Uncle found himself on the Northern Marianas Island ofTinian in the Pacific shortly after the marines secured the island in late July1944. That action saw over 8,000 Japanese dead, with 313 taken prisoner, and328 US dead. Uncle was a Navy Seabee,the Construction Battalion (CB), charged with making the island a forwardairbase, primarily for B-29s bombing Japan. Tinian would later be used forlaunching the 1945 atomic attacks by B-29s Enola Gay and Bockscar. Some 15,000 Seabees turned the island into thebusiest airfield of the Pacific war, with six runways, and camps for 50,000troops. In addition to construction duties, uncle pulled guard duty, andreported in letters to his mother seeing Japanese but ‘they got away’. He also wrote letters to his mother aboutbeing ‘bombed and strafed’ by the enemy. I’m sure THAT eased her mind…Uncle had a camera, with which he recorded his time there,or at least what he was allowed to photograph. The slideshow which followsfeature his photos of island conditions, local population, ruins, wreckedJapanese military hardware, American military hardware, and some fine bombernose-art. These have never beenpublished as far as I know. Uncle keptthem in a binder made of some wood-burned plywood bound by leather straps,which I inherited when he died this past decade. Enjoy LL.