A movie flickers on a sheet that serves as a makeshift screen while the sound of aircraft echoes overhead. A mechanic, his coveralls stained by oil and grease, works on an F4F Wildcat fighter while a pilot relaxes in his tent, a letter from home open on his desk. The squadron mascot, a one-eyed dog named “Lucky,” sits next to a bomb shelter located near a barrel filled with water that serves as an open-air shower.
These are the sights and sounds of the World War II South Pacific Island exhibit in which visitors literally step into a rustic airfield like those from which naval aviators operated during the island-hopping campaigns of World War II. Even before islands were secured, the Navy’s famed Seabees went ashore and began carving airstrips out of jungle. Living conditions were rough, with jungle diseases like malaria a constant threat and bombardment by the enemy likely.
Yet, flying from places like Guadalcanal and Bougainville, aces like Joe Foss, Ira Kepford, Jack Bolt, and Tom Blackburn winged their way towards dogfights with the enemy while dive-bombers and torpedo planes launched on missions against heavily-defended Japanese bases like Rabaul.