A US Marine Corps KC-130J crew landed on historic North Field, Tinian, Northern Marianas Islands on 30 May 2012, marking the first military aircraft to land on this airstrip since US forces left the island in 1947. The crew, assigned to Marine Aerial Refueler Transport Squadron 152 (VMGR-152) at MCAS Iwakuni, Japan, landed on North Field as part of Exercise Geiger Fury 2012, a Marine exercise to execute and assess combined expeditionary operations in an austere environment. At the height of World War II, North Field, with four 8,500-foot-long runways, was the busiest airfield in the world. The field was also the launching point for the atomic bomb raids on Imperial Japan.
