page_title: 1892nd Engineer Aviation Battalion (United States)
section_title: Pacific Theater deployment
hierarchical_section_title: 1892nd Engineer Aviation Battalion (United States) / World War II / Pacific Theater deployment
caption_attribution_description: English: IE SHIMA'S AIRFIELD shows the scars of Japanese attempts to demolish the runways in 1945. Smoke from naval bombardment obscures Ie village.
context_page_description: The 1892nd Engineer Aviation Battalion was a United States Army Air Forces unit activated on 1 May 1943 at Gowen Field in Boise, Idaho. The battalion was responsible for building, maintaining, and patrolling runways throughout the Pacific Theater during World War II. The unit was inactivated on 17 June 1946 following the end of the war. The unit was later reactivated and re-designated the 964th Engineering Construction Battalion and performed training functions in Rochester, New York and Fort Belvoir, Virginia until it was inactivated on 23 October 1959.
context_section_description: On 13 November 1944 the 1892nd arrived at the Oro Bay, New Guinea Pacific Theater staging area via the USS Latimer.  The unit was assigned to Biak Island, Mokmer Airfield near the northern coast of Papua, New Guinea where it maintained the airfield.  The airfield at Biak was under Japanese control until it was captured by the United States Army in May 1944 following the Battle of Biak.
  On 28 January 1945 the 1892nd was transferred to the island of Luzon, the largest island in the Philippines.  Then on 8 February 1945 the battalion reported that it was again in New Guinea.  On 25 May 1945 the 1892nd was ordered to Okinawa for permanent change of station where it was assigned to the Far East Air Force, Fifth Air Force, 928th Engineer Aviation Regiment. The Fifth Air Force was a combat force that was assigned multiple bomber groups throughout the area, particularly Motobu Airfield on the Motobu Peninsula of Okinawa.
  The 1892nd departed New Guinea on LSTs on 5 June 1945 with a destination of the Ryukyu Islands.  On 22 June the unit arrived at Ie Shima (Iejima), a small island off the northwest coast of Okinawa, where it would spend the remainder of the war working on runway maintenance projects and guarding airfield assets. The island housed a 5,000+ foot runway that was made from coral quarried from the island's interior; the runway was utilized by bomber aircraft groups.  The battalion was stationed near the site of war correspondent Ernie Pyle's death.  Pyle had been killed by a hidden Japanese machine gunner during the initial landing on the island.  At the time of his unit's arrival the grave site was marked by an upturned rifle stuck in the mud with Pyle's helmet on it.  It was later marked by a monument created by the 77th Infantry Division.
  After the dropping of the atomic bomb on Nagasaki and Hiroshima as well as a declaration of war by Russia on Japan, the Japanese agreed to unconditional surrender to Allied Forces at Ie Shima.  On 19 August 1945, a Japanese surrender party arrived on the island in two Betty Bombers painted white with green crosses, a color-coding that signaled to the Allies who they were and not to shoot them down.
  The Japanese transferred to a C-54 transport for the trip to Manila and a meeting with General MacArthur to review the terms of surrender. Members of the 1892nd and other units stationed on the island were allowed to line the sides of the runway as the Japanese delegation landed and departed, signaling the imminent end of World War II. The 1892nd was inactivated on 17 June 1946.
  Awards of the battalion included the World War II Victory Medal, American Campaign Medal, Asiatic-Pacific Campaign Medal (with Battle Stars), Army of Occupation Medal - Japan.
caption: Island of Ie Shima, 1945
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