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I had to walk the crane with the shovel on it uphill past a B-29 in a gully with other abandoned equipment. Slit trenches got upgraded to four- and six-holers.Īfter working about 10 days I was sent to Airfield 2, a half-mile north, to help extend that strip. The showers were out in the open with no covering. It smelled like rotten eggs but it was hot enough.
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We got water for showers from underground. Marines didn’t have chow lines, just K rations, so whenever they had a chance they got into the Seabee chow line. On D+6 the main body of the 62nd came ashore.īy D+7 the cooks and bakers had the cook tent erected and we got our first hot meal with baked bread. One is burning by the bomber's nose, another off its right wing. The B-29 hit and destroyed four P-51 "Mustang" fighters. One evening after I finished my shift the first B-29 landed.Ī Boeing B-29 bomber burns on an Iwo Jima airfield after its brakes locked on landing and it swerved into an aircraft parking area, April 24, 1945. We had to watch out for snipers and mortar fire and live ammunition and mines. Marines were fighting for the very piece of ground where we were trying to enlarge the strip. I put in nine or 10 hours a day extending the original airstrip to make it big enough to accommodate B-29s. I needed to work on the airfield, so the mechanics changed my rig over from a bucket to a shovel. Pond loaned me $100 and took care of sending it home. I wanted to send money for the funeral, but the paymaster was out on the ship. We couldn’t even move wounded men off the island. There was no way he would be able to get me home to bury her. Pond - I don’t think I ever knew his first name we generally called him “Mister Pond” - told me my mother had died. (Navy)Īround D+5, my company commander, Lt. Men with the 31st Naval Construction Battalion use a bulldozer and a rooter to open a cave at the end of Airstrip 1 on Iwo Jima.