Marines Return to Historic Pacific Airfield

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Marine Corps photo

A Marine Corps C-130 touches down on Tinian Island’s North Field, Wednesday, May 30 – the first aircraft to land there since 1947. North Field was once the largest airfield in the Pacific and was the launching point for the atom bomb raids on Hiroshima and Nagasaki during World War II. Marine Aircraft Group-12 cleared and repaired runway Baker of jungle and undergrowth as part of a month-long expeditionary training exercise. The U.S. and Japan are surveying sites on Tinian and elsewhere in the Northern Mariana chain for potential joint-training bases – part of the U.S. “pivot” to the Asia-Pacific region.