A Lockheed P-38 Lightning taxis along a crushed-coral runway, likely at Ie Shima airfield near Okinawa in 1945. Ie Shima served as a critical forward staging base in the final months of the Pacific War, hosting bomber, fighter, and reconnaissance units — including aircraft operating alongside the 345th Bombardment Group — that supported the Okinawa campaign and preparations for the planned invasion of the Japanese home islands. Project: 218228