Glenn on Tinian Island

Glenn shipped out to Tinian Island from San Francisco in mid-July 1945. He was there until October of that year.

I don’t know what those things are, but they look a little less than friendly.

Those are bombs, doofus.

Well, I didn’t think they were cans of beans! I meant what kind of bombs.

The kind that are dropped from airplanes and explode :P

Actually now that I look at it closer, I cant see any guidance fins at the rear. This could either be because the guidance component is a seperate part that is attached prior to arming, or that these could actually be fuel tanks, although they look a bit fat for fuel tanks. My guess, due to the shape, and the ’button’ on the nose (this makes the boom go) that these are a high yield general ordinance destined for bombing runs on wake, or possibly japan itself.

Although ’fat man’ (one of the nuclear weapons dropped on japan) was staged at tinian, those aren’t it.

Grandpa told me that when they left the island, part of the clean-up operation was to dump loads of perfectly good, new, equipment into the ocean. He said either it was too expensive to ship back, or it would have flooded the market back home.

I guess the Japanese fought the invasion from the hills for a while, and eventually threw themselves off these cliffs when it was clear they were not going to win.

I admit, I was getting kind of tired of scanning, and I didn’t scan all the pictures of the planes, just a few.

This is the “quonset hut” where grandpa lived on Tinian; little white picket fence and everything!

Just some guys and a bomb shelter…

I think Grandpa said those were the remains of the Japanese encampment.

I don’t know who the guy is.

I guess after August, they didn’t have much to do but walk around town and pose for pictures!

The island was taken from the Japanese in 1944, long before Grandpa got there. That’s a lot of crosses.

Did Grandpa share that building with all those other guys?! Grandpa is 3rd from the right, front row.

The sign says “Prehistoric ruins left by unknown race which inhabited Tinian many centuries ago probably formed first floor of temple or house for cheiftan”.

I don’t know who these guys are.

Looks like a pretty nice place, if you could ignore the circumstances.

The sign says “Religious shrine. All military and naval personnel on Tinian are forbidden to molest or remove any portion of this shrine or objects connected therewith. By order of the island commander.”

That’s the ship Grandpa road home in.Grandma also labelled “Oct 17 1945”, and the bow says USS Duell or Dwell?