13 miles by 6 mile island.
Driving throughout Saipan with Samuel F. McPhetres, a 30-year resident, professor at Northern Marianas College and a noted historian, I visited blackened caves where Japanese soldiers held out for days from the approaching American Marines in June of 1944, rusting Japanese coastal defense guns, cannon, and tans, and Suicide and Banzai cliffs, where despairing Japanese troops leaped 800 feet to their deaths on the rocks below to escape the oncoming Marines.
In Garapan, Saipan's largest city and capital of the Commonwealth of the Northern Marianas, which has a total population of about 65,000, McPhretes explained to me the significance of the half-dozen military vessels anchored about a mile offshore.
"Those are U.W. prepositioning ships, operated by the U.S. Military Sealift Command. Their crews are U.S. civilians, and the ships contain tanks, ammunition, fuel, weapons, food, and medical supplies for U.S. Army and Marine forces," he said.
The United States has about 35 of these cargo ships stationed around the world in key ocean areas to ensure rapid availability during armed conflicts and humanitarian operations.
Sixteen of these vessels are stationed in the Pacific area and are guarded by Gurkhas, those aggressive warriors from Nepal who have traditionally served the British Army for several centuries.
Saipan, I was told by California-transplant Linda McKnight, publisher of the daily Saipan Tribune, has fallen upon difficult economic times. Up to three years ago, the minimum wage in the islands was $3.05 an hour, and Saipan then contained thousands of contract workers from a dozen Pacific and Asian nations who worked in 17 garment factories turning out clothes to be sold in the U.S. and around the world.
Disgraced Washington lobbyist Jack Abramoff, now in a federal prison, was able to persuade former Texas Congressman Tom DeLay through generous financial donations to influence other members of Congress to exempt Saipan from U.S. minimum wage laws.
When Abramoff was convicted and DeLay forced to retire from his House seat, the minimum wage here rose, and is now $4.05. As a result, the garment factories packed up and moved elsewhere in the Pacific and Asia. Only three factories remain, and they will close later this year, McKnight told me. As a result, the local economy, coupled with rising fuel and food prices, is "terrible."
"The population is falling, unemployment is rising, and we are having very hard times," she added.
But I was received here with warmth and friendship from the native Chamorros who see a silver lining inasmuch Japanese and Korean tourism is increasing on this beautiful land, 3,300 miles west of Hawaii, of sandy beaches, coral atolls, and WWII aircraft and warship dive sites.
"Hafa adai," the islanders' greeting in the Chamorro language which means "hello," has greeted me on countless occasions as I explore this island. The people are resolute and determined to reverse their bleak fortunes.
David C. Henley is publisher emeritus of the LVN.
Ellie
SAIPAN - There were 18 of us aboard the French-built, 40-passenger Cape Airlines ATR-42 turbojet as we flew toward this military significant, tropical island in the Western Pacific.
Taking off from Guam during a heavy rainstorm, our plane soon passed over Tinian, another of the 15 islands that, like Saipan, comprises the U.S. Territory of the Northern Mariana Islands, a political unit separate from the Territory of Guam that lies 125 miles southwest of here.
As my fellow passengers (Saipanese returning from holidays and Japanese tourists) and I looked down at Tinian, I could barely make out the airfield where on Aug. 6, 1945, the B-29 Superfortress "Enola Gay" piloted by Lt. Col. Paul Tibbets Jr., took off for Hiroshima, Japan, where it dropped the atomic bomb nicknamed "Little Boy" that destroyed Hiroshima and took an estimated 140,000 lives.
Three days later, another Tinian-based B-29, the "Bockstar," flown by Maj. Charles Sweeney, dropped a second atomic bomb on Japan, this time upon Nagasaki. The bomb, nicknamed "Fat Man," destroyed Nagasaki as well and caused 80,000 deaths.
On August 15, the Japanese surrendered, ending the War in the Pacific and the Second World War, as Nazi Germany had surrendered three months earlier.
As our little plane flew past Tinian en route to Saipan, I remembered that Col. Tibbets, Maj. Sweeney and their flight crews were members of the Army Air Force's 509th Composite Group that trained under top secret conditions at Wendover Field on the Nevada-Utah border prior to being shipped to the Pacific and their history-making missions over Hiroshima and Nagasaki.
In another few minutes, Saipan appeared on the horizon, and as we descended to land at Saipan's International Airport, we flew over Agingan Beach on the island's southwest side, where 20,000Marines under the command of Lt. Gen. Howland "Howling Mad" Smith launched the amphibious assault on Japanese-held Saipan on June 15, 1944.
The ferocious battle was to last three weeks and cost the lives of 3,500 Americans, 30,000 Japanese and 400 native Saipanese. Two weeks later, Tinian also fell to the Americans with a loss of more than 5,000 Japanese and 400 U.S. troops. In another 13 months, the "Enola Gay" and "Bockscar" took off from Tinian's field on their devastating missions.
During my three-day stay on Saipan, I spend several hours exploring the many WWII battle sites scattered over the 13 miles by 6 mile island.
Driving throughout Saipan with Samuel F. McPhetres, a 30-year resident, professor at Northern Marianas College and a noted historian, I visited blackened caves where Japanese soldiers held out for days from the approaching American Marines in June of 1944, rusting Japanese coastal defense guns, cannon, and tans, and Suicide and Banzai cliffs, where despairing Japanese troops leaped 800 feet to their deaths on the rocks below to escape the oncoming Marines.
In Garapan, Saipan's largest city and capital of the Commonwealth of the Northern Marianas, which has a total population of about 65,000, McPhretes explained to me the significance of the half-dozen military vessels anchored about a mile offshore.
"Those are U.W. prepositioning ships, operated by the U.S. Military Sealift Command. Their crews are U.S. civilians, and the ships contain tanks, ammunition, fuel, weapons, food, and medical supplies for U.S. Army and Marine forces," he said.
The United States has about 35 of these cargo ships stationed around the world in key ocean areas to ensure rapid availability during armed conflicts and humanitarian operations.
Sixteen of these vessels are stationed in the Pacific area and are guarded by Gurkhas, those aggressive warriors from Nepal who have traditionally served the British Army for several centuries.
Saipan, I was told by California-transplant Linda McKnight, publisher of the daily Saipan Tribune, has fallen upon difficult economic times. Up to three years ago, the minimum wage in the islands was $3.05 an hour, and Saipan then contained thousands of contract workers from a dozen Pacific and Asian nations who worked in 17 garment factories turning out clothes to be sold in the U.S. and around the world.
Disgraced Washington lobbyist Jack Abramoff, now in a federal prison, was able to persuade former Texas Congressman Tom DeLay through generous financial donations to influence other members of Congress to exempt Saipan from U.S. minimum wage laws.
When Abramoff was convicted and DeLay forced to retire from his House seat, the minimum wage here rose, and is now $4.05. As a result, the garment factories packed up and moved elsewhere in the Pacific and Asia. Only three factories remain, and they will close later this year, McKnight told me. As a result, the local economy, coupled with rising fuel and food prices, is "terrible."
"The population is falling, unemployment is rising, and we are having very hard times," she added.
But I was received here with warmth and friendship from the native Chamorros who see a silver lining inasmuch Japanese and Korean tourism is increasing on this beautiful land, 3,300 miles west of Hawaii, of sandy beaches, coral atolls, and WWII aircraft and warship dive sites.
"Hafa adai," the islanders' greeting in the Chamorro language which means "hello," has greeted me on countless occasions as I explore this island. The people are resolute and determined to reverse their bleak fortunes.
David C. Henley is publisher emeritus of the LVN.
Ellie