The facade of a Quonset Hut, which features a scoreboard with Japanese battle flags denoting enemy planes shot down by a Marine fighting squadron, serves as a backdrop for a maintenance area. Vintage tools, weapons, and engine parts are arranged on wooden tables as if hard-working Marines just left them. An example of the famed jeep, a vehicle that originated during World War II, is also part of this area of the exhibit.

An off-duty aviator naps to the sounds of period music in his tent quarters, which were a fact of life for those who spent their service on Pacific islands during World War II. Here they slept in racks surrounded by mosquito netting, never knowing when the shrilling whine of an air raid siren would send them scurrying to a foxhole or sandbagged shelter. Frequent rain showers in the tropical climate made keeping dry almost impossible, the tent offering only limited protection from the elements.

Tents of all shapes and sizes dot the landscape on Ie Shima, housing personnel of Marine Corps squadrons flying from the island's airfield in support of operations against Japanese forces on nearby Okinawa during 1945. A small island, Ie Shima is most famous as the location where famed war correspondent Ernie Pyle was killed by a sniper.

A naked light bulb dangling from a cord on the ceiling illuminates a squadron operations center established in a former Japanese bunker on the island of Ie Shima during 1945. Note the chalkboards for the purpose of flight scheduling. With numerous carriers operating in neighboring waters and land based squadrons generating high sortie rates, the skies around Okinawa were crowded, necessitating skillful command and control.