Pacific Combat Zone

We ended our tour of the National Museum of the Pacific War with a tour of the Combat Zone. The tour begins with film clips from the news during the war narrated by Lowell Thomas. On the tour we were able to see PT 309. The PT boats were made out of wood. They had no military use after the war so most them were burned. This PT was in the US at the end of the war and thus escaped being burned.
The tour includes a quonset hut set up as a field hospital. There is a Pacific Island battle ground which depicts what the US forces encounter when hitting an island. Our guide informed us that they have WWII battle reenactments there. The reenactment includes tanks firing their guns and flame throwers which can be seen in the George Bush Gallery. We really enjoyed this tour and would like to be there during one of their reenactments.

This landing vessel was nicknamed the water buffalo. It was designed to get through the coral reefs.


This is a shell for the Fat Boy Bomb. The Fat boy was the atom bomb that was dropped on Japan.


Gary is talking to our tour guide. This gentleman won 2 bronze stars for his actions during the Battle of the Bulge. He served a total of 18 months in Europe.


This is the part of the battlefield. Everything was constructed by hand, just as it would have been during the war.