Part 1 of Essay
Nothing distinguished the dawn of June 2, 1942, from countless other dawns that had fallen over tiny Midway atoll in the North Pacific. Nothing, that is, except the tension, the electric tension of men waiting for an enemy to make his move. On Midway's two main islands, Sand and Eastern, 3,632 United States Navy and Marin ....

Part 2 of Essay
.... annexed by the United States in August 1867. Between 1903 and 1940, it served both as a cable station on the Honolulu­ Guam­Manila underwater telegraph line and as an airport for the Pan American Airways China Clipper (Miracle 5). In March 1940, after a report on U.S. Navy Pacific bases declared Midway second only to Pearl Harbor in importance, construction of a formal naval air station began. Midway Naval Air Station was placed in commission in August 1941. By that time, Midway's facilities included a large seapl ....