Navy History Hawaii

America's Turning Point in the Pacific

2011-06-02T14:39:00.003-10:00

Six months following the attack on Pearl Harbor, the forces of Imperial Japan seemed all but invincible and poised to continue the conquest of Southeast Asia and the former colonial empires of France, Britain and the Dutch East Indies.

Indeed, the destruction of the U.S. Pacific Fleet in Pearl was only an attempt to prevent the United States from standing in the way of the Japanese empire’s seizure of the rich resources the former colonies would bring. Adm. Yamamoto, the mastermind of the Pearl Harbor attack, gambled that by destroying the bulk of America’s naval power in the Pacific, Japan could buy itself six months to a year for the conquest of these valuable possessions.

America was still reeling from the blow that launched us into the war and was scrambling to prepare industrially and militarily to not only prevent Nazi Germany from conquering Europe, but also to strike back at Japan and bring what was largely viewed as a criminal regime to justice.

The American people were growing tired of defeat after defeat and wanted to see our armed forces on the offensive. The table would soon be turned at a point roughly midway between the west coast of the United States and the home islands of Japan.

Considering the large disparity in the forces available to the United States compared to those of the Japanese Empire, the chances were long that America would be able to make much of a dent in that island nation’s newly acquired fortress. In May of 1942, the U.S. had lost its forward presence in the Philippines and Guam, leaving only the aircraft carriers Enterprise, Yorktown, Lexington, Hornet and Saratoga as valid platforms from which to launch strikes at the Japanese. To make matters worse, Lexington would be lost at the Battle of the Coral Sea on May 8 and Saratoga, which was torpedoed in early January, was laid up on the west coast for repairs, leaving three of her air groups on Oahu.

But what America lacked in military assets, she made up for in crack communications intelligence and level-headed leadership. As early as May 15, Adm. Nimitz received solid intelligence from Station Hypo based out of building one at Pearl Harbor that the Japanese intended to occupy Midway atoll, located 1,300 miles northwest of Oahu.

From there, the Japanese would to be able to threaten Oahu and bring out the American carriers for what they hoped to be a final death blow to the Pacific Fleet. Little did the Japan know that not only did Nimitz have the knowledge that they were coming with four carriers, but when and from what direction. In essence, he intended to ambush their ambush.

The admiral knew that our carriers were the most valuable military asset available to the United States, and he would not waste them on a guess. But he trusted his intelligence staff and the commanders, pilots and crews of the two task forces he sent to wait for the unsuspecting invaders. He knew that by concentrating his forces at the right place at the right time he could strike a counter blow to the Japanese that would even the score in the Pacific.

Hiryu burns on June 5

On June 4, 1942, the hammer fell on the Japanese Navy. Dive bombers from the carriers Yorktown and Enterprise destroyed Japan’s frontline carriers Hiryu, Soryu, Akagi and Kaga. All four had participated in the attack on Pearl Harbor just six months before, and all four now lay at the bottom of the Pacific.

America had won a decisive battle against a seemingly invincible foe but not without scars, as surviving Japanese aircraft from Hiryu, the last Japanese carrier to be sunk that day, found Yorktown and inflicted damage that would eventually lead to her destruction.

Nonetheless, the Battle of Midway would be remembered as a turning point, if not the turning point in the Pacific Theater of World War Two. As a result of the battle, the United States had crippled Japan’s ability to launch further large-scale mobile strikes against Allied forces, and American forces would soon take the offensive. The American people now had the decisive victory they had been longing for since December of 1941.

The Yorktown's Last Stand

2011-05-27T00:00:00.147-10:00

At 1352 on May 27, 1942 the USS Yorktown limped battered and bruised into Pearl Harbor's berth 16. She had just arrived on her long journey from the Battle of the Coral Sea where she had taken a critical bomb hit on May 8 that had exploded deep witnin her interior. She was lucky to be arriving in Pearl Harbor at all, but luck was a commodity that would touch America again early in 1942. Probably no one would have believed that Yorktown would be seeing action anytime soon, most expected some minimum repair work at Pearl and then several months of more extensive repair on the West Coast. This was not to be the case.

Admiral Nimitz and the Pacific Fleet needed Yorktown , as well as the carriers Enterprise and Hornet right away to counter what his own intelligence office was telling him would be a Japanese attempt to invade and occupy the Midway Atoll within a matter of days. Yorktown had suffered considerable structural damage which limited her speed a great deal. Without speed a carrier would be seriously hampered in its ability to launch aircraft and just as importantly to evade attack. The next day Yorktown was moved to dry dock one where she was flooded with electricians, welders, machinists and every other Pearl Harbor Shipyard worker that could be mustered in oreder to get her "up to speed" immediatley. They worked through all hours of the day and through out the night and with the first of many miracles that the shpyard would complete in the war, Yorktown pulled out of Pearl Harbor on May 30 on her way to "Point Luck", a spot in the ocean about 300 miles northeast of Midway, from which Admiral Nimitz hoped to spring our own trap on the Imperial Japanese forces coming to do destroy the Pacific Fleet's air forces.

Sadly, this would be Yorktown's last battle, but one in which her aircraft would play a significant role in balancing the odds in the Pacific by joining with aircraft from the Enterprise on June 4 to sink all four of the Japanese carriers that had been sent to inflict the same decisive blow on the U.S. Navy. Those four carriers had made up two-thirds of the First Air-Fleet that had attacked Pearl Harbor on arguably America's darkest day. Unfortunatley, though the Battle of Midway was an overwhelming success for the United States, Yorktown would never return.

It seems all the more fitting that the day that Yorktown pulled out of Pearl Harbor for her last stand an in America's defense was Memorial Day 1942.

Luke Field

2011-04-30T00:00:00.002-10:00

No one could question the combat skill of 2nd Lt Frank Luke, earned in the skies of Europe in 1918. His 18 kills were second only to Eddie Rickenbacker who said of Luke, “He was the most daring aviator and greatest fighter pilot of the entire war.” But he had a reputation as a renegade, who preferred to fight alone and who was known to frequently disobey orders.

On the evening of September 29, 1918 Luke left the airfield at Verdun and proceeded to the front to attack three balloons behind the German lines. He was subsequently wounded and forced to land in a field west of Murvaux. Luke fell shortly after removing himself from the aircraft and according to eyewitness he crawled almost 250 feet to a nearby creek in an attempt to hide in the underbrush. The German soldiers who helped bring Luke down pursued him in hopes of capturing the American pilot before he could escape. Luke, knowing that his wound was fatal raised himself to face his captors and fired his pistol in their direction before collapsing to the ground dead. He died with the same defiant moxy with which he had lived.

The Germans buried Luke’s body in the Murvaux cemetery but his remains were later recovered by U.S. forces and reburied in the Meuse-Argonne American Cemetery and Memorial, located east of the village of Romagne-sous-Montfaucon.

As a result of his actions 2nd Lt Frank Luke was posthumously awarded the Medal of Honor which was presented to his father, Frank Luke, Sr in Phoenix, Arizona in May 1919. The citation reads,

After having previously destroyed a number of enemy aircraft within 17 days he voluntarily started on a patrol after German observation balloons. Though pursued by 8 German planes which were protecting the enemy balloon line, he unhesitatingly attacked and shot down in flames 3 German balloons, being himself under heavy fire from ground batteries and the hostile planes. Severely wounded, he descended to within 50 meters of the ground, and flying at this low altitude near the town of Murvaux opened fire upon enemy troops, killing 6 and wounding as many more. Forced to make a landing and surrounded on all sides by the enemy, who called upon him to surrender, he drew his automatic pistol and defended himself gallantly until he fell dead from a wound in the chest

Ford Island in 1925. Luke Field is in the center of the island with Army air operations to the left and the Naval Air Station to the right.

On April 30, 1919 shortly before the presentation of Luke’s award, he received recognition of another kind when the new airstrip on Ford Island in the territory of Hawaii was named after him. The War Department purchased the land in 1917 and moved the 6^th Aero Squadron there in October of that same year.

Luke Field in the 1930s

Luke Field would remain under Army control through the earliest days of aviation and was home to a good portion of the Army’s air operations until the establishment of Hickam Field in 1939. At that time all of the Army Air Corps activities formerly at Luke would be moved to Hickam with the exception of the Hawaiian Air Depot which remained on Ford Island until late 1940.

With this transfer the airfield and facilities on Ford Island came under the control the U.S. Navy and Naval Air Station Pearl Harbor, which had already been established on the opposite side of Ford Island in 1923. With the onset of World War Two the island saw a massive buildup and the airstrip, formerly known as Luke Field became a central hub for the Navy’s Pacific air operations.

2011-03-16T16:19:00.000-10:00

I had the distinct pleasure of escorting Captain Gerald Coffee, USN (Ret) on a tour of USS Abraham Lincoln while she was in port this last weekend. Captain Coffee was a pilot whose aircraft was shot down while flying a mission in Vietnam. He spent the next seven years as a POW until his release in 1973.

Captain Coffee was given a VIP tour of the Lincoln by Lieutenant Commander Juston Kuch, an F-18 pilot with VFA-34 the “Blue Blasters”.

The experience had a twofold effect on me. I was grateful to be able to spend time with Captain Coffee and express my appreciation for his sacrifice in person and I was proud to see the hard work of good people like Lieutenant Commander Kuch who are still carrying out the Navy’s mission with professionalism and pride.

Captain Gerald Coffee, USN (Ret) is greeted by Captain John Alexander Commanding Officer, USS Abraham Lincoln.

Captain Coffee and guests are introduced to Lieutenant Commander Juston Kuch.

Posing next to an F-18 of VFA-34 in hangar bay 2.

Describing flight operations on the flight deck.

Lieutenant Commander Kuch and two wide-eyed future recruits.

2010-12-14T00:00:00.036-10:00

Ninety-nine years ago today the U.S.S. California transited the channel entrance to Pearl Harbor and effectively opened the historic port to the world. The ship that took center stage this morning is not to be confused with the battleship California, or BB-44 which found herself on Battleship Row in 1941. This California was an armored-cruiser weighing in at about 14,000 tons and laden with 8, 6 and 3 inch guns. Her entrance into Pearl Harbor was historic because she was the first large warship to enter the harbor following extensive dredging of the channel.

Sanford Dole

On board the California on December 14, 1911 was the first and last President of the Republic of Hawaii Sanford Dole, and Queen Liliuokalani the last monarch of the Kingdom of Hawaii. Also along for the ride was the son of Sun Yat-Sen, whose father eventually lead the revolution in China which ended two-thousand years of imperial rule. Sun Yat-Sen would be elected the first President of the Republic of China two weeks later on December 29.

Queen Liliuokalani

All of this resulted in an incredible juxtaposition of history in this famed haven on Oahu’s idyllic South shore. Hawaii had undergone a great deal of turmoil in the years following Queen Liliuokalani’s ascension in 1891 and her subsequent attempts to restore control of the kingdom to the monarchy. The Queen was overthrown in 1893 and in 1898 the new Republic of Hawaii was formally annexed as a territory of the United States.

The events that were occurring in the Far East, including the European colonization of coastal enclaves in China and South-East Asia and the genesis of the ascendancy of the Japanese Empire were important drivers that led to the United States growing interest in the Pacific region, and a recognition of the need for military facilities to provide American influence in the area.

On the decks of the California that afternoon, all of those streams of history came together to open Pearl Harbor to the world. None would fathom the importance of Hawaii’s place in the events that would soon set the world on fire.

Later in September of 1912 President Taft closed the harbor to all but American military traffic and Pearl Harbor's long legacy as America's central pacific bastion had begun.

USS California in Pearl Harbor. December 14, 1911

A Nearly Historic Flight

2010-09-10T00:00:00.003-10:00

On September 10, 1925 the submarine R-4 spotted an unusual site about 10 miles off the coast of Kauai. There, moving slowly through the Pacific waters was a PN-9 seaplane, with the canvas torn from its wings and rigged as sails. The sub captain hoped against hope that this was the aircraft that they had been searching for and ordered his signalman to contact the plane and ask for identification. The crew of the R-4 was relieved to receive the reply, “PN-9 No. 1 En route from San Francisco to Nawiliwili.”

On board the PN-9 No. 1 was Lt. Byron J. “Smike” Connell, Chief Aviation Pilot S.R. Pope, Aviation Pilot First Class William H. Bowlin, Chief Radioman Otis G. Stanz, and the aircraft’s commanding officer, Commander John Rodgers. These five men had left San Francisco Bay on August 31 in an attempt to become the first aircraft to fly non-stop to Hawaii. They ran out of gas about 450 miles shy of their destination and were forced to land on the afternoon of September 1. They spent the next 10 days at sea in their makeshift sailboat, while an extensive sea and air search was conducted.

The resourceful crew was fortunate to have Commander Rodgers in command. He had served as the first commanding officer of the Naval Air Station on Ford Island and was thoroughly familiar with the seas surrounding the Hawaiian Islands. At one point the crew could see the searchlights above Oahu, but Commander Rodgers was an expert navigator and determined that, based on the currents and wind directions, an attempt to head for Oahu would cause them to miss the island by 10 miles and sail off into the Northern Pacific which would be the end for them all. Instead, he correctly judged the elements and, led them away from Oahu to the position just off of Kauai where they were discovered.

After landfall on Kauai the entire crew boarded a ship and headed for Pearl Harbor where they were treated to a hero’s welcome on September 11.

The "New Navy" in Hawaii

2010-08-06T10:24:00.000-10:00

Caught this image and reference on the Naval History and Heritage Command's Facebook page. What was interesting to me was how many of these ships played important roles in the Navy's history in Hawaii.

The Boston arrived in Honolulu in August of 1892. In 1893 the crew was there to witness the overthrow of the Hawaiian Kingdom by local businessmen with ties to the United States who were opposed to Queen Lili’uokalani’s attempt to enforce a new constitution. Captain Wilste ordered troops ashore to protect American lives and interests and it could be argued that the presence of the landing party from an American warship emboldened the revolutionaries in their efforts to usurp the Hawaiian government. On January 17, 1893 the queen was deposed and the Republic of Hawaii was established.

The Chicago would arrive in Pearl Harbor in December of 1919 as flagship/tender of Submarine Division 14. The ship would serve in that capacity until 1923. It was in the early 1920s that the Pearl Harbor Sub Base was established with Commander Chester Nimitz serving as one of the first commanding officers and the one most instrumental in the construction of the base.

Finally the gunboat Petrel, which played an instrumental role in Admiral Dewey’s defeat of the Spanish fleet in Manila in 1898, became the first warship to enter the Pearl Harbor channel in 1905.

Today in History - Britannic Hawaii

2010-07-31T14:22:00.000-10:00

Rear Admiral Richard Thomas

On February 25, 1843, the Kingdom of Hawaii was unofficially annexed by British Captain Lord George Paulet of the HMS Carysfort.

Following several unfortunate disputes between the Hawaiian government and the British Consul, Richard Charlton, Captain Paulet cited "alleged insults and malpractices against British subjects" as his justification for his actions. Both the French Consul and the commander of the U.S. East India Squadron, Commodore Lawrence Kearny, aboard his flagship the USS Constellation, also issued formal protests regarding Paulet's decision.

After five months of British rule under a temporary commission Rear Admiral Richard Thomas sailed into Hawaii aboard his flagship the HMS Dublin to settle the issue on behalf of the Queen. Immediately upon arriving in port, Thomas requested to see Hawaii's King Kamehameha III. This resulted in an apology and a promise to restore the kingdom at once with the condition of

The protection of rights and privileges of British subjects in Hawaii and [the guarantee of] perfect equality with other favored foreigners.

On the morning of July 31, 1843, as the population began to gather at Kulaokahua, a plot of land at the foot of Punchbowl in central Honolulu, a downpour threatened to sour the events planned for Hawaii's restoration. But according to accounts of the day, at 9am the sky cleared and several companies of Royal Sailors and Marines lined up facing the sea, awaiting the arrival of Admiral Thomas and the king. Upon their arrival, an artillery unit fired a 21-gun salute. As the British flag lowered and the Hawaiian flag was raised, British and American warships, merchantmen and whalers fired salvos in honor of the occasion.

In the afternoon, Kawaihao church held a thanksgiving service whereby King Kamehameha III declared that the life of the land had been restored. He stated, "Ua Mau ke Ea o ka Aina I ka Pono" or "The life of the land is perpetuated in righteousness." The phrase eventually became the motto for the State of Hawaii.

In 1850 the area where the ceremony occurred was renamed Thomas Square and became the first public park in Hawaii. Aerial photos of the square reveal that it is designed in the shape of a Union Jack.

Courtesy of Google Earth

FDR Visits Hawaii

2010-07-28T09:14:00.000-10:00

America’s 32nd Chief Executive made two trips to Honolulu in his unprecedented 12 years as President of the United States. Interestingly, the trips occurred 10 years apart almost to the day.

USS Houston arrives in Honolulu

On July 24, 1934, Franklin Delano Roosevelt became the first sitting president to visit Hawaii. He spent the day fishing aboard the cruiser USS Houston, off the the coast of Kailua-Kona. The Houston pulled into Hilo Harbor on the 25th and visited many Big Island sites before sailing the next day for Oahu. On the morning of the 26th, he arrived at Pier 2 in Honolulu where he was greeted by more than 60,000 people. Forming the letters “F R” in the sky, 100 Army and Navy aircraft also greeted the man from Hyde Park. As he walked down the gangway with his sons at 9:15 am, the battery at Ft. Armstrong fired a 21 gun salute in his honor while the Marine band played the National Anthem. A few moments later, the president engaged in a whirlwind tour of the island of Oahu.

The presidential entourage circled the city of Honolulu before heading north on the Pali road toward Oahu’s scenic North Shore. At Schofield Barracks, Roosevelt witnessed a 15,000 troop military review, the largest ever staged in Hawaii at that time. Later that evening, he dined with Governor Poindexter at Washington Place. The next day, he visited Pearl Harbor and dedicated the new gate on the Waikiki side of Ala Moana Park. Eventually, the gate would be named Roosevelt Gate. While in Honolulu the president stayed at the Royal Hawaiian Hotel where he attended a luau. Olympic swimmer, Duke Kahanamoku, taught his sons to surf. He also spent an hour privately conversing with Harvard classmate, Walter Dillingham, at the magnate’s home, La Pietra, located near Diamond Head.

Constantly referred to as “F.R.” in the local paper, not the “F.D.R.” that many have grown accustomed, Roosevelt planted a small kukui tree outside of the Iolani Palace on the 28th before offering farewell remarks and departing the islands at a little before noon.

Radford Mobley of the Honolulu Star Bulletin wrote that the President came to Hawaii,

For more than a mere fishing expedition...Concerning Hawaii as the American outpost of the Pacific, the president is anxious to confer with the heads of the military units first hand to determine for himself the defense needs here. His visit may later lead to an increase in the size of the army and navy posts…As the time approaches for the release of the Philippines, the president desires full preparedness information regarding this bulwark in the Pacific.

By the summer of 1944, much of Mr. Mobley’s insight proved prescient.

MacArthur, Roosevelt and Nimitz

F.D.R. spent well over 10 years in the Oval Office by July 26,1944. Still commander-in-chief when Hawaii, the “bulwark in the Pacific” was “suddenly and deliberately attacked by naval and air forces of the Empire of Japan,” Roosevelt spent the last three years leading the United States from that crippling defeat to repeated victories in Europe and in the Pacific. Now on this July 26th aboard a different cruiser, the U.S.S. Baltimore, he arrived to the fabled port in Hawaii that had become synonymous with the Alamo. There at Pearl Harbor he met with his two Pacific commanders Admiral Chester Nimitz and General Douglas MacArthur.

Holmes Mansion

Although the three American leaders met briefly onboard the Baltimore, the real discussion transpired at the Waikiki home of a wealthy businessman, Christian Holmes. As in 1934, the president spent a few days touring various areas, mostly military, of Oahu. However, on the evening of the 27th he sat down in front of a large map of the Pacific in the Holmes’s mansion to discuss the way forward in Pacific operations with MacArthur, Nimitz and Chief of Staff Admiral Leahy.

Most historians probably agree that the Honolulu Conference, as it is sometimes called, served several purposes beyond simple military planning. To the president, it was an opportunity to show the country during an election year that he possessed the stamina to remain commander-in-chief for another four years at a time when his health was increasingly under scrutiny. It was also an opportunity to make an appearance with General MacArthur, the sometimes outspoken critic of the president’s policies, who purported to be a potential Republican opponent in the future. While in Honolulu, MacArthur pressured Roosevelt into accepting his plan to liberate the Philippines and thereby fulfill his promise to return to that island nation following defeat at the hands of the Japanese in 1942. He argued that the nation’s honor as well as the president’s political future was at stake.

Honolulu Conference

On the 28th F.D.R. made his decision known to proceed with General MacArthur’s plan through the Philippines, while Admiral Nimitz forces continued their thrust toward the Japanese home islands via the Central Pacific. It is unclear whether the president’s decision was purely politically motivated, but it certainly didn’t hurt his election chances when the revered general heaped praises on the president’s firm control and grasp of wartime strategy.

As the U.S.S. Baltimore pulled away from the Hawaiian Islands later that day, the charismatic leader flashed his famous smile, concealing the reality of his failing health which prevented him from witnessing the fruits of that strategy. Within nine months the president would pass into eternity.

On the grounds of the Iolani Palace stands a tall kukui tree and a plaque that reads,

President Franklin D. Roosevelt
Planted This Kukui Tree
July 28, 1934

The tree stands as testament to the passage of time and of the momentous events that occurred in the decade between 1934 and 1944 when the Hawaiian Islands took center stage in the world’s history.

Today in History - The USS Nautilus

2010-07-23T10:10:00.001-10:00

On July 23, 1958 the USS Nautilus SSN-571, the first nuclear powered submarine departed Pearl Harbor for a historic journey to the North Pole known as "Operation Sunshine".

The Nautilus and her 116 crewmembers would arrive at 90 degrees north 11 days later on the evening of August 3. Upon reaching the pole Commanding Officer, Commander William Anderson, would utter the words, "For the world, our country, and the Navy - the North Pole." This milestone saw the Nautilus traverse under 1,830 miles of polar ice for a total of 96 hours.

The Nautilus is now a museum in Groton, Connecticut.

The USS Nautilus prepares to depart
Pearl Harbor for Operation Sunshine

The U.S.S. San Diego, Fire Island and Pearl Harbor

2010-07-19T00:00:00.005-10:00

I am always amazed at the way that history seems to entwine and combine in various patterns that seemingly have no connection until you look just below the surface.

On my desk is a copy of the St. Louis Star-Times from Monday December 8, 1941. Obviously the big news item on that day was the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor and the subsequent declaration of war on the Japanese empire by the United States. As I perused page seven I came across a small article titled “Loss of Battleship First Such Blow in U.S. History.” The piece was squeezed between a lengthy report on Japan’s attack on the Philippines and a larger article discussing President Roosevelt’s address to Congress.

As is the case throughout history, the specific details of such a catastrophic event had yet to filter down through the 4,100 miles between Oahu and the American heartland. Consequently the article reported that one battleship had been lost in the attack and that it had been “officially announced as capsized.” Of course the damage to the U.S. Pacific Fleet was much more extensive than that and the capsized vessel was almost surely the U.S.S. Oklahoma. The article pointed out that this was the first time an American “dreadnought” had been destroyed as a result of war. The word dreadnought is a reference to the first ship of its kind completed by the British, the HMS Dreadnought. The U.S.S. Maine was actually a converted Cruiser at a time when the battleship was in its infancy and would more appropriately be referred to as a pre-Dreadnought vessel, and more to the point it is more likely that the Maine was an accidental sinking and not an act of war.

But what I found most interesting was the closing sentence,

The largest American warship lost during the World War [World War I] was the cruiser San Diego, 15,400 tons, sunk by a mine off Fire Island, N.Y., on July 10, 1918.

The date of the San Diego’s sinking was incorrect; she was actually lost on the evening of July 19 approximately 8 miles off the coast of Long Island as she made her way to New York.

The USS San Diego was actually commissioned as the Armored Cruiser USS California in 1907. The California was recommissioned the San Diego in 1914, in order to reserve the name for the eventual construction of a battleship. (This is another one of those interesting twists in history, considering that the future battleship USS California BB 44 would be tied up to Pearl Harbor’s Foxtrot 3 on the morning of December 7, 1941 but too many twists can get confusing.)

The California has the distinction of being the first deep-draft vessel to enter the channel of Pearl Harbor following its dredging in 1910. On board was Sanford Dole, the first and only president of the Republic of Hawaii from 1893 – 1898. Also on board was Queen Liliuokalani whose kingdom of Hawaii was overthrown by Dole.

Why is all of this so fascinating? It's just the way that history has a tendency to be an intertwining of many different eras and epics, peoples and events. The way that a distant newspaper in St. Louis, Missouri would report on the attack on Pearl Harbor and inadvertently reference the very ship that played such an important role in opening Pearl as America’s gateway to the Pacific that thrust it and the Hawaiian Islands onto the world stage in the first place.

Wayside Exhibits Get Media Coverage

2010-07-08T14:58:00.000-10:00

I had the opportunity this morning to promote our new wayside exhibits on the local KHON morning news. It was a short interview, but I was glad to be able to get the word out.

As I mentioned to Kirk Matthews I have had nothing but positive comments about the exhibits with most people saying that they are glad to see Pearl Harbor's history being properly recognized.

The interview is archived at KHON's website. Click here to watch

RIMPAC 2010

2010-07-02T00:46:00.000-10:00

All week long, the ships of the Rim of the Pacific exercise, better known as RIMPAC, sail into Pearl Harbor. RIMPAC, a mainstay of international cooperation in the Pacific was first held in 1971. The event, conducted bi-annually in the waters around the Hawaiian Islands since 1974, continues to be the world's largest international maritime exercise.

This year's participants include Australia, Chile, Canada, France, Indonesia, Japan, South Korea, Malaysia, Netherlands, Peru, Thailand, and the United States. In all, RIMPAC 2010 will involve over 150 aircraft, 34 ships, 5 submarines, and 20,000 personnel.

The training strengthens international cooperation among the participating nations to ensure safety of major sea lines of communication in strategic and tactical maritime operations. The joint maneuver plays a critical role in monitoring hot spots along the Pacific rim, such as the Korean peninsula and the increased naval activity by the People's Republic of China.

The U.S.S. Freedom (LCS 1), the first of the U.S. Navy's new Littoral Combat Ships, makes its debut in Hawaii during RIMPAC 2010. Designed to operate in shallow waters along the coast, the Freedom and her sister ships move swiftly from mission to mission. Depending on the need, she uses interchangeable equipment packages, such as anti-mine, anti-submarine, or anti-ship warfare. These small agile ships allow movement close to shore in congested sea areas to counter various threats, including terrorism and piracy. The Freedom recently demonstrated her effectiveness in operations with allied navies during a brief exercise with Mexico in April of this year.

In 1825, Andrew Bloxam of the British ship HMS Blonde conducted a survey of the harbor, then known as the Pearl River inlet and declared that "he was convinced that the deep water inside had enough room to float the entire British navy." At the height of World War II, that theory was put to the test when hundreds of ships filled Pearl Harbor in preparation for one Pacific battle after another.

As I observe the busy harbor, full of ships preparing for RIMPAC, I'm reminded of Pearl Harbor's continued significance as the strategic and geographic center of naval operations in the Pacific.

The First Submarines Arrive at Pearl Harbor

2010-06-25T00:00:00.003-10:00

Today's date marks the ninety-first anniversary of the arrival of the first submarine division in Pearl Harbor. Submarine Division Fourteen, consisting of six R-boats numbering R-15 through R-20, arrived in Pearl Harbor on June 25, 1919 and served in Hawaii for the next eleven years.

State of the art for their time, the Navy built R-class boats as the First World War came to an end. The subs weighed in at about 600 tons, measured at 186 feet in length, and carried a crew of only twenty-nine Sailors. The R-18 made history at the fledgling base as the first submarine to moor at Pier 1, located at Pearl Harbor’s Quarry Point. The other five boats anchored at nearby Kuahua Island, along with the division’s tender, the USS Beaver, until more improvements occurred at the piers. Kuahua functioned as a temporary submarine facility until February of 1920. The construction of facilities at Quarry Point lacked funding at the time that the new submarines arrived. As a result, the crews of the R-boats were forced to find shelter in tents provided by the Beaver. Once described as a “swamp and cactus covered wasteland,” Quarry Point posed a challenge for the submariners to establish a livable environment. They cleared the land and installed temporary facilities shipped over from France following America’s withdrawal from Europe at the end of World War I.

Lieutenant Commander Felix X. Gygax, a man with an unforgettable name and a distinguished career as a pioneer in the submarine business, was the first commanding officer of this small contingent. He holds the distinction of the first Officer in Charge of the Submarine School in new London, Connecticut. However, it was his replacement who eventually rose to naval legend.

On July 17, 1920, the Executive Officer on board the battleship USS South Carolina relieved Commander Gygax as Commander of Submarine Division Fourteen, of the new division tender USS Chicago, and of the Submarine Base. His name was Commander Chester W. Nimitz. Despite the economic restraints placed on much of the military’s operations in the years following the war, Nimitz was largely credited with providing the base with its earliest infrastructure using surplus equipment left over from the wartime expansion. The first permanent structure was built on Pearl Harbor sub base in 1923. Nimitz left Pearl Harbor in 1922 for the Naval War College, unaware of the historic circumstances that would necessitate his return twenty years later.

The submarine base at Pearl Harbor experienced many changes through the years. The base remained inadequately funded until the 1930s drew to a close and the United States slowly awakened to the “gathering storm” in Europe. Following America’s entry into World War II, hundreds of workers funneled through the base and dozens of temporary structures required wholesale changes to the geography of the base. Inevitably, it became a vital center of undersea operations in the Pacific.

But what of the old R-boats, the first tenants of Quarry Point?

Surprisingly, all of the subs served through World War II as training vessels and most transferred to the U.K. under the Lend-Lease program. Eventually, the Navy scrapped them.

Tragically, the R-19, later redesignated SS-96, sunk when the Canadian vessel HMCS Georgian rammed the submarine on June 21, 1942 in the western Atlantic. All hands were lost.

A Celebration of Pearl Harbor's History

2010-06-18T15:07:00.021-10:00

Yesterday we unveiled nine new wayside exhibits around the naval station at Pearl Harbor.

Wayside exhibits have been referred to as "captions on the landscape". When you visit a museum you see documents, photographs or objects on display and there will generally be some kind of signage that will describe what you are looking at. A wayside exhibit accomplishes the same function but on a much larger scale by describing an entire area.

Each exhibit highlights an area of Pearl Harbor's century long history. It is hoped that the wayside exhibits will educate and inform the public who visit the base, as well as the civilian and military employees who live and work here.

MERRY POINT LANDING

Features a brief synopsis of Pearl Harbor's history and a description of the area before Western contact. Probably one of the more frequented areas on the base.

COALING STATION WALL

In many ways where it all began. The coaling station was designed to provide ships with the needed coal to continue their transit across the Pacific. Fully completed in 1918 as ships were beginning to make the transition from coal to oil, the USS Nevada (BB 36) commissioned in 1916 being the first American battleship to be built soley as an oil burning vessel.

HOSPITAL POINT

Originally the area known as Hospital Point contained a high powered radion station as well as the naval hospital. The hospital eventually moved ts operations to Aiea Heights, but the homes once occupied by the commanding officer, surgeons and pharmacists are still here. Inceidentally this was the site of the unveiling ceremony.

FORD ISLAND

Known as Moku'ume'ume to the native Hawaiians, part of the island was eventually purchased by the War Department in 1917 for the construction of Luke Field. In 1923 a naval air station was established which functioned until 1962.

SHIPYARD

For over 100 years, the Pearl Harbor Naval Shipyard has been servicing vessels for the U.S. Navy earning the motto, "We keep em' fit to fight."

HALE ALII

Established between 1914 and 1916, this area has been a welcome respite for officers and their families in times of peace and war. Hale Alii means "Royal Homes" in Hawaiian.

SUB BASE

Originally a "swamp and cactus covered wasteland" these piers have been home to submarines of the pacific Fleet since its construction in the 1920s.

KUAHUA

Once an island similar to Ford Island, the area now known as Kuahua Peninsula has seen the transformation from a naval magazine to a supply center.

The Golden Ballast of the USS Trout

2010-06-14T00:00:00.237-10:00

The picture above documented the USS Trout (SS-202) returning to Pearl Harbor from the Battle of Midway on June 14, 1942. On board were two Japanese prisoners, Chief Radioman Hatsuichi Yoshida and Fireman 3rd Class Kenichi Ishikawa, survivors of the sunken cruiser Mikuma. Admiral Nimitz awaited her arrival on the pier. The USS Trout, a 1475-ton Tambor class submarine built by the Portsmouth Navy Yard, was commissioned in 1940.

A highlight of her commendable war career occurred on January 12, 1942, when the Trout left Pearl Harbor to deliver 3,500 rounds of ammunition to American forces on Corregidor. On February 3, she arrived at the besieged island. Twenty tons of gold bars and silver pesos, evacuated from the Philippines, was loaded on the submarine since neither sandbags nor concrete was available for additional ballast. Escorted through the mine fields to the open ocean, she left the next day. On the afternoon of February 10, 1942, she scored two torpedo hits on the Japanese freighter Chuwa Maru. That evening, she scored another kill on a patrol vessel while avoiding a hit by enemy torpedos. Finally, on March 3, the Trout finally made her way back to Pearl Harbor. She transferred her "golden ballast" to a waiting cruiser.

One of 52 American submarines now on eternal patrol, the career of the USS Trout came to an unfortunate end. According to the Dictionary of American Fighting Ships,

On 8 February, the submarine began her 11th and final war patrol. Trout topped off with fuel at Midway and, on the 16th, headed via a great circle route toward the East China Sea. She was never heard from again. Japanese records indicate that one of their convoys was attacked by a submarine on 29 February 1944 in the patrol area assigned to Trout. The submarine badly damaged one large passenger-cargo ship and sank the 7,126-ton transport Sakito Maru. Possibly one of the convoy's escorts sank the submarine. On 17 April 1944, Trout was declared presumed lost. Trout received 11 battle stars for World War II service and the Presidential Unit Citation for her second, third, and fifth patrols.

Pearl Harbor Submarine Base Memorial Park features plaques representing each American submarine lost in World War II.

This plaque lists the names of the 81 crewmembers who lost their lives aboard the Trout in 1944.

Lt. Commander Albert Clark - Commanding officer of the USS Trout when she went down in 1944.

Chief John Boland from Boston, Massachusetts. 28

FC1 Norbert Brandt from Denver, Iowa. 24

F2 Roy Abbot from Columbus, Ohio. 18

Normandy

2010-06-06T00:00:00.033-10:00

On the morning of June 6, 1944, a vast armada of Allied ships moved in close to the coast of Normandy and began an artillery barrage on German held coastal positions. It marked the beginning of the long anticipated invasion of France that would free Europe from Nazi tyranny.

On station that morning off Utah Beach was the battleship USS Nevada. Her main battery of ten 14” guns lobbed shell after shell on the German shore defenses. Considering the difficult road she took to get there, what a sight it must have been to see this proud warship providing naval gunfire support on this historic day.

The Nevada had been one of the eight battleships tied up in Pearl Harbor on the morning of December 7, 1941. This battleship’s historic dash to the sea to escape the harbor was the “stuff of legends.” Despite her spirited efforts, the attacking Japanese aircraft laid several bombs into her deck and she was forced to beach off Hospital Point. Fifty brave crew members lost their lives. However, this would not mark the end of the Nevada’s career. In many ways, it was only the beginning.

It is a great credit to all of the workers of the naval shipyard at Pearl Harbor who salvaged the Nevada, along with five of the other eight battleships that suffered various degrees of damage in the attack. Only the USS Arizona and the USS Oklahoma were lost forever.

By the summer of 1943, the USS Nevada was back in action and contributing to the war, both in the Pacific and the Atlantic theaters. Because of the perseverance and grit of those shipyard employees the Nevada and the other crippled battleships at Pearl Harbor found a new lease on life. Though they quickly lost their place as the centerpiece of naval strategy, their roles in shore bombardment and anti-aircraft support proved vital in the long war.

On this 66th anniversary of D-Day we remember all of those who gave the ultimate sacrifice to free people they didn’t even know. We also honor the fortitude and ingenuity of the American people who rose up to the challenge of war, against all odds.

Nothing symbolizes this better than the resurrection of an old and battered battleship crossing an ocean to liberate the world.

Listen to the Gooney

2010-06-04T15:14:00.003-10:00

"The realization of a dream come true" is how I would describe my feelings as I stepped off the plane on the Sand Island runway of the Midway Atoll. The other thing I felt right away was the heat, but at the moment I really didn't care.

As a historian with a great deal of interest in World War II I have always wanted to visit the place where The United States’ fortunes turned in 1942. I was struck by how beautiful the atoll was. I have seen it in pictures but never up close and personal. As we flew the three hours that it took to reach the island from Honolulu, I also stared out at the endless stretch of ocean and couldn’t help but contemplate how amazing it was that this tiny atoll would be a scene of such monumental events. Standing on the airstrip at Sand Island, I thought, “this is where it all went down.” I tried to imagine the Japanese aircraft flying in and the American planes lifting off to meet them. I squinted my eyes a bit and wondered if I could imagine the smoke rising from the attack and listened for the voices of the Marines and Sailors who fought back.

And then there were the island’s most prominent residents -- the Layson Albatross, more popularly known by the less dignified name Gooney Birds. I had heard that there are a lot of these birds on Midway, but I was not prepared to have to avoid them with almost every step. When asked if I had taken any pictures of the birds I would respond, “How can you take a picture without them? They are everywhere.”

The ceremony commem-orating the Battle of Midway went off without a hitch and I would like to commend the members of the Fish and Wildlife Service, Military Historical Tours and the Pacific Aviation Museum who co-sponsored the event. They all did an outstanding job of not only honoring those who fought the battle, but taking care of their visitors who had come to be a part of this once in a lifetime experience.
I was especially moved to see the veterans from both sides meeting here sixty-eight years later. They all watched the ceremony unfold and later shook hands as they visited the memorial that had been erected at the site years before.
Kaname Harada was a Zero pilot assigned to the Hiryu on June 4, 1942. In an interview later in the day, the 93 year old Harada mentioned how beautiful the atoll looked today. He said it looked the same way those sixty-eight years ago. It’s interesting that he would think of the beauty of the islands as he winged his way into combat. He was a gentle man who seemed more interested in preserving a lasting peace than in relishing in the bygone glories of war. This is often the case with those who have seen first-hand what war can do.

Marine Sgt Crook, stationed on Midway’s Eastern Island that morning and responsible for servicing the obsolete F2 Brewster Buffalos that were mauled by the Japanese Zeros, remembers events in much the same way. “I knew many of those pilots,” he recalled. “None of them came back.” “There were 10,000 Japanese out there and they were coming to take Midway. That’s all we knew. We didn’t have anymore airplanes…they were all gone. They told us to dig in and take as many out as you could because they were coming in….it was three or four days before we had any information on the outcome of the battle.”

He went on to say how familiar the islands looked after all these years. “The buildings I remember are all gone but everything else looks the same. The runway is still there but it is grown over…it was all a long time ago.”

As I stood on the North Beach of Sand Island, I looked out to the north west wishing I could somehow see hundreds of miles past the horizon, and almost seventy years in the past to see the great carriers of the Japanese Empire and the U.S. Pacific Fleet sailing toward their epic clash. It was sobering to realize that five of them were still out there resting at the bottom of the sea.

Which brings me back to Midway’s winged residents. They are the one thing that remains constant on this far away outpost. The Layson albatross come and go year after year, completely unaware of the gigantic struggles of man. As I watched them soaring gracefully through the air and sitting perched on every available scrap of real estate in the atoll I felt a sense of awe that events here really do carry on much as they always have. Things are quiet on Midway now, and there is very little left to remind anyone of its historic past, but seeing the birds in flight, soaring seemingly effortlessly on the Pacific breeze, reminded me that because of our victory in the Battle of Midway, we remain free.

You can learn a lot from a Gooney bird.

Midway

2010-06-04T10:28:00.005-10:00

Today, we mark the 68th anniversary of the Battle of Midway. On June 4, 1942 the Imperial Japanese fleet bore down on the United States from several directions in an effort to draw out the carriers of the U.S. Pacific Fleet. If all went as planned within days, the Japanese would control the Midway Atoll and several islands in the Aleutian chain. These footholds would allow Japanese forces to harass the Hawaiian Islands and provide Japan with a security screen to all but close the North Pacific from American naval traffic.

From where we stood as a nation the situation was grim. Japan had overwhelmed the Allied forces in the Pacific since the surprise attack on Pearl Harbor on December 7, 1941. One after another the British, American, French and Dutch strongholds in the region were overrun and Japan’s forces seemed increasingly unstoppable.

Politically the President had a difficult problem. How to stop the Japanese offensive, while still committing the main focus of American forces in Europe to stop Nazi Germany from defeating England and the Soviet Union. After all, the United States had entered this war as a result of Imperial Japan’s attack on America and the American people wanted to see Japan defeated so how would Roosevelt justify assigning a secondary focus to the Pacific.

Japan hoped to cripple the United States once and for all and force a negotiated peace, allowing for Japan to reinforce their mastery of the Western Pacific unhindered by her Eastern Pacific rival. Admiral Yamamoto’s bold plan would marshal Japan’s naval forces in much the same way as the Pearl Harbor expedition six months prior. Though Japan would invade the Aleutian Islands and Midway, the real hope for Japan would be that the remaining American naval forces would come out to defend the atoll only 1,100 miles from the military facilities in and around Pearl Harbor. If things went as planned then the Japanese carriers would pounce on the precious few carriers of the American Pacific Fleet and effectively end America’s ability to defend the Pacific for the near future.

Admiral Chester Nimitz found himself in a difficult situation, how to meet the Japanese challenge, at the risk of losing the three precious carriers that stood between the Powerful Imperial Japanese Navy and the west Coast of the United States. Fortunately Admiral Nimitz at least had the element of surprise thanks to the brilliant intelligence work conducted by the Combat Intelligence Unit in Pearl Harbor which, following the breaking of the Japanese JN-25 code had ascertained, not only Japan’s planned assault on Midway, but also where and when to expect the attack. If the Admiral was correct he could send his three available carriers the Yorktown, Hornet and Enterprise on a sneak attack of their own and inflict a defeat on Japan. If his gamble failed, then the remainder of America’s offensive capabilities in the Pacific could be lost forever, furthering not only the war in the Pacific but perhaps jeopardizing America’s war effort as a whole.

On the that Summer morning of June 4, 1942 in a span of only about six minutes, three of the four Japanese carriers the Akagi, Kaga and Soryu would be set aflame and would eventually sink. The fourth carrier the Hiryu would launch her aircraft against the Yorktown in two attacks which would lead to the death of that great ship, but the Hiryu’s time would come as well when Dive-Bombers from the Enterprise and Yorktown would send her to the bottom. America had survived and Japan’s fortunes in the Pacific would soon turn.

Thanks to the ingenuity and aggressive “calculated risk” taken by Nimitz and his commanders both at sea and on the ground the United States won arguably its most decisive naval battle in history. The victory has been referred to as the turning point in the Pacific theater but an argument could certainly be made that its consequences were far broader. The destruction of a large portion of Japan’s naval air fleet and the experienced pilots who flew in it set the Japanese navy into a position of defense and America took an offensive stand that they never relinquished. America’s forces could be safely focused on the European theater while the Americans public had reason to believe that Japan’s defeat would be imminent.

Today on Sand Island of the Midway atoll a memorial marks the occasion of this epic battle which refers to June 4, 1942 as, “the day when the American spirit reached unparalleled heights, and in so doing, saved democracy for the Western World.”

Our gratitude remains