Military | Page 2 | Images of Old Hawaiʻi

December 13, 2024 by Peter T Young Leave a Comment

Rodney James Tadashi Yano

Born December 13, 1943 on Hawaii’s Kona coast, Rodney James Tadashi Yano’s ancestry included Japanese, Hawaiian and Portuguese. He attended Konawaena High in his hometown of Kealakekua. (Vachon)

“His father, a commercial fisherman for more than 20 years, [grew] coffee on acreage near Kealakekua Bay. Rodney graduated from Konawaena High School in 1961, and while in school served as president of the Konawaena chapter of the Future Farmers of America.”

“Rodney’s school records show that his longtime ambition was to be a soldier, and he volunteered in the Regular Army following his graduation from high school in 1961.”

Mr. Ichiro Shikada, one of his former teachers at Konawaena High School, described young Yano as a student who showed signs of both leadership and courage when he was in school. He recalled that even then Rodney “had the habit of coming through when the chips were down.” (Tribute by Spark Matsunaga)

In 1961 Rodney joined the Army; he was affectionately called ‘Pineapple’ by his fellow soldiers. Known as a fun-loving guy with a serious side, Yano rose to the rank of Sergeant First Class.

Rodney’s younger brother Glenn had later enlisted with the Hawaii National Guard. They mobilized 4,000 men for Vietnam in early 1968, becoming one of the few National Guard units to participate in the war. Army policy at the time prohibited the involuntary simultaneous deployment of immediate family members to the war.

Rodney spent a year in Vietnam, but then volunteered to extend. Glenn said, “Rodney felt that since he had just completed a year in Vietnam he was more experienced than me. He said his chances were better than mine.”

“Sergeant Yano was only a few days away from completing his second voluntary year of combat in Vietnam [when tragic events occurred. Because of his heroism] Rodney [was] the second serviceman from Hawaii to receive the Medal of Honor in the Vietnam war”. (Tribute by Spark Matsunaga) (The Medal of Honor was presented posthumously to parents, Mr and Mrs Richard Yano, by President Nixon, April 7, 1970.)

On January 1, 1969, Yano was out on the flight line at Bien Hoa, Vietnam. One of the unit’s helicopters was supposed to make an easy run to pick up an officer in Saigon and return to base. It’s roughly a 70 km trip over the calmest part of South Vietnam.

SP4 Carmine Conti, a crewman on the Huey, said that Yano picked up that Conti’s door gunner was nowhere to be found. Yano immediately ran over and volunteered. Conti said, “Yano loved to fly but, as a technical inspector, wasn’t getting much time in the air. . . . like everyone else in the troop, I liked the guy…a lot. He didn’t have to ask twice.”

Yano performed his duties of crew chief aboard the command and control helicopter. The aircraft commander was then-Major John “Doc” Bahnsen. Bahnsen was alerted to a nearby friendly force that was attacking a well-entrenched enemy position.

Bahnsen was diverted to provide fire support, to mark the enemy positions for other close air support aircraft and artillery, and act as the airborne command and control element.

Arriving over the fighting on the ground, the crew went to work. Yano, from his position at the door gun on the side of the aircraft, fired the machine gun and was tossing smoke grenades out the door onto the enemy positions. Once marked, Major Bahnsen could then call-in supporting fire more accurately. (Valor Guardians)

“While marking enemy positions with smoke and white phosphorous grenades for field artillery units, a grenade went off prematurely inside of the helicopter, covering Yano with burning phosphorous and leaving him severely wounded. Ammunition and other supplies began to ignite, and white smoke began filling the helicopter.”

“Although partially blind and unable to use of one of his arms, Yano displayed extreme bravery by hurling blazing ammunition from the helicopter. In taking such action, Yano inflicted additional wounds upon himself to protect his crew from further injury and avert any deaths.” (Veterans Memorial Court Alliance)

Conti said immediately after the explosion, “I tumbled to the cabin floor, unable to hear or see anything but white smoke. I thought I was dead.” Yano was covered in burning White Phosphorus, his left hand nearly blown completely off.

Yano didn’t miss a beat though, he grabbed a first aid kit, pulled out a tourniquet and told Conti that he should tie his left arm off above the elbow. “By all rights,” Conti recalled, “Yano should have sat down and remained still to avoid aggravating his ghastly wounds. He didn’t.”

Yano, partially blinded by the initial explosion, had his vision fully obscured by the resultant smoke, with the use of only one arm and despite unimaginable pain, started tossing and kicking out munitions that were still exploding unpredictably. (Valor Guardians)

“Fire was burning all around him and the cabin was still full of white smoke,” Conti described. “It was a surreal sight but the most selfless and courageous act of heroism that I saw during the war, and I saw a lot of heroic actions.”

The aircraft’s pilot recovered control and immediately flew Yano to a nearby medical evacuation hospital, where they landed safely. “Our survival that day,” Conti concludes, “was assured only by Yano’s extraordinary courage and calm amid crisis while he personally teetered on death’s door.” (Valor Guardians)

Yano’s colleagues were not surprised that he died putting others before himself. During his second tour in Vietnam, Yano was served as a crew chief in the Air Cavalry Troop, 11th Armored Cavalry, the famed Blackhorse Regiment. (Veterans Memorial Court Alliance)

“SFC Yano distinguished himself while serving with the Air Cavalry Troop. SFC Yano was performing the duties of crew chief aboard the troop’s command-and-control helicopter during action against enemy forces entrenched in dense jungle.”

“From an exposed position in the face of small-arms and antiaircraft fire he delivered suppressive fire upon the enemy forces and marked their positions with smoke and white phosphorous grenades, thus enabling his troop commander to direct accurate and effective artillery fire against the hostile emplacements.”

“By his conspicuous gallantry at the cost of his life, in the highest traditions of the military service, SFC Yano has reflected great credit on himself, his unit, and the US Army.” (Medal of Honor Citation)

Yano’s other awards include a Bronze Star Medal, Air Medal (11th award), Army commendation medal, Purple Heart, good conduct medal, Vietnam service medal and Vietnam campaign medal. (Pacific Citizen, JACL)

Rodney Yano is the namesake of the USNS Yano (T-AKR-297), a Shughart class cargo ship. She is a ‘roll-on roll-off’ non-combat United States Navy designated a “Large, Medium-speed, roll-on/roll-off” (LMSR) ship.

Yano Multipurpose Range at Fort Knox, Yano Fitness Center at Camp Zama, Japan, Sgt. Yano Library at Schofield Barracks, Hawaii and Yano Hall Helicopter Maintenance Facility at Fort Novosel, Alabama, Yano Street, Fort Carson, Colorado and Yano Hall Recreational Public Facility (that opened in December 1970), Captain Cook, Kona, Island of Hawaii are also named in his honor.

Sergeant First Class Rodney JT Yano is buried in the National Memorial Cemetery of the Pacific, Honolulu, Hawaii section W plot 614.

December 8, 2024 by Peter T Young 2 Comments

1st POW

11 pm, December 6, 1941, Ensign Kazuo Sakamaki and Petty Officer Second Class Kiyoshi Inagaki entered their 2-man midget submarine and were released from their mother sub about 10-miles off Pearl Harbor.

They were part of Special Attack Forces, an elite 10-man group of five 2-man midget submarines that would attack Pearl Harbor.

They planned to carry out suicide attacks against the enemy with no expectation of coming back alive: “That the personnel of the midget submarine group was selected with utmost care was obvious.”

“The twenty-four, picked from the entire Japanese navy, had in common: bodily strength and physical energy; determination and fighting spirit; freedom from family care. They were unmarried and from large families.”

“None of us was a volunteer. We had all been ordered to our assignment. That none of us objected goes without saying: we knew that punishment was very severe if we objected; we were supposed to feel highly honored.” (Sakamaki)

His 78.5-foot-long submarine, HA-19, and four other midget subs, each armed with a pair of 1,000-pound torpedoes, were to attack American destroyers or battleships. (NYTimes)

From the beginning, things went wrong for Sakamaki and Inagaki. Their gyrocompass was faulty, causing the submarine to run in circles while at periscope depth – they struggled for 24-hours to go in the right direction.

The submarine was spotted by an American destroyer, the Helm, which fired on them, and the midget sub later got stuck temporarily on a coral reef. The submarine became partially flooded, it filled with smoke and fumes from its batteries, causing the two crewmen to lose consciousness.

With the air becoming foul due to the battery smoking and leaking gas, the midget sub hit a coral reef again. They abandoned the sub.

Sakamaki reached a stretch of beach, but, again, fell unconscious. In the early dawn of December 8, he was picked up on Waimanalo Beach by Lt. Paul S. Plybon and Cpt. David Akui of the 298th Infantry. (hawaii-gov)

Sakamaki became Prisoner No. 1 (the first US Prisoner Of War in WWII.)

He was the only crewman to survive from the midget submarines; his companion’s remains later washed up on the shore. All five subs were lost, and none were known to have caused damage to American ships.

Humbled to have been captured alive, Sakamaki inflicted cigarette burns while in prison at Sand Island and asked the Americans permission to commit suicide. His request was denied and the first prisoner of war spend the rest of the war being transferred from camp to camp. (Radio Canada)

He spent the entire war in various POW camps in Wisconsin, Tennessee, Louisiana and Texas. He and others were offered educational opportunities through the “Internment University” that had lectures on English, geography, commerce, agriculture, music, Japanese poetry, Buddhist scriptures and other subjects.

He became the leader of other Japanese POWs who came to his camp; he encouraged them to learn English. He also tried to address the problem of other Japanese POWs’ wanting to commit suicide after their capture, since he previously had gone through the same feelings.

At the end of the war, he returned to Japan and wrote his memoirs, ”Four Years as a Prisoner-of-War, No. 1,” in which he told of receiving mail from some Japanese denouncing him for not having committed suicide when it appeared he could be taken captive.

His memoirs were published in the United States on the eighth anniversary of the Pearl Harbor attack with the title, ”I Attacked Pearl Harbor.” (NYTimes)

Mr. Sakamaki became a businessman, serving as president of a Brazilian subsidiary of Toyota and then working for a Toyota-affiliated company in Japan before retiring in 1987.

His submarine was salvaged by American troops, shipped to the United States in January 1942, and taken on a nationwide tour to sell War Bonds. Admission to view the submarine was secured through the purchase of war bonds and stamps.

On April 3, 1943, HA-19 arrived in Washington DC for the war bond drive and for a brief time sat in front of the United States Capitol Building for people to see.

On arriving in Alexandria, Virginia, “George W. Herring, Virginia lumberman, bought $16,000 worth of war bonds yesterday for the privilege of inspecting a Jap submarine. One of the two-man submarines captured at Pearl Harbor was here for a one-day stand in the war bond sales campaign.”

“Those who buy bonds are allowed to inspect it. Herring held the record for the highest purchase and was the first Alexandrian to take a peek at the submarine. War bond sales for the day totaled $1,061,650.” (Belvedere Daily Republican, April 3, 1943)

It was placed on display at a submarine base in Key West, Florida, in 1947 and later transferred in 1990 to its current site, the National Museum of the Pacific War in Fredericksburg, Texas, home of Admiral Chester W Nimitz (who served as Commander in Chief of the US Pacific Fleet during WWII.)

Back to Sakamaki … when he returned from America, he saw a woman working in a neighbor’s field with whom he fell in love at first sight, although he reviewed her papers (“a health certificate, academic records, a brief biography, a certificate of her family background, all certified as to their accuracy”) prior to making the commitment to marriage.

Her father and brother had died in the atomic bomb dropped on Hiroshima, so her mother and she had moved back to their ancestral home next to Sakamaki’s home. They married on August 15, 1946, the first anniversary of the end of WWII. (Lots of information here from Gordon and hawaii-gov.)

December 7, 2024 by Peter T Young Leave a Comment

Welch & Taylor

Lt George Schwartz Welch and 2nd Lt Kenneth M Taylor are credited with being the first ‘Aces’ of World War II. Welch and Taylor were both awarded the Distinguished Service Cross.

Let’s look back …

Starting at 7:55 am, December 7, 1941, in a matter of minutes, Japanese bombers sank or damaged eight battleships, three light cruisers and three destroyers in Pearl Harbor. (Aviation History)

But boats were not their only targets.

Before the boats, the Japanese attacked Oʻahu’s airfields: Wheeler, Kaneohe, Ewa, Hickam, Ford Island, Bellows and the civilian airport serving Honolulu.

The Japanese heavily strafed the aircraft at Wheeler Field and few aircraft were able to get airborne to fend them off. Haleiwa was an auxiliary field to Wheeler and contained a collection of aircraft temporarily assigned to the field including aircraft from the 47th Pursuit Squadron.

Welch and Taylor were at Wheeler when the attack began; they had previously flown their P-40B fighters over to the small airfield at Haleiwa as part of a plan to disperse the squadron’s planes away from Wheeler.

Not waiting for instructions the pilots called ahead to Haleiwa and had both their fighters fueled, armed and warmed up. Both men raced in their cars to Haleiwa Field completing the 16-mile trip in about 15 minutes (their dramatic ride and takeoff was shown in ‘Tora, Tora, Tora.’

Once in the air they spotted a large number of aircraft in the direction of ʻEwa and Pearl Harbor. “There were between 200 and 300 Japanese aircraft,” said Taylor; “there were just two of us!”

Lt Welch was able to down the plane following him and they both returned back to Wheeler. Lt Welch was credited with a total of four Japanese planes shot down and Lt Taylor downed two. Just as suddenly as it began, the sky was empty of enemy aircraft.

A fellow fighter pilot of the 18th Group, Francis S (Gabby) Gabreski (who would later go on to become the top American Ace in the European Theater in World War II) described Welch:

“He was a rich kid, heir to the grape juice family, and we couldn’t figure out why he was there since he probably could have avoided military service altogether if he wanted to.”

Welch remained in the Pacific Theater of Operations and went on to score 12 more kills against Japanese aircraft (16 in total).

In the spring of 1944, Welch was approached by North American Aviation to become a test pilot for the P-51 Mustang. He went on to fly the prototypes of the FJ Fury, and when the F-86 Sabre was proposed, Welch was chosen as the chief test pilot.

On October 14, 1947, the same day that Chuck Yeager was to attempt supersonic flight, Welch reputedly performed a supersonic dive. Starting from 37,000 feet, he executed a full-power 4g pullout, greatly increasing the power of his apparent sonic boom. Yeager broke the sound barrier approximately 30 minutes later.

The Pentagon allegedly ordered the results of Welch’s flights classified and did not allow North American to publicly announce that Welch had gone supersonic until almost a year later. The Air Force still officially denies that Welch broke the sound barrier first.

October 12, 1954, Welch’s F-100A-1-NA Super Sabre, disintegrated during a 7g pullout at Mach 1.55. He was evacuated by helicopter, but was pronounced dead on arrival at the Army hospital. He is buried in Arlington National Cemetery. (Castagnaro and Padilla)

2nd Lt. Kenneth Marlar Taylor was a new second lieutenant on his first assignment, posted in April 1941 to Wheeler Army Airfield in Honolulu.

Born in Enid, Oklahoma, Taylor was raised in Hominy, Oklahoma and entered the University of Oklahoma in 1938. After two years, he quit school to enlist in the Army Air Corps.

“He was skillful as a pilot and a well-oriented officer. You couldn’t ask for a better flying officer in your squadron. He was willing to do anything, I’m sure. The enemy was all around and he was going after them.” (Gen. Gordon Austin, his first commanding officer)

After Pearl Harbor, Taylor was sent to the South Pacific, flying out of Guadalcanal, and was credited with downing another Japanese aircraft. During an air raid at the base one day, someone jumped into a trench on top of him and broke his leg, which ended his combat career.

He rose to the rank of colonel during his 27 years of active duty. He became commander of the Alaska Air National Guard and retired as a brigadier general in 1971. He then worked as an insurance underwriter in Alaska, representing Lloyds of London, until 1985.

Taylor split his retirement between Anchorage and Arizona. He died November 25, 2006 at an assisted living residence in Tucson. (Washington Post) The image shows Lt George Welch (L) and Ken Taylor.

Ken Taylor (left) and George Welch posing for the camera shortly after their epic air battle over Pearl Harbor

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December 6, 2024 by Peter T Young Leave a Comment

Flagship of the Fleet

Some suggest the name was probably coined by melding the words arid and zone, to designate the dry area in the southwestern United States which was admitted to the Union as a state on February 14, 1912.

However, some authorities maintain that the name was derived from the Aztec Indian word Arizuma, which can be translated as “silver bearing.” (Navy)

The first ‘Arizona’ was an iron-hulled, side-wheel steamer completed in 1859; she operated out of New Orleans carrying passengers and cargo to and from ports along the gulf and Atlantic coasts of the US.

Her commercial service ended on January 15, 1862 when Confederate Major General Mansfield Lovell seized her at New Orleans along with 13 other steamers for use as a blockade runner. (Navy)

On the evening of February 27, 1865, a fire broke out and rapidly spread. When no possibility of saving the ship remained, the crew manned the boats; some leaped overboard and swam to shore. The vessel burned until she exploded. Out of a crew of 98 on board four were missing. (Navy)

“The second Arizona was launched at the Philadelphia Navy Yard in 1865 and named the Neshaminy. Her name was changed to Arizona on May 15, 1869. Her name was again changed on August 10, 1869, this time to Nevada.” (New York Times, June 12, 1915)

“The naval constructors at the New York Navy Yard in Brooklyn are busy completing the arrangements for the laying of the keel of the battleship. No. 39, which is to be a sister ship of the new Pennsylvania, and which with that ship will share the honor of being the world’s biggest and most powerful.” (New York Times, July 1, 1913)

The keel of the third ‘Arizona’ (Battleship No. 39) was laid on the morning of March 16, 1914 with Assistant Secretary of the Navy Franklin Delano Roosevelt in attendance.

She was launched on June 19, 1915; “The Arizona, biggest of the super dreadnoughts of our navy, was launched at the Brooklyn Navy yard yesterday afternoon, while 75,0000 people – the greatest crowd that ever gathered to see an American ship go down and the ways – cheered to the echo Uncle Sam’s newest battleship named for the newest of the States.” (New York Times, June 20, 1915)

Arizona had an overall length of 608 feet, a beam of 97 feet (at the waterline), and a draft of 29 feet 3 inches at deep load. She was propelled by four direct-drive Parsons steam turbine sets, each of which drove a propeller 12 feet 1.5 inches in diameter. At full capacity, the ship could steam at a speed of 12 knots for an estimated 7,500 nautical miles (8,790 miles.)

She was commissioned on October 17, 1916, and went on a shakedown cruise. The battleship returned the day before Christmas of 1916 for post-shakedown overhaul, completing the repairs and alterations in April 1917.

Arizona left the yard on April 3, 1917; on April 6, 1917, two days after the US Senate voted 82 to 6 to declare war against Germany, the US House of Representatives endorsed the decision by a vote of 373 to 50, and the US formally entered the First World War.

Assigned to Battleship Division 8 operating out of the York River, Arizona was only employed as a gunnery training ship for the Navy crewmen who sailed on armed merchant vessels crossing the Atlantic in convoys.

The fighting ended on November 11, 1918 with an armistice. A week later, the Arizona left the US for the United Kingdom, then on to France. Arizona joined nine battleships and twenty-eight destroyers escorting President Woodrow Wilson on the ocean liner George Washington into Brest for one day on Wilson’s journey to the Paris Peace Conference.

A recurring theme in subsequent years was the annual ‘Fleet Problems,’ large-scale fleet versus fleet naval exercises. Four months after ‘Fleet Problem IX’ in January 1929, Arizona was modernized at the Norfolk Navy Yard.

Arizona carried twelve 14-inch guns in triple gun turrets. The turrets were numbered from I to IV from front to rear. The ship carried 100 shells for each gun.

Defense against torpedo boats was provided by twenty-two 51-caliber five-inch guns mounted in individual casemates in the sides of the ship’s hull. They proved to be very wet and could not be worked in heavy seas. Each gun was provided with 230 rounds of ammunition.

The ship mounted four 50-caliber three-inch guns for anti-aircraft defense, although only two were fitted when completed. The other pair were added shortly afterward on top of Turret III. Arizona also mounted two 21-inch (533 mm) torpedo tubes and carried 24 torpedoes for them.

She had an ongoing history of serving as flag ship for different Admirals across different oceans (the flag ship carries the commander of a group of ships; officers of the rank of Rear Admiral, Vice-Admiral, or Admiral are designated as flag officers.)

When an Admiral takes command of a ship, a task force or a fleet, the chief signalman is given the job of raising the Admiral’s flag. (The Admiral’s flag is blue with white stars. A Rear-Admiral will have two stars on his flag, a vice-admiral will have three stars and a full Admiral carries four stars.)

“During the ceremony, the flag is bunched up into a ball and hoisted up in that fashion until it gently bumps the masthead and the balled up flag breaks open to a full flag furl. When this takes place the flag officer’s flag has broken open and he has taken command.” To say that a Commander “Broke his flag,” means that particular officer has been assigned task force or Fleet Commander. (Everett)

Some reference the Arizona as the ‘Flagship of the Fleet.’ Starting in 1920 the Arizona became flagship for Commander Battleship Division 7, Rear Admiral Edward W. Eberle and later became flagship when Vice Admiral McDonald transferred his flag to Wyoming (BB-33) and Rear Admiral Josiah S. McKean broke his flag on board as commander of the division.

For the next decade and a half, Arizona alternately served as flagship for Battleship Divisions 2, 3 or 4. Based at San Pedro during this period, Arizona operated with the fleet in the operating areas off the coast of southern California or in the Caribbean during fleet concentrations there.

On September 17, 1938, Arizona became the flagship for Battleship Division 1, when Rear Admiral Chester W Nimitz broke his flag.

Arizona’s last ‘fleet problem’ was XXI. At its conclusion, the US Fleet was retained in Hawaiian waters, based at Pearl Harbor. She operated in the Hawaiian Operating Area until late that summer, when she returned to Long Beach in September 1940.

She was then overhauled at the Puget Sound Navy Yard, Bremerton, Washington, into the following year. Her last flag change-of-command occurred on January 23, 1941, when Rear Admiral Isaac C. Kidd relieved Rear Admiral Willson as Commander, Battleship Division 1.

She continued various kinds of training and tactical exercises in the Hawaiian operating area. She underwent a brief overhaul at the Pearl Harbor Navy Yard commencing in October 1941, and conducted her last training (with Nevada (BB-36) and Oklahoma (BB-37)) (a night firing exercise) on the night of December 4, 1941.

Shortly before 8 am, December 7, 1941, Japanese aircraft from six aircraft carriers struck the Pacific Fleet as it lay in port at Pearl Harbor, and wrought devastation on the battle line and on the facilities defending Hawaii. Arizona’s air raid alarm went off about 7:55, and the ship went to general quarters soon thereafter. Shortly after 08:00, the ship was attacked.

The last bomb hit at 08:06 in the vicinity of Turret II, likely penetrating the armored deck near the ammunition magazines located in the forward section of the ship. While not enough of the ship is intact to judge the exact location, its effects are indisputable. About seven seconds after the hit, the forward magazines detonated in a cataclysmic explosion.

The USS Arizona is the final resting place for many of the ship’s 1,177 crewmen who lost their lives on December 7, 1941. The 184-foot-long Memorial structure spans the mid-portion of the sunken battleship and consists of three main sections: the entry room; the assembly room, a central area designed for ceremonies and general observation; and the shrine room, where the names of those killed on the Arizona are engraved on the marble wall. (Lots of information here is from the Navy, NPS and Arizona.)

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Arizona (BB39) before modernized at Norfolk Naval Shipyard between May 1929-Jan 1930-WC

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November 22, 2024 by Peter T Young Leave a Comment

Wheeler Field

On February 6, 1922, under the direction of 1st Lt William T Agee of the 4th Squadron (Observation,) construction began on the old 17th Cavalry drill grounds at Schofield Barracks in central Oʻahu. With 20 men, he started clearing away trees and undergrowth.

Within a month, they completed a landing strip. On November 11, 1922, it was named Wheeler Field in honor of Major Sheldon H Wheeler, former commander of Luke Field on Ford Island, who died in a plane crash on July 13, 1921.

Over the years, this Army air field would be a point of several significant historical aviation events: it was the landing/take-off area for the:

first nonstop Continent-to-Hawaiʻi flight by Army Air Corps Lieutenants Lester J Maitland and Albert F Hegenberger in the “Bird of Paradise” in 1927
Arthur Goebel landed his plane as winner of the $25,000 James D. Dole Prize, for Dole Derby air race from California to Hawaiʻi in 1927
first trans-Pacific flight from the United States to Australia, by Australian Squadron Leader Charles E Kingsford-Smith who landed the “Lady Southern Cross” at Wheeler on the first leg of his pioneer trans-Pacific flight from Oakland, California, to Brisbane, Australia, by way of Hawaii and Fiji in 1928
first Hawaiʻi-to-Continent solo flight by Amelia Earhart, who flew from Wheeler Field to Oakland, California (in 18 hours and 16 minutes) in 1935

Permanent structures, including officers’ quarters and club, noncommissioned officers’ quarters and club, chapel, dispensary, and administrative buildings were erected in the early-1930s.

During the 1920s and early ‘30s, Wheeler was the principal Army Air Corps field in Hawaiʻi. On August 5, 1939, the War Department issued General Orders No. 4 reassigning about 1,400-acres of Schofield Barracks land to Wheeler Field; less than four weeks later, on August 31 1939, it became a separate permanent military post.

Three paved runways arranged in a triangle allowed for three aircraft to take off simultaneously. A separate, fourth runway was constructed later.

A row of metal hangars and a flight line bordered the north side of the northernmost runway. A large reinforced-concrete enlisted men’s barracks and administrative buildings stood behind the hangars.

By 1940, Wheeler Field had evolved into a primary base for Army Air Corps pursuit (“fighter”) aircraft such as the P-40 Warhawk, responsible for air defense of the Hawaiian Islands Territory.

In the early morning of December 7, 1941, Japanese pilots flew toward the island of Oʻahu from six aircraft carriers (the Akagi, Kaga, Soryu, Hiryu, Shokaku and Zuikaku;) two waves of planes attacked various military installations on Oʻahu.

The first wave of 183 planes (43-fighters, 49-high-level bombers, 51-dive bombers and 40-torpedo planes) struck its targets at 7:55 am. The second wave of 167 Japanese planes (35-fighters, 54-horizontal bombers and 78-dive bombers) struck Oʻahu beginning at 8:40 am. By 9:45 am, the Japanese attack on Oʻahu was over.

Air bases were important objectives in the attack, because the success of the Japanese was dependent on eliminating air opposition and precluding US planes from following their aircraft back to their carriers. The first air base to be hit was Wheeler.

There, twenty-five dive bombers aimed at the hangars, dropping approximately thirty-five bombs. They hit and set fire to hangars and storehouses. One bomb struck the barracks. The same planes returned to strafe the flight line.

Casualties amounted to thirty-eight enlisted men killed and fifty-nine wounded. Eighty-three aircraft had been destroyed, fifty-four of which burned in the fire storm on the flight line.

During World War II and until 1949, Wheeler was assigned to the Seventh Air Force (former Hawaiian Air Force) and successor commands.

Following the war, with the establishment of the US Air Force as a separate service in 1947, Wheeler Army Air Base was re-designated Wheeler Air Force Base under the operational control of Pacific Air Forces (PACAF.)

The following year, the installation was placed on minimum caretaker status; however, with expansion of the Air Force during the Korean conflict, Wheeler AFB was restored to fully operational status in 1952.

In August 1987, the Secretary of the Interior designated Wheeler AFB as a National Historic Landmark, recognizing it as a site of national significance in the history of the United States and, in particular, World War II in the Pacific.

On November 1, 1991, the Army took over the facility and Wheeler was renamed “Wheeler Army Airfield.” A couple years later (March 15, 1993,) to settle ownership concerns, the Army and Air Force exchanged Wheeler for Fort Kamehameha Military Reservation. (Lots of information here is from NPS and ‘Brief History of Wheeler’)