Ewa Field History Project P.O.
Box 75578 Kapolei, Hawaii 96707
Aloha,
In
an important historic review of Ewa Field, MCAS Ewa and Pacific war
history-
particularly the June 1942 Battle of Midway and other early 1942 Pacific
actions, reveals the largely unrecognized operational and supporting
role of Ewa Field in 1942. Many
naval aviation histories and archives have incorrectly assigned this
history to NAS Barbers
Point and various early aircraft carrier air group histories based in
Hawaii during that period.
The
1941 Ewa Field, approximately 180 acres, was placed on the Hawaii state
register in 2015 and on the NPS National Register in 2016. However the
period of historic significance was only recognized for December 7, 1941
to December 30, 1941, which was the attack on Pearl Harbor and the
subsequent Japanese naval activity around Oahu and on Wake Island, which
fell on December 23, 1941.
At
that point in time, the very early construction of NAS Barbers Point
had begun, which was expected to take about one year to complete.
However, with the major threat that the Imperial Japanese Navy presented
to Hawaii at that time, a decision was made to direct all money,
material and labor forces available from NAS Barbers Point to the
adjacent Ewa Field, which had just become fully operational.
Because
Ewa Field was already a Navy airfield, designated as a major airship
mooring mast (1925 -1940) the January 1941 arrival of Marine Corp
aviation was considered as an advance expeditionary force that would
move further out into the Pacific (Wake, Midway, etc.) And in fact this
was why Ewa Field was minus many planes on December 7, 1941, because air
units had been deployed to Wake and Midway. This Marine aircraft
movement by the USS Enterprise was in fact the primary reason it was not
in Pearl Harbor on December 7, 1941. That and a subsequent Pacific
storm that both delayed the Enterprise arrival to Pearl Harbor by a
matter of hours as well as helping to mask the large Japanese force
approaching Oahu from the northwest.
In
the early hectic days of 1942 Ewa Field, located in southwest Oahu
suddenly became the Hawaiian Islands
main frontline combat airfield. The very rapid expansion of Ewa Field
for two Navy carrier groups lead to the Navy largely taking over the
base once two major new aircraft parking ramps had been constructed and
the runway lengthened. In fact the Navy began referring to Ewa Field as
Naval Air Station Ewa (NAS Ewa). Confusing the historic records, archive
documents and photo collections further was also the general assignment
of Ewa Field as NAS Barbers Point. Many records still even state that
NAS Barbers Point was where 1942 carrier air
groups in the Pacific based and flew to the Pacific battles of Coral Sea
and Midway. But this was not possible from the still under construction
NAS Barbers Point.
Included
with this blog letter are links to command histories and air photos
that help
make the case as to why there needs to be a history review and new
analysis. It is also very important right now because a great deal of
the early 1942 Ewa Field, later designated Marine Corps Air Station Ewa,
still exists in a WW-II condition and largely undeveloped. The area was
greatly fortified with anti-aircraft gun batteries, bunkers, concrete
aircraft revetments and fuel storage areas.
Historians
and researchers began preparing in 2018 a National Register nomination
of one of the largely
unknown key aspects of the Battle of Midway – the 1942 Ewa Field
aircraft revetments
where many of the Navy and Marine planes left in late May 1942 to
participate in the
incredible and now legendary WW-II Pacific battle. Ewa Field was the key
supporting airfield where all of the Marine aircraft originated from
that
participated in the Midway battle, as well as the Navy air groups from
USS Hornet,
which included Torpedo Squadron 8. We now know other carrier air groups,
such as USS
Enterprise were also directly connected with Ewa Field. The Pearl Harbor
Ford Island Naval Air Station sent to Ewa Field CASU 1 (Carrier
Aircraft Service Unit) to maintain the carrier aircraft and which was
later spun off as CASU 2.
How
and why Ewa Field was largely denied
its important historic place as America’s 1942 “Battle for Hawaii” (i.e.
Battle
of Britain) key frontline combat airfield recognition and and role in
the June 1942 Battle of Midway is because of the way base command
histories and air group carrier histories were recorded in early 1942.
Local Hawaii histories of early 1942 present
a picture of great fear and almost panic in the Islands after the
December 7,
1941 Japanese air attack. Martial Law was declared, tanks rolled through
the
streets, sandbag machine gun positions and air raid bunkers were
installed
everywhere with gas masks required of every citizen, school child and
even
babies.
Expecting a Japanese invasion,
nighttime gunfire and reports of parachute landings were common as many
soldiers, Marines and airmen carried loaded weapons everywhere, including to Waikiki
Beach. News of Singapore, Hong Kong, the Philippines and Wake Island falling to
Japanese military forces spooked everyone in Hawaii. Very early in 1942 the new
Pacific commander Admiral Chester Nimitz ordered a complete realignment of
PNAB (Pacific Naval Air Base) construction priorities, including a massive expansion
of Ewa Field runways, ramp spaces, air defenses and fortifications. Money,
manpower and materials intended for a just beginning construction of NAS
Barbers Point was all redirected to Ewa Field.
As
a local historian that has been fortunate to have had many good sources
for military histories, I have spent the past seven years researching
newly discovered Ewa Field photos and documents from archives and the
largely overlooked role
Ewa Field played in post Pearl Harbor, early 1942 wartime history. In
what seemed like an
impossible goal due to very extensive land developer pressures and
politics, the 175-180 acres of former 1941 Navy and
Marine Corps Ewa airfield, where US Marines died in battle, was placed on
the NPS National
Historic register in May, 2016.
Now
as there has been continued further historic
research into the largely unrecognized 1942 Pacific War history of Ewa
Field
and its relationship to early key Pacific battles, the still existing 75
concrete "clam shell" aircraft
revetments have become a very important visual reminder of why they were
constructed for NAS Ewa Field Navy aircraft. Revealing more than we
expected were the even earlier and still existing sandbag and concrete
gunite revetments where specific Marine Corps Brewster Buffalo planes
that flew in the Battle of Midway were parked. As we went
through more archives we discovered new historic airbase documents,
diagrams and photos connected with
the early 1942 planes, pilots and squadrons based at NAS Ewa Field.
Also
many brief mentions in numerous
recent Pacific war books indicated more undeveloped Ewa Field stories
and links to famous
Navy and Marine pilots, squadrons and early combat planes. The names and
notations of well-preserved air group squadron pilots and crews were
found penciled and
painted on Ewa Field aircraft revetment concrete walls. Archive photos
never previously well identified lead to the documentation of post
attack sandbag
revetment sites, machine gun positions, ammunition bunkers and Army
anti-aircraft
gun battery sites, all indicating a great need for further research and
documentation
of the many largely unsurveyed historic archeology sites at Ewa Field
and MCAS Ewa.
Further, we have since found Ewa Field
connections with nearly every major combat action in the Pacific, including of course Wake
Island, but also the April 1942 Doolittle Raid, May 1942 Battle of Coral Sea, June 1942 Battle of Midway and the
1942-43 Guadalcanal Henderson Field Cactus Air Force which was MCAS Ewa Field’s direct airfield off
spring. Once Henderson
Field and NAS Barbers Point became operational MCAS Ewa, established in
September 1942, became the logistical and training hub for Marine Corp
aviation in the Pacific. MCAS Ewa continued to expand greatly to the end
of the war and afterwards continued support of the post war China
Marines and even provided R5D (Douglas C-54) transport aircraft and
pilots for the 1949 Berlin Airlift.
At
the successful conclusion of the Cold War the MCAS Ewa air wing command
was
inactivated and the base went through a base realignment and closure
process that ended in 1952 and its absorption into NAS Barbers Point.
The Marines transferred aircraft over to the newly recommissioned MCAS
Kaneohe which had formerly been NAS Kaneohe. In further musical chairs
the Navy's Patrol Wing Two command, which had their PBY's shot to pieces
in December 7, 1941, moved to NAS Barbers Point. The former MCAS Ewa
Field was in 1958 made Patrol Wing Two's headquarters with construction
of a new headquarters building (facility 972) by the old Ewa Field front
gate which had been strafed by Zero fighters on December 7, 1941.
The Navy 1960 mission changed from the Pacific Barrier Squadron (AEWBARRONPAC -Airborne Early Warning Barrier Squadron Pacific) flying Lockheed
WV-2 (EC-121K) to the new reconnaissance and anti-submarine warfare
missions with Lockheed P-3 Orion aircraft. An ASWOC (Anti Submarine Warfare Operations Center) was added to the Patrol
Wing Two headquarters facility building 972 and a new SOSUS (Sound
Surveillance facility for tracking Soviet submarines) was built next door with two large circular antenna arrays,
satellite dish and microwave link to Pearl Harbor. In 1999 Patrol Wing
Two moved back to Kaneohe as NAS Barbers Point was closed under
congressional BRAC. This is also why MCAS Ewa was forgotten and widely
thought of as just NAS Barbers Point. The Cold War had been won and both bases began fading into history.
Most importantly I believe this new review
of Pacific War history records is long overdue and especially in light of the
fact that many Americans are losing their understanding of the important
personal sacrifices that were made in early 1942 when the outcome of the war
was not at all certain.
Also
many of the very important Pacific War battle
sites – Wake Island, Coral Sea, Midway Island, are not easily accessible
places
for most Americans. 1942 Ewa Field is the closest historic bullet marked
and
airfield link to these early Pacific battles that are often very
different from
other later 1943-44 Pacific island invasion battlefields. It was a very
different
war in early 1942 and Japan could have well advanced further taking
Hawaii if the Battle of Midway had seen US Navy carriers sunk instead of
four Imperial Japanese carriers.
And
many of the lost at sea remains of those who
paid the ultimate price in these Pacific sea battles have no dedicated
memorial
site, such
as 1941 Pearl Harbor has, visited by millions every year. In fact
surprisingly Ewa
Field, Wake Island and Midway Island are not part of the National Park
Service
World War II Valor in the Pacific National Monument (recently now
changed to NPS Pearl Harbor National Memorial.) No other Hawaii location
has still existing WW-II runways and revetments like
Ewa Field that are as closely historically linked to these incredible
early 1942
air battle histories. Most other Oahu battlefield sites are on still
active military bases and are far less accessible and visually
recognizable as authentic Pacific WW-II era.
I
believe the Ewa Field aircraft
revetments placed on the National Register of Historic Places and making
former
MCAS Ewa Field a WW-II National Pacific Battlefield memorial monument
will provide an important new still existing reference for future
visitors of what transpired at those early 1942 Pacific battlefields.
Sincerely,
John Bond, Director
Ewa Field History Project
P.O. Box 75578
Kapolei, HI 96707
***********************************************************************
"Remembering our solemn commitment to their memory is
the promise
that is fulfilled at battlegrounds that are preserved and enshrined by
our nation."
Daniel A. Martinez, Chief Historian
WWII Valor in the Pacific National Monument
Medal of
Honor recipients honored at Ewa Field
