thedrifter
01-03-09, 06:55 AM
WWII vet, grandson share photos of South Pacific
By JIMMY ISAAC
Saturday, January 03, 2009
TYLER — S.R. Lanius thumbed through dozens of his World War II photographs, showing his grandson pictures of barracks, barges and theaters that he and fellow sailors built on Tinian Island.
"I took all of these pictures," he said from his recliner in Tyler. "I used to fool around with a 35-millimeter camera, and I kept it all the way through (the war). I wasn't supposed to have it."
About 65 years after storming the beaches of Tinian and Saipan before building runways that were the launching pad of U.S. air strikes over Japan, Lanius opened his shoebox of memories on New Year's Eve.
The look back wasn't random. Damon Lanius, 31, brought his grandfather modern pictures of Tinian, taken one week ago — before he moved from nearby Guam back to the United States. Together, the two Rusk County natives spent the afternoon comparing shots, such as the grandfather's photo of runways lined with B-29 bombers, to the grandson's digital image of one of those runways today with grass pushing through asphalt cracks.
"It was one of the biggest runway airstrips in the world during that time frame," said the grandson, who lived in Guam for the past four years.
Storm and capture
In mid-June 1944, U.S. forces bombarded Tinian for three days, with aircraft destroying or damaging some 200 Japanese aircraft, according to John Davison's 2004 chronological book, The Pacific War: Day by Day. Tinian was among the flattest of the Mariana Islands, and its distance from Japan was within the necessary 1,500-mile fuel range of B-29 Superfortress long-range bombers.
On June 15, Lanius was among 8,000 Marines that stormed the west coast of Saipan. He recalled Suicide Cliff and Banzai Cliff where many hundreds of Japanese soldiers jumped from heights of some 800 feet to their deaths rather than surrender.
In July, Marines captured Tinian Island about five miles southwest of Saipan. The U.S. later turned the island into a 40,000-personnel base with two B-29 airfields having six 8,500-foot runways.
"When we went in on Tinian, the Japanese had gone in and took all the people there (in Tinian) prisoner, around 10 years in the early 1930s, and they had made slaves out of them," Lanius said. "Man, they were glad to see us come in there and take the island over."
Atomic delivery
On July 26, 1945, after a year of developing the island and in the midst of B-29 strikes on Japan, the USS Indianapolis delivered the atomic bombs Little Boy and Fat Man to Tinian. Eleven days later, Little Boy was dropped on Hiroshima by the B-29 Superfortress Enola Gay. That was three days before Fat Man was dropped on Nagasaki.
On Aug. 10, 1945, Japanese Emperor Hirohito prepared to announce his country's unconditional surrender to the Allies.
"Our commanding officer, he came and told us the war was going to be over (days before the bombings)," Lanius told his grandson. "We didn't think he knew what he was talking about, but it came to pass. We were real glad, boy."
Like grandfather, like grandson
S.R.'s grandson moved to Guam, where his former Air Force wife was stationed. Damon Lanius took a job with Louisiana-based Shaw Group Inc. in which he sought out unexploded ordinates from a World War II dump site on Guam. The Guam job is done, and Shaw has transferred Lanius to begin similar work at Camp Pendleton Marine Corps Base — where his grandfather was stationed for about one year in the 1940s before deployment to the South Pacific.
In a final day in Guam on Dec. 26, Lanius and his 4-year-old son Kiefer took a 45-minute flight to Saipan and a 10-minute puddle-hopping flight to Taipan. They toured the islands, taking pictures from Suicide Cliff, the runways, monuments to U.S. occupation during World War II and remnants of artillery barrels and bunkers.
Lanius flies to Camp Pendleton in Southern California on Saturday. This past week, he visited his parents at their Tatum home. Their New Year's Eve visit to Tyler left 85-year-old S.R. Lanius thinking back to when he and other Marines laid the groundwork for victory for the Allies.
"We went in there and helped build all of the runways for the B-29s, and we had as high as 30-foot fields we had to fill in," he told his grandson. "It took a lot of rock and stuff, but we really had some nice runways when we got through."
Ellie
By JIMMY ISAAC
Saturday, January 03, 2009
TYLER — S.R. Lanius thumbed through dozens of his World War II photographs, showing his grandson pictures of barracks, barges and theaters that he and fellow sailors built on Tinian Island.
"I took all of these pictures," he said from his recliner in Tyler. "I used to fool around with a 35-millimeter camera, and I kept it all the way through (the war). I wasn't supposed to have it."
About 65 years after storming the beaches of Tinian and Saipan before building runways that were the launching pad of U.S. air strikes over Japan, Lanius opened his shoebox of memories on New Year's Eve.
The look back wasn't random. Damon Lanius, 31, brought his grandfather modern pictures of Tinian, taken one week ago — before he moved from nearby Guam back to the United States. Together, the two Rusk County natives spent the afternoon comparing shots, such as the grandfather's photo of runways lined with B-29 bombers, to the grandson's digital image of one of those runways today with grass pushing through asphalt cracks.
"It was one of the biggest runway airstrips in the world during that time frame," said the grandson, who lived in Guam for the past four years.
Storm and capture
In mid-June 1944, U.S. forces bombarded Tinian for three days, with aircraft destroying or damaging some 200 Japanese aircraft, according to John Davison's 2004 chronological book, The Pacific War: Day by Day. Tinian was among the flattest of the Mariana Islands, and its distance from Japan was within the necessary 1,500-mile fuel range of B-29 Superfortress long-range bombers.
On June 15, Lanius was among 8,000 Marines that stormed the west coast of Saipan. He recalled Suicide Cliff and Banzai Cliff where many hundreds of Japanese soldiers jumped from heights of some 800 feet to their deaths rather than surrender.
In July, Marines captured Tinian Island about five miles southwest of Saipan. The U.S. later turned the island into a 40,000-personnel base with two B-29 airfields having six 8,500-foot runways.
"When we went in on Tinian, the Japanese had gone in and took all the people there (in Tinian) prisoner, around 10 years in the early 1930s, and they had made slaves out of them," Lanius said. "Man, they were glad to see us come in there and take the island over."
Atomic delivery
On July 26, 1945, after a year of developing the island and in the midst of B-29 strikes on Japan, the USS Indianapolis delivered the atomic bombs Little Boy and Fat Man to Tinian. Eleven days later, Little Boy was dropped on Hiroshima by the B-29 Superfortress Enola Gay. That was three days before Fat Man was dropped on Nagasaki.
On Aug. 10, 1945, Japanese Emperor Hirohito prepared to announce his country's unconditional surrender to the Allies.
"Our commanding officer, he came and told us the war was going to be over (days before the bombings)," Lanius told his grandson. "We didn't think he knew what he was talking about, but it came to pass. We were real glad, boy."
Like grandfather, like grandson
S.R.'s grandson moved to Guam, where his former Air Force wife was stationed. Damon Lanius took a job with Louisiana-based Shaw Group Inc. in which he sought out unexploded ordinates from a World War II dump site on Guam. The Guam job is done, and Shaw has transferred Lanius to begin similar work at Camp Pendleton Marine Corps Base — where his grandfather was stationed for about one year in the 1940s before deployment to the South Pacific.
In a final day in Guam on Dec. 26, Lanius and his 4-year-old son Kiefer took a 45-minute flight to Saipan and a 10-minute puddle-hopping flight to Taipan. They toured the islands, taking pictures from Suicide Cliff, the runways, monuments to U.S. occupation during World War II and remnants of artillery barrels and bunkers.
Lanius flies to Camp Pendleton in Southern California on Saturday. This past week, he visited his parents at their Tatum home. Their New Year's Eve visit to Tyler left 85-year-old S.R. Lanius thinking back to when he and other Marines laid the groundwork for victory for the Allies.
"We went in there and helped build all of the runways for the B-29s, and we had as high as 30-foot fields we had to fill in," he told his grandson. "It took a lot of rock and stuff, but we really had some nice runways when we got through."
Ellie