Photo By Staff Sgt. Austin Siegel | U.S. Air Force Tech. Sgt. Dawson Parker, quality insurance inspector, 366th Fighter...... read more read more
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If someone walked up to you on the street and offered you 10 million dollars to point out where Tinian is on a map and what its historical significance is, would you be able to do it?
If you can, congratulations, you’re now a millionaire in this hypothetical situation. If not, here’s your chance to learn about why this island is not only historically important, but also a special place for one Airman.
Meet U.S. Air Force Tech. Sgt. Parker Dawson, a 6 foot Electrical and Environmental Systems Craftsman stationed at Mountain Home Air Force Base, Idaho. His responsibility is to inspect, troubleshoot and maintain a variety of systems on the F-15E Strike Eagle.
“My grandpa Charley and his crew were flying back from Japan after a bombing run and their bomb bay doors got stuck open which created drag, making the airplane use significantly more fuel. This meant if they didn’t find a way to close the doors, they would’ve run out of fuel and crashed into the Pacific Ocean, Dawson said. “So, the crew rigged some cables together, grabbed my grandfather by his ankles as he held another guy by his ankles to make a human chain to manually close the bomb bay doors… This is something you’d expect from a Tom Cruise movie, but this was just one of my grandfather’s realities.”
His desire to join the Air Force came specifically from his grandfather, Charles “Charley” Wilson, who served as a Boeing B-29 Superfortress flight engineer and tail gunner during World War II, eventually commissioning as an officer and retiring in 1984.
“My grandfather was a big part in my decision to join the military,” Dawson said. “Originally I was going to join the Navy like my brothers did, but I moved halfway through the recruiting process and couldn’t get a hold of the Navy recruiter, so I decided to follow in my grandfather’s footsteps and become an Airman.”
Dawson’s brother Andrew, served in the U.S. Navy as an Aviation Electronics Technician and his other brother, Jamison, is currently serving in the Navy as an Engineering Duty Officer.
“Growing up, whenever my brothers and I spent time with our grandpa, he would always share stories of his trips all over the world, show B-29 videos and talk about this little place in the Pacific called Tinian,” said Dawson.
He never thought he would get a chance to visit Tinian because of its remote location, but destiny had a special opportunity for Dawson.
“My section chief came to me in June and told me there’s a TDY opportunity to this tiny island near Guam, but he couldn’t quite pronounce it right, Tiny-ind? Tyne-iend? So I corrected him ‘Tin-Knee-In’ and my section chief was like how do you know that? I explained to him about my grandfather and told him I’ll be mad if I don’t go!”
An island in the western Pacific Ocean, Tinian is one of 14 islands that make up a U.S. territory called the Northern Mariana Islands. Located northeast of Guam and southwest of Saipan, Tinian is only 39 square miles, but proved to be one of the most valuable locations in the entire Pacific WWII campaign. After it was seized by the allies on August 1st, 1945, it became the largest allied and busiest air base of WWII with six active runways. The B-29 Superfortress, the same aircraft Dawson’s grandfather worked on, was continuously launched from Tinian to strike mainland Japan. Two distinct atomic bombs, Little Boy and Fat Man, were loaded on Tinian, and after a 1,400-mile flight dropped on Japan, resulting in an almost immediate surrender.
Dawson’s once in a lifetime opportunity to experience the island that his grandfather once walked came because of an annual U.S. Air Force exercise, called Operation Pacific Iron (PACIRON), which is a large-scale exercise over several different areas in the Pacific, including Tinian.
“I was so excited to visit the places my grandpa talked about in his Tinian stories! I recreated versions of the photos we have of him on the island, and I even visited some of the places like this old power plant he used to talk about.” Dawson said. “Unfortunately, my grandfather passed away in 2017 so I couldn’t share this moment with him in-person, but I feel like this was my way of honoring a man who made a big difference in my life, and always taught my brothers and I to be curious about the world.”
***Story was originally published to the Mountain Home AFB Facebook site on Nov. 10, 2021, and may be found at https://www.facebook.com/366FW/posts/254607216695173.***
| Date Taken: | 10.29.2021 |
| Date Posted: | 10.29.2021 17:17 |
| Story ID: | 408367 |
| Location: | MOUNTAIN HOME AIR FORCE BASE, IDAHO, US |
| Web Views: | 595 |
| Downloads: | 2 |
This work, Tinian: The Opportunity of a Lifetime, by SSgt Austin Siegel, identified by DVIDS, must comply with the restrictions shown on https://www.dvidshub.net/about/copyright.
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