Missile Town - MOTSU Provides Important Clues About Planned Army West Loch Munitions Storage Complex

   Compiled History by Ewa Historian John Bond

MOTSU Provides Important Clues About Planned 

Army West Loch Munitions Storage Complex

Military Ocean Terminal Sunny Point (MOTSU) is one of the largest military terminals in the world. In 2018 the long secretive and mostly classified facility used a $270,000 Department of Defense grant with $30,000 local matching funds for a Joint Land Use Study (JLUS) designed to improve military and community collaboration. The 209-page study acknowledges MOTSU can improve its communication efforts with the public and outlines ways municipal partners can consider the military’s mission while managing the NC region’s explosive growth. (i.e. like Ewa West Oahu)

https://www.ourstate.com/military-ocean-terminal-sunny-point/

Historic photo shows MOTSU port operations which still depends on 80% rail service. Freight rail is one particular area that the US excels at and areas like NC are well served.

This is where the mighty ships come in to load or unload their cargo of weapons: rockets, missiles, howitzers, grenades, projectiles, pyrotechnics. The Military Ocean Terminal Sunny Point (MOTSU), run by the U.S. Army, is the nation’s largest ocean terminal for military munitions. “Wherever we’re fighting is probably where we’re sending stuff, or they’re sending stuff back to us,” says Steve Kerr, the deputy to the commander at MOTSU. (West Loch serves and is being greatly expanded for a similar purpose for Indo-Pacific military operations.)

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Military_Ocean_Terminal_Sunny_Point

A catastrophe served as the genesis for MOTSU. On July 17, 1944, military munitions exploded at Port Chicago near San Francisco. The fireball soared nearly two miles into the sky and port was flattened, every building in the neighboring town was damaged, and the rumble was felt as far away as Nevada. 

NOTE: MOTSU doesn't mention the 1944 West Loch explosion because it was kept SECRET until the early 1960's. MOTSU was established in 1955. 

This begs the question that too much secrecy means the wider MOTSU safety arc (ESQD) confidentiality apparently didn't cause the Navy West Loch Ammunition Depot to expand its safety arc (ESQD) when they could have in the 1960's while the Ewa Plain was still mostly sugar cane fields. 

The MOTSU Blast Zone Arc and criteria to determine it revealed 

to the local public for the first time in 2017-2018

The so-called “blast zone” arc is confined to land owned outright by the federal government, inside the “buffer zone” on Carolina and Kure Beaches. This arc represents the minimum distance that can be safely maintained between an explosive site and habitable building.

Last year, after initiating the JLUS, the military terminal shared the radius of its previously undisclosed blast safety arcs. https://capefearcog.org/wp-content/uploads/2018/11/November-Policy-Committee_web.pdf

Local news coverage:  https://portcitydaily.com/local-news/2019/07/14/what-motsu-wants-u-s-army-presents-53-recommendations-for-local-governments/

Note: IBD radius is approximately 3.5 miles and the K88 Distance radius is approximately 6 miles.

Public community meetings revealed that at roughly twice the size of the Inhabited Building Distance (IBD), the K88 quantity-distance arc includes areas with a high probability of glass breakage in the event of a terminal explosion. According to its former commander, Col. Marc Mueller, the K88 has remained unchanged for MOTSU, but the distance was new to the public when the military released it in 2018. There is also criteria for community emergency evacuations for initial response to an incident involving ammunition/explosives. Distance applies to any given facility – docks were used as an example.

MOTSU Provides Important Clues About Planned Army West Loch Munitions Storage Complex

Military Ocean Terminal Sunny Point (MOTSU) is one of the largest military terminals in the world. In 2018 the long secretive and mostly classified facility used a $270,000 Department of Defense grant with $30,000 local matching funds for a Joint Land Use Study (JLUS) designed to improve military and community collaboration. The 209-page study acknowledges MOTSU can improve its communication efforts with the public and outlines ways municipal partners can consider the military’s mission while managing the NC region’s explosive growth. (i.e. like Ewa West Oahu)

MOTSU Blast Safety Arcs (ESQD) Are More Than DOUBLE 

That Of Old West Loch Arc Radius Of 1.4 Miles

The K88 arc ESQD of approximately 2.8 miles is an area where there is “enhanced” glass breakage if there was a 1,000,000 kg (2,204622.62 pounds) Hazard Division 1.1  Explosive event in Ewa West Oahu.

If we use the value of 5,000,000 pounds of TNT (2267961.85 kg, 2500 tons) the blast zone arc VBD Vulnerable Building Distance is then extended out to parts of Kapolei, Hickam, Ford Island, Leeward Community College, Royal Kunia, all of Haseko and likely also affect Makakilo. Note how large the green PTRD Public Traffic Route Distance is. The Ewa community in yellow would suffer significant damage.

NavFac says they use NAVSEA OP 5, Volume 1  which is loaded with references to other DoD manuals but does provide some specifics:

"The ESQD arcs for ships and vessels carrying cargo ammunition are based on the total NEW of cargo ammunition aboard plus the total NEW of the ammunition handled or staged."

"The ESQD for FBM submarines is based on the total quantity of missiles on the submarine if a hatch is open for any operation directly related to a missile.   

 (1) If the hatches on a fleet ballistic missile (FBM) submarine are opened for any 

operation related directly to the missile (i.e., loading or maintenance), the total NEW of all missiles aboard must be applied to the pier NEW limit. (2) AE stowed outside of designated ship's magazines, launchers, or ready service lockers will be considered cargo ammunition, --etc"  

It is very important to understand that placing explosives in covered earth magazines DOES NOT mean they are much safer. The fact is that all munitions are staged to be transported. When in the transit stage, forklift, dolly, truck, to pier crane, ship etc. is when the small accidents become big DISASTERS. 

Using another example from MOTSU, a 1,000,000 blast zone radius for Vulnerable Building Distance (VBD) would be 4440 meters or 2.76 miles. This means Waipahu, Ewa west of Kualaka’i Parkway (AKA North South Road) Ewa Beach- Ocean Pointe (Haseko) Ewa Gentry – Ewa Villages, and over to Iroquois Point. The Inhabited Building Distance (IBD) is 2220M or 1.4 miles.  This is very interesting as it is exactly the same distance as shown in the historic Building 1 map of “Whisky” wharf W 1-2-3, which shows an ESQD (Explosives Safety Quantity Distance) arrow pointing southwest of 7405 feet (1.4 miles.) This strongly suggests that the original West Loch explosive blast arc was based upon the same Hazard Division 1.1 Explosives input of 1,000,000 kg (2,204622.62 pounds, 1102.3 tons) of TNT munitions.

I know DoD has their own vendor software they use to calculate explosive arcs, requiring Arc GIS, however I invite you to try out the very easy to use and free software to determine ESQD - (Explosives Safety Quantity Distance) - United Nations ITAG  (International Technical Ammunitions Guideline) which scales to net explosives input: https://www.un.org/disarmament/un-saferguard/map/

for Pearl Harbor West Loch use these coordinates: 

Latitude: 21.345589355722055 

Longitude: -158.01463734402498  

The blast arcs in my testimony are using Army DoD MOTSU criteria

Also look at the well reported meetings with the Cape Fear community. Last year, after initiating the JLUS, the military terminal shared the radius of its previously undisclosed blast safety arcs. 

https://capefearcog.org/wp-content/uploads/2018/11/November-Policy-Committee_web.pdf

The Army West Loch munitions facility plans to bring in huge ammunition ships. That is buried in the bottom of their EA.

Local North Carolina news coverage about MOTSU: 

https://portcitydaily.com/local-news/2019/07/14/what-motsu-wants-u-s-army-presents-53-recommendations-for-local-governments/

Public community meetings revealed that at roughly twice the size of the Inhabited Building Distance (IBD), the K88 quantity-distance arc includes areas with a high probability of glass breakage in the event of a terminal explosion. According to its former commander, Col. Marc Mueller, the K88 has remained unchanged for MOTSU, but the distance was new to the public when the military released it in 2018.  

 Cape Fear: Military Ocean Terminal Sunny Point Joint Land Use Study

https://capefearcog.org/sunnypoint/

See: GENERAL DOCUMENTS

This is the type of study that should be done in Hawaii if the City, State and Federal government are actually concerned about the health, safety and welfare of the local West Oahu communities.

·  COL Mueller's presentation (PDF)

JLUS Overview (PDF)

JLUS Executive Summary (PDF)
JLUS Final Document (PDF)
JLUS Data Management Plan and Technical Addendum (PDF)
JLUS Public Participation Plan (PDF)

John Bond Ewa historian

Ewa's Big Ammo Dump - Munitions Being Transferred to West Loch and Large New Missile Magazines Being Built by Army and Navy

 Compiled History by Ewa Historian John Bond

Lualualei: Why Are Munitions Being Transferred to 

West Loch and Large New Missile Magazines 

Being Built by Army and Navy?

Lualualei Naval Magazine

This is Lualualei in leeward Oahu. This naval magazine has gradually been shut down and the last tenant is the US Army which has been keeping its munitions there. Now the army plans to remove all remaining munitions over to a new Army Munitions Complex directly next to the communities of West Loch, Ewa by Gentry, Ewa Villages and Ewa Beach.

The Army is also building many new Type D missile magazines for new missiles and long range artillery shells at West Loch. The Navy is also building new Type D missile magazines at West Loch. There are major new weapons being developed largely in anticipation of the coming war with China. China’s military is making increasingly aggressive military moves in the Pacific with Guam and Hawaii in their bomb sites. The US Military is countering this with a rapid buildup of advanced new missiles to hit ship and island targets in the Pacific.

Cost of Compliance on Graduate School of Business & Public Policy Thesis, December 2017, Naval Postgraduate School, Munitions Consolidation from Lualualei to West Loch

https://calhoun.nps.edu/handle/10945/58904

In 1967, the Naval Ordnance Safety and Security Activity (NOSSA) came out with more restrictive safety standards mandating that the distance between each magazine must be greater than what is currently installed at West Loch (NAVSEA, 2017). Due to the lack of permissible net explosive weight (NEW) allowed per the NOSSA standards, Navy Munitions Command has been using several magazines in Lualualei to store smaller-sized ordnance.

The 1995 Hawaii Military Land Use Master Plan (HMLUMP) recognized the importance of Hawaii’s strategic location as a “bridge to Asia” and, as a result, recommended the release of the Lualualei Annex due to its aging magazines and its consolidation with West Loch pending construction of new facilities.

The 2002 Commander, Navy Region Hawaii (CNRH) Ordnance Facilities Plan, proposed a significant investment in new ordnance infrastructure for new magazines near West Loch. Additionally, in 2003, PACFLT identified that only four out of 299 magazines in Hawaii are capable of storing modern missiles for naval destroyers and submarines.

The two courses of action according to the Navy’s analysis are as follows: Option 1. Navy builds new magazines, Army builds new magazines, and both consolidate in West Loch in accordance with NOSSA standards. Option 2. Current magazines at Lualualei are upgraded to NOSSA standards and current operations remain the same for Navy and Army. Option 1 may sound reasonable but does not take in account the required ESQD – safety zone, according to information made available to the public in 2018 by the Army MOTSU presentations. The Army munitions complex will be just .5 (1/2 mile) from the nearby communities.

Rising tensions in the Pacific with China, North Korea, and Russia could lead to combat operations in the Pacific. The West Loch Hawaii’s will need to store additional prepositioned munitions, hold ordnance for ships undergoing repairs, and resupply more deploying ships to the Pacific. The West Loch channel has already been expanded to handle large newer Navy ammunition ships, such as handled by the Army MOTSU site in North Carolina which has a 3.5 mile ESQD safety arc, compared to West Loch which has a very much smaller ESQD and is located right next to many suburban homes in Ewa West Oahu.

See Figure 3 below for the layout of West Loch and shows the explosive safety boundaries associated with ammunition operations. Unlike Lualualei, West Loch is closer to residential areas. Ordnance operations in both Lualualei and West Loch are contracted out and are renewed annually by the Navy.

 

https://www.globalsecurity.org/military/facility/lualualei.htm

Global Security: Naval Magazine, Lualualei May 2011

The Naval Magazine is located in Lualualei Valley on the leeward side of Oahu, with headquarters a few miles inland from the towns of Waianae and Nanakuli. The shipping and receiving center is located at West Loch. The Naval Magazine is a terminus for the kolekole Pass road which traverses the beautiful Waianae Mountains. The drive extends from the Waianae coast to Schofield Barracks and offers panoramic views. The road is closed to the public, but open to military personnel and their dependents on most days until sunset.

In January 2000 the designation Naval Magazine, Lualualei, Hawaii, was changed to Naval Magazine Pearl Harbor. The name change was a result of the command's recent headquarters move from the Lualualei Branch to Pearl Harbor's West Loch. Fifty W-80-0 munitions for Tomahawk SLCM's and 40 nuclear aerial bombs are stored in the Lualualei Naval Magazine (NAVMAG) at West Loch on Oahu, Hawaii.

In January 2000 Naval Magazine Lualualei held its official ribbon-cutting ceremony for the grand opening of the new headquarters building, located in the West Loch Branch, Ewa Beach. The Commanding Officer, Capt. Shawn Morrissey, kicked off the ceremony with an introductory speech. Following his speech, Lt. Leila Havadtoy provided a blessing for the new headquarters building. After the ribbon was officially cut, all attendees gathered together for a potluck barn-warming celebration, which was held right next to the waterfront and the headquarters.

Lualualei is located on land that consists of a thin layer of alluvial and coastal sediments and reef deposits overlying consolidated limestone. Civilian land use surrounding this facility is largely rural and the site is surrounded by agricultural and small areas of Urban and Conservation Land Use districts. Naval Magazine Lualualei, which occupies 8,105 acres of the valley. The nearest urban area is the town of Maili, which lies approximately 1 mile west of the station. The towns of Waianae and Nanakuli are also located nearby. Kolekole Pass is a narrow mountain road across the Waianae Mountain Ranges that provides vehicular access to Schofield Barracks. Lualualei is approximately 27 miles from downtown Honolulu.

http://archives.starbulletin.com/98/10/05/news/story1.html

The Navy owns more than 9,000 acres in the Waianae Valley. Its radio towers are a familiar sight, but more goes on beneath the earth.

The Navy has used Lualualei as an ammunition depot (initially Naval Ammunition Depot Oʻahu, now Naval Magazine Pearl Harbor) and a communications facility (Lualualei Naval Radio Transmitting Facility) since 1934.

Kolekole Pass forms a low crossing point through the Waiʻanae Mountains.  A prehistoric trail crossed Kolekole pass linking Waiʻanae Uka with Waiʻanae Kai.

Kolekole Pass Road is located on the federal lands connecting these military facilities on Waiʻanae coast of Oʻahu to Schofield Barracks Army Installation in Central Oahu.  The Army's 3rd Engineers corps constructed vehicular passage in 1937.

The Magazine facility, a terminus for the Kolekole Pass road, contains 255 aboveground storage structures capable of housing 78,000 tons of ammunition and explosives.  (hawaii.gov)  The shipping and receiving center is located at West Loch, Pearl Harbor.

Historic documentation Of Lualualei Ammunition facility 

https://west-loch-blast-zone.blogspot.com

https://www.facebook.com/WestLochBlastZone/

West Oahu Missile City - Navy Virginia Class Attack Submarine Being Loaded At West Loch Pier W 4-5

 Compiled History by Ewa Historian John Bond

Google Earth Image of Navy Virginia Class Attack Submarine 

Being Loaded At West Loch Pier W 4-5

These are NOT nuclear weapons, they are conventional munitions

BELOW: Virginia class attack sub at “Whiskey” wharf W 4-5 for attack subs loading 12 Tomahawks and large assortment of Harpoon missiles (in green). Tomahawk can carry conventional or nuke but currently no nuke version being deployed, however Trump has left treaty which would allow Navy to rearm with nuke Tomahawk cruise missiles. Reportedly with hasn’t happened yet.

https://goo.gl/maps/8nAUZofR9V1kVeHu6

BONUS IMAGE  from Google Earth – Whisky Wharf W4-5 Virginia class attack sub loading with its full complement of 12 Tomahawks, Harpoons and Mk-48 torpedo's.

Usual Virginia class weapons armaments: 
12 × VLS (Tomahawk BGM-109) tubes
4 × 533 mm torpedo tubes (Mk-48 torpedo), RGM-84 Harpoon
25 × torpedoes & missiles (torpedo room) + 12 x missiles (VLS tubes)
Block V:
VPM module (28 Tomahawk BGM-109)
12 × VLS (Tomahawk BGM-109) tubes
4 × 533 mm torpedo tubes (Mk-48 torpedo), RGM-84 Harpoon
65 × torpedoes & missiles

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Virginia-class_submarine  

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tomahawk_(missile) 

 

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Harpoon_(missile)  

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mark_48_torpedo

https://west-loch-blast-zone.blogspot.com

https://www.facebook.com/WestLochBlastZone/

Video Documentary 75th Anniversary and Commemoration at historic Ewa Field, NAS Barbers Point

Ewa Field History Project   P.O. Box 75578   Kapolei, Hawaii 96707

By John Bond, Ewa historian

  

Many people do not know that NAS Barbers Point became operational through it's junior brother Naval Air Station Ewa while the larger NAS Barbers Point was being built in 1942.

While it may never have become an official name, it and "NAS Barbers Point" were widely used for Ewa Field in early 1942, mainly because of the large presence of two Navy aircraft carrier air groups during the critical early 1942 Pacific war period.This caused a great deal of later incorrect histories attributed to Barbers Point which in fact weren't true.

The history of Marine Corps Air Station Ewa officially began in September 1942, however it was a very busy and rapidly expanding joint Navy-Marine air base shortly after the attack on Pearl Harbor in December, 1941. Virtually all of the construction material, manpower and money for NAS Barbers Point was redirected to Ewa Field while NAS Barbers Point was put on hold until the very crucial June 1942 Battle of Midway victory helped the Navy reassign construction priority to Barbers Point.

75th Anniversary and Commemoration at historic Ewa Field. Also history of the Battle of Midway where many Navy and Marine planes trained and operated from in early 1942. Ewa Field help support major US Navy aircraft carrier operations in the Pacific including the Doolittle Raid and Coral Sea battles. MCAS Ewa also supported the major Pacific battle for Guadalcanal.

75th Anniversary Battle of Midway Commemoration - Ewa Field

 

https://youtu.be/NivMSt-8a-o

 Historic Ewa Field Concrete Warm-Up Parking Ramp

 Remains of Ewa Field planes destroyed on December 7, 1941 buried by main runway

 

 Marine R4D (C-47) ready to carry supplies, ground crew, ammunition to Midway Atoll

 When the Ewa Field ramp was constructed a worker left this note in the concrete

 Every R4D available rushed supplies and ammunition to Midway Atoll for the big buildup

Pearl Harbor historian Daniel Martinez

 

Midway historian and chairman of the International Midway Memorial Foundation 

James D'Angelo

 Small but dedicated veterans and community turned out for the low key commemoration

 The always excellent and highly professional Hickam AFB Honor Guard 

 The most visible remains of the 1941-1945 airfield. 

However many other undocumented historic archeological sites remain

Battle of Midway - NAS Barbers Point

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

websites:  ewabattlefield.blogspot.com, ewafield.blogspot.com, https://www.facebook.com/EwaField/
https://ewa-battle-of-midway.blogspot.com/2019/06/battle-of-midway-history-ewa-field.html

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"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