An armorer cleans the blast tubes on a 47th Fighter Squadron P-51D Mustang while other maintenance is being performed. The official United States Army Air Force caption to this photo reads: Armorers cleaning 50 cal machine guns on wing of North American P-51 “Mustang”. Iwo Jima, Bonin Islands.

The sand and volcanic grit was a constant problem for ground crew on Iwo Jima. With their pilots spending a majority of a very long mission over the vast expanse of the Pacific Ocean, 7th Fighter Command ground crew spent long hours maintaining their Mustangs to prevent a pilot from having to bail out over water due to engine failure. This post is dedicated to all the ground crewmen who served on Iwo Jima.