Air Force the Official Service Journal - Air Force Historical Studies ...

Bulldozers and Bullets
By MAL HERBERT O. JOHANSEN
AIR FORCE OlTTSC1S Staff
O,\;E night, while the ground fighting for Saipan was still
in progress, a lieutenal.l.t in the aviation engineers drove
his jeep to the end of an airstrip and spotted one of
our planes burning. Two enemy snipers had fired it.
As the [aps sprinted toward the safety of a eanefield, the
lieutenant grabbed his carbine, but the gun jammed. The
[aps were nearing cover, so he stepped on the jeep's throttle
and lit after them. He caught up with one of the [aps and
slapped the jeep into him. The Jap went sprawling, hut
jumped to his feet and kept on running. "l'he jeep whirled
around and slammed into him again. The Jap was buried
the next morning.
\Vhen the aviation engineers of the 7th Air Force Service
Command landed on Saipan on June 30, D-day plus 5, their
job was to build airstrips. In order to do that job. they had
to fight [aps, dodge artillery fire from nearby Tinian and
withstand three strafing attacks. The situation was so tense
they encircled their tent area with .50 caliber machine guns.
No sunTying party went to work without an accompanying
band of engineer-riflemen. Engineers in half tracks maintained
a constant patrol. For a short time, the engineers'
guns were the field's only antiaircraft defenses and their half
tracks provided the only close-in ground defenses. When
38
11.1 C~TR:\TIO:"JS BY CPL. LOUiS S. GLANZMAN
they started surveying a fighter strip on the southeast end of
the island, a tank battle was raging in full view half a mile
;1\\'ay. The actual front line was just one mile to the north.
Saipan is no longcr news. It is now a full-scale operational
airbasc. The aviation engineers did not gct in on the
battle headlines, but they huilt the airfields that bring us
closer to the headline of headlines: Japan's defeat.
The battle for airbuses is ahl'ays news, and the capture of
an island is only half that battle. Operational airbuses such
as we arc now using on Saip.m and dozens of similar islands
in the Pacific are not captured. The:' are built-often under
enem:' fire, alwavs against unbelievable obstacles, with inadequate
equipment, by men fighting time, nature and the
cncmv,
The joh of Saipan was done hy fi'T battalious of the 7th
AAF Service Command cnginecrs. \\Then their work was
finished, our bombers and fighters started using the fields
to continue their operations along the nirwavs to Tokvo.
A natural question is, "\ Vhat about the Japanese airfields
we captured? True, they were prcttv well bom b-battcrcd in
the process, but why not just fill the craters, move in our
aircraft and start operations?" That's a natural question, oulv
don't put it to the aviation engineers \\,110 were there. If
AIR FORCE