Master Caption wrote:"Boomtown" A Marine Corps air base in the South Pacific is regarded as a model base, and to some Marines who have not been there, as unbelievable. Other Marines seeing it for the first time think it is a mirage. "Boomtown" features hamburger stands, steam laundries, running water, screened in portable living quarters of mahogany, a mess hall of mahogany, and even the Good Humor man - - - all within range of Japanese bombers.
Most of the credit belongs to Colonel Raymond S. Hopper, of 150 W. Avenue, Coronado, Calif.,who went to the South Pacific equipped with the laundry machines, and even a portable sawmill. Colonel Hopper joined the Marines in 1926 after graduating from Mississippi State University.
Even the Japs would not recognize the island they held a few months ago, and Colonel Hopper's ideas have paid dividends as the morale of the personnel on the island is unsurpassed.
