Staff Sargeant Raymond Hagley of the 73rd Bombarment Wing 20th Army Air Force was stationed on Saipan. Hagley was part of an early deployment force that arrived on the island in the summer of 1944. Hagley served under Brigadier General Emmet O’ Donnell Jr. Ray received the Bronze Star to the Asiatic Pacific Theater campaign and the Good Conduct Medal for exemplary behavior. Hagley was on the island when Japanese fighters passed over the bivouac area at low level and bombed and straffed the 499th dispersal site. In a letter Hagley sent home, he wrote, “17 Zekes came in today over Isely Field and straffed it badly. One soldier was killed and many injured,” It was one of the last major air attacks by the Japanese on Saipan and it signaled the beginning of the end for Imperial Japan to protect its homeland.