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AUGUST, 2014: TINIAN WITH JULIE AND CHUCK

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Time for sign shots!
6 / 45

Time for sign shots!

aafjuliesign

  • About to take of for the most exciting 6 minutes in the CNMI!<br /> <br /> Feel free to leave comments by clicking the "Add Comment" button to your lower left. Select "This Photo" from the drop down menu which says "Choose a type" in the window.<br /> <br /> Also, please feel free to "Share," "Like," or "Tweet" any of these photos with the above buttons.
  • At Tinian Airport. Not sure who or what thrashes herein, and I didn't look in to see, either.
  • OK! I get the idea already!<br /> <br /> Actually, the locals chew betel nut, and saliva mixed with the stuff will stain EVERYTHING it touches (including concrete, asphalt, and tooth enamel) a very deep red.
  • We decided to stay on this side of the fence.
  • The famous Blow Hole on the northeast shore of Tinian. You can actually see another spouting horn in the background, but that one is not on publicly-accessible property. This one is a bit like Old Faithful: Regardless of tide or swells (or lack thereof), it will ALWAYS erupt regularly.
  • Time for sign shots!
  • Untitled photo
  • Gotta get that just right angle.
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  • Yep. I had to get one of my own, too. This is the very strip of asphalt from where the Enola Gay lifted off. I've often said that if the runway which launched the nuclear age and ended WW II were anywhere else in the world, there would be a multi-million dollar visitor center and continuous promotions for historical-tourism would bring hordes of history buffs to walk and / or drive over the illustrious ground. Not so here, as you can tell.
  • This is the airfield operations building, from where the Japanese directed aircraft, etc. during day to day operations of the airfield.
  • Chuck approaches the Airfield Operations Building. A fair bit of concrete in these walls.
  • I'm not sure what species of tree this is. The flowers have basically the same arrangement as our Flame Tree flowers, except that these are white with red on them instead of being red with white on them. The leaves are totally different from a flame tree, however.
  • Japanese bomb shelter. While these were built to withstand considerable bombardment, and they had generators to bring fresh oxygen in, etc., they had been abandoned by the time the American forces got here.
  • I'm inside a bomb shelter here. You can see to my left where a hole has been blasted in the side.
  • That's very thick concrete to blast a hole through!
  • I believe that this was the Japanese regional air coordination center for all of the Micronesia region.
  • Looks very likely that this was a communal bath, much like the hot springs or onsen the Japanese enjoy today.
  • This is the pit where the second atomic bomb, "Fat Man," was stored.
  • And here is the one which stored the first atomic bomb, "Little Boy." Of course, the pictures and the glass cover were not here back then. The airplane rolled over this pit and a hydraulic lift loaded it into the bay.
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