wendovertom wrote:
Xray wrote:
Pogmusic wrote:
It is not unusual for "closed" US Air Force bases to be maintained as future auxiliary fields that can be occupied in an emergency or conflict.
I asked about the population because I have seen how locals obliterated and trashed historic WW2 battle sites like Tarawa, Philippines, was hoping the same was not the case here. Of course, time marches on and the locals probably don't care much about what happened 2/3 generations ago [plus they are all pretty much drastically over populated], I understand that, but its sad to see.
When I was there, 65th Commemoration of Peace in the Pacific, the population on Tinian is quite well informed and proud of thier heritage as a WWII historic site. Now, that said, they really have minimal use of the old base, other than the rare tourist. They do/did keep a few monuments cleared and somewhat maintained at the intersection of "Broadway" and "116th street" and "8th Avenue" and "Riverside Drive" as well as the Seabee memorial on 8th Ave. And at the time, they had cleared off the old hospital area, the bomb assembly building foundations, the foundations for the radio beacon that helped returning bombers locate the island, the Northfield Tower building and cleaned up the Bomb Group memorial area (there is a monument similar to the 509th one for all the groups that were based there.
Tom P.
Thanks for the info, I did see a video a year or so ago and remember the cleared off bomb pit ,, Was tough to visualize how large an area that must have been to handle all those heavy bombers, so its perfectly understandable that its not going to be maintained just because.
My one big WW2 visit was to Corregidor/Bataan in the late 90's, that was quite a dream and stayed for over a week, also got to explore the famous "Concrete Battleship" Fort Drum, which was a heavily fortified island close to Corregidor ,, Impossible to do now, they closed it off a few years back and its been scrapped nearly into oblivion. Was very dangerous back then and I imagine even more so now to explore there, the lower levels are completely flooded and have not seen the light of day since 1945.
Even Corregidor, as isolated, regulated and officially maintained as it is, hasn't been immune to the scourge of scrappers - The Asian appetite for pre 1945 steel is insatiable, they risk their lives to get it any way possible.