America's oldest, most experienced military history tour operator, founded by Bob Reynolds, WWII pilot, as a resource for veterans, families, military service organizations, unit associations, reunion groups, historical societies, government institutions. Pacific and Europe wartime theaters. Website:
Tuesday, February 22, 2011
Seabee Memorial on Tinian
I have been working on various documentary projects which have required me to explore most of the WWII areas on Tinian over the last 20 years. Each year I bring Valor Tours groups to Saipan and Tinian to visit the World War II sites which the historic preservaton office clears of jungle growth. Unfortuantely, Tinian's economy cannot afford to support the constant clearing work needed to keep all the sites clean. The jungle works relentlessly to cover the vast B-29 runways. However, the WWII roads still make it easy to move around the island. At present, Tinian's economy is suffereing the severe effects of the downturn of the worldwide recession.
During the 60th Commemoration event in August 2005, a tremendous effort was made to clear off many notable WWII sites. These included the ENOLA GAY's hardstand, areas where work was done on assembling atomic bombs, the Army hopsital on Mt. Lasso, the asphalt plant off 8th Avenue, the 509th and the 504th Bomb Group camps, numerous Japanese bunkers, and much more. Unfortunately, many of these sites are now overgrown again and almost impossible to get to. You can see all the cleaned off sites and hear the Veterans' comments and stories as they revisit these WWII sites on Tinian in my new documentary film called ECHOES FROM THE APOCALYPSE. Also available is the award winning two-hour documentary THUNDER FROM TINIAN released in 1997 which is an in depth study of every facet of Tinian's WWII story. Ordering inquiries may be made by email to hume.giles@umpi.edu.
In 2009, Historic Preservation Director Carmen Sanchez and I went into the section of the former 107th Seabees camp. Today it is heavily overgrown with tangan tangan jungle. We discovered an interesting ruin, which was apparently a former enlisted men's or officer's club which had the unique feature of using coke bottles in its construction. The bar was made of brick and coke bottles which the patio was paved with nose-down coke bottles. We cleaned the site off and photographed it for documentation. The 107th Seabees monument off 8th Avenue is in fine shape and is still a site visited by most tourists whio come to Tinian.
As for Tinian's future, there are plans by the U.S. Military to turn the north two thirds of the island into a live fire military facility which would service the 6,000 marines being moved from Okinawa to Guam by 2012.
In the hundreds of interviews I have done with WWII Pacific Veterans, all agree that the Seabees were universally appreciated and greatly respected.
Professor Anderson Giles, University of Maine at Presque Isle
Posted by Valor Tours Ltd. at 1:42 PM
Monday, February 28, 2011
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)
Robert (Bob) Reynolds, WWII pilot, founded Valor Tours, Ltd. more than 30 years ago to be a resource for veterans, their families, military service organizations, unit associations, reunion groups, historical societies and government institutions with an interest in the Pacific and Europe wartime theaters.