North Field was one of several bases for Twentieth Air Force Boeing B-29 Superfortress operations against the Japanese Home Islands in 1944–45.

North Field was the base for the 313th Bombardment Wing which carried out Operation Starvation, the dropping of naval mines in the harbors and sea lanes used by Japan.

North Field was also the base for the 509th Composite Group which flew the atomic bombing raids on Hiroshima and Nagasaki in August 1945.

Tinian, with its sister islands of the Marianas, had passed through Spanish and German hands before becoming a protectorate of Japan following World War I.

Stationing the Superfortresses in the Marianas brought Japan within their effective range of operation, as well as provided the Twentieth Air Force with reliable means of support from the western ports of the United States.

Ushi Point airfield fell to U.S. forces on 26 July and was almost immediately handed over to the care of U.S. Navy Construction Battalions, or Seabees.

1,500 Seabees landed with the initial forces on Tinian in July 1944 and immediately set to work repairing the damaged Japanese Ushi Point Airfield, even before the fighting had ended.

North Field was further expanded with three 8,000 feet runways involving the movement of nearly 1 million cubic yards of earth and coral and the accumulation of some 900,000 truck miles.

Once in place, the groups of the 313th began flying missions, initially against Iwo Jima, the Truk Islands, and other Japanese held areas.

After the Japanese surrender in August, 313th Bomb Wing units dropped food and supplies to Allied prisoners of war and participated in show-of-force flights over Japan.

Immediately after the war, the locals on the island did not have to farm for the first two years after the airfield was abandoned because the withdrawing American military forces left entire stocks of almost everything ranging from food, brand-new military uniforms and even ice-cream makers (these were simply left behind in North Field's many warehouses).

Other than the two worn-out runways, the taxiways, the empty remnants of the former Japanese-built administration buildings and the preserved loading/storage pits where the atomic bombs were loaded on the bomber aircraft, there is not much left of the old airfield.

The secondary benefit of the clear and grub effort was the ability of the runway to be used by the Guam Air National Guard for training.

The exercise was a demonstration of the Marine Wing Support Squadron 171's ability to displace rapidly and generate significant combat power in an expeditionary environment.

[4] In the case of a surprise Chinese ballistic missile attack on U.S. air bases in Japan and South Korea, aircraft could be rapidly dispersed on WWII Pacific airfields, including Tinian.

[5][6] In late 2023 the U.S. Air Force began work on more extensive vegetation removal and pavement restoration, as part of a program to create dispersal bases for aircraft in the event of a confrontation with China.