This weathered snapshot from the 5th Marine Division's Iwo Jima collection shows a row of P-51 Mustang fighters staged on one of the island's hard-won airfields. Captured at enormous cost by Marine forces in early 1945, Iwo Jima's airstrips were rapidly rebuilt to support Army Air Forces fighters flying very-long-range escort missions alongside B-29 Superfortresses striking the Japanese home islands - transforming the island from a battlefield into a critical forward air base in the final months of the Pacific War. Project: 218552