Tinian

Sent from a friend whose husband is a retired AF Pilot. While flying combat missions out of Guam I had a couple of days off so I flew over to Saipan.  I stood on the edge of Bonsai cliff and thought of all the Japanese civilians who committed suicide by leaping to their deaths instead of surrendering to US forces.  Years later I had lunch at the Pentagon with Paul Tibbets - a gentleman’s gentleman.  History - amazing things that happen today and are tomorrow history.   It's a small island, less than 40 square miles, a flat green dot in the vastness of Pacific blue. Fly over it and you notice a slash across its north end of uninhabited bush, a long thin line that looks like an overgrown dirt runway. If you didn't know what it was, you wouldn't give   it a second glance out your airplane window.             On the ground, you see the runway isn't dirt but tarmac and c...