By Emmanuel T. Erediano
[email protected]
Variety News Staff
SENATOR Jude U. Hofschneider is asking Naval Facilities Engineering Systems Command Marianas to explore reimbursing the CNMI government and Tinian municipality for costs incurred over decades to maintain the historic North Field.
In a letter to Joint Region Marianas Commander Rear Adm. Brett Mietus, the senator emphasized the importance of “long-term stewardship” of the North Field, a national historic landmark of exceptional national and international significance.
The North Field on Tinian was the launching point for U.S. Air Force B-29s that dropped atomic bombs on Hiroshima and Nagasaki, Japan, in 1945, contributing to the end of World War II.
“North Field is among the most historically important military sites in U.S. history,” Hofschneider said. For nearly five decades following the birth of the Commonwealth, responsibility for maintenance, management, and preservation of the site has fallen almost entirely on the CNMI government and the Tinian municipality, often with limited resources and no dedicated federal funding.
Hofschneider noted that the National Historic Preservation Act of 1966 provides a clear federal policy requiring agencies to manage historic properties as irreplaceable public assets. The law requires federal agencies to identify, evaluate, and consider the effects of federal undertakings on historic properties, and to exercise stewardship responsibilities through consultation, mitigation, and cooperative agreements. The senator said these obligations apply with particular force to National Historic Landmarks like North Field.
“While the CNMI government and Tinian municipality have undertaken maintenance efforts out of necessity and respect for the site’s historical importance, those efforts have also preserved a federal historic asset that remains directly relevant to U.S. military use, planning, and training activities,” Hofschneider said.
He added that local governments have acted in a role consistent with federal stewardship objectives under the NHPA for decades.
“In light of renewed federal investment and activity at North Field, including ongoing and planned military undertakings, I respectfully request that NAVFAC Marianas engage with the CNMI government and Tinian municipality to explore reimbursing, in whole or in part, the historical costs incurred for maintenance and upkeep over the past several decades,” the senator wrote.
Hofschneider said there is a strong basis for discussing prospective cost-sharing, cooperative agreements, or mitigation-based funding mechanisms going forward, consistent with NHPA consultation and stewardship frameworks.
“I make this request in a spirit of partnership and mutual respect,” he added, noting Tinian’s long-term contribution to national defense, including accommodating military activities and preserving historically significant resources.
On May 3, 2019, the Commonwealth Ports Authority, the CNMI government, and the U.S. Department of Defense finalized a 40-year lease agreement worth $21.9 million for the U.S. Air Force’s divert airfield in Tinian.
Emmanuel “Arnold” Erediano has a bachelor of science degree in Journalism. He started his career as police beat reporter. Loves to cook. Eats death threats for breakfast.
