The 165th Infantry, National Guardsmen out of New York, gained fame in the American Civil War as the “Fighting 69th” (a moniker bestowed by no less than Robert E. Lee during the Battle of Malvern Hill in 1862) and later as the subject of the well-known 1940 movie starring James Cagney. Already battle-hardened in the hell of Makin Atoll during the previous November, the famed regiment now attacked the ridge at Opyan on the seaward flank of the American advance along Saipan’s southern coast.

Harassing fire from the anti-aircraft guns on Nafutan Point gave the soldiers some difficulty, but they successfully stormed the ridge following a heavy naval bombardment. The Fighting Sixty-Ninth cleared Aslito Airfield and division commander Maj. Gen. Ralph Smith re-named it Conroy Field in honor of Col. Gerald Conroy, the 165th’s former commander, killed in action on Makin. Later that day Marine Lt. Gen. Holland M. Smith over-ruled Ralph Smith and named the airstrip Isley Field in honor of Cdr. Robert Isley, a naval aviator shot down over Saipan. The inter-service pettiness was only beginning, but by the 20th Army Air Force P-47s were flying support missions for both Marine and Army units.