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 of the men waiting for the enemy to make their move. On Midway's two main islands, Sand and Eastern, 3,632 United States Navy and Marine Corps person ....

Part 2 of Essay
.... by the United States in August 1867. Between 1903 and 1940, it served both as a cable station on the Honolulu-Guam-Manila underwater telegraph line and as an airport for Pan American Airways China Clipper. 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 sea plane hanger and ram ....