August 29, 2004 Island of Tinian: location of airfield and bombpits for the Enola Gay



Mark and I finally got the ferry to the island of Tinian. The ferry has not been operating due to the typhoon Chaba that just came through. We waited a long time to see if the ferry would run today but finally we took off. When we got to the docks on Tinian we were not near anything we could walk to. Luckily, the casino picked us, and the rest of the ferry passengers, up in a bus and took us to the Casino, which is huge and fancy and has a hotel and shops and a fancy restaurant and of course gambling. We were told if we played the slots or tables we could get ferry ticket back so we played about 14 dollars between us and then we learned that the only tickets back that we could get were in 10 minutes and we had just got there and the next tickets available would be at 5 am...so we decided we would pay our own way back on the ferry, but a little while later we learned that it wasn't just pay or not pay. There was no ferry coming back until the next day. Hmm, perhaps an overnight stay. Then we learned we could fly back for less than twice the cost of the ferry, so we decided to fly back at 6 pm and in the meantime we would find a way to the bomb pits. The last tour of the day had supposedly left 10 min ago. Earlier we had been told no tour today. I rented a car for 3 hours (minimum rental) for 45 dollars. There was no one at the car rental agency but we made some phone calls and then someone came and rented us a car. Mark and i took off down roads with grass growing up thru the concrete here and there and some roads closed due to typhoon debris and uprooted trees falling on them...but we managed to get to bomb pits one and two and get pictures and to walk on the runway that the Enola Gay took off on headed for Hiroshima and laterNagasaki. At one time during WWII, this airport was the busiest in the world. On this day only Mark and I stood there looking at grass growing up in places through the airstrip built by seabees. We got to relive history in our imaginations by seeing not only the bombpits and airstrip, but also the monuments and suicide cliffs and bunkers and headquarters etc....it was a full day and believe it or not, when mark and i were driving up to the bomb pits and around the island and back...about 2 and a half hours, we only saw one other car...it certainly was not crowded...no one at bomb pits or other places of historic interest, but us. The road paralleled the ocean for most of the trip to the bombpits. We stopped on route to see a blow hole. There was an area next to the blow hole, with signs to keep out as there were unexploded munitions in that area. Of course Mark had to go into that area to explore. I played mom and yelled at him to come back immediately.
We managed to turn the car in at the airport rather than hotel where we had rented it. We had to route the lady out to come to the hotel and rent it to us and had to call several times to get her to the airport to check us out. She wanted us just to leave the key in the glove box...but I am super cautious these days and wanted her to give us the heads up that the car was in as good a shape as when we took it. The flight home to Saipan was first come first serve and we were not first...waited about 90 minutes as two single engine planes carrying 5 passengers each went back and forth from Tinian to Saipan...There were a zillion Japanese tourists going back to Saipan and other people who would have taken the ferry if it was running. They came out of nowhere. I would have sworn there was only a handful of people on the island. I had to take off my flip flops and climb up on the wing to get into the plane. I was told this airlines has a 70 year old woman pilot...but we did not draw her...just a middle aged man for a pilot... our car was not at the Saipan airport but at the Warf or docks. Fortunately I conversed with Perry, a young businessman. in our airplane on way back and he gave us and another man a ride from the airport to the dock area...a full day... Betty