Military | Page 21 | Images of Old Hawaiʻi

April 15, 2020 by Peter T Young 2 Comments

Elephant Cage

It doesn’t exist anymore (and was relatively short-lived,) and contrary to its nickname, it didn’t house pachyderms. It was actually an antenna array, constructed near Wahiawa, Oʻahu, and used during the Cold War.

More formally known as the AN/FRD-10 Circularly Disposed Antenna Array (CDAA) at NCTAMS (Facility 314,) it was a part of the efforts to gather foreign intelligence information.

Along with fourteen other FRD-10 CDAAs worldwide, it was a part of the Naval Security Group’s Classic Bullseye network, a program for strategic signals intelligence (SIGINT) collection and transmitter locating.

This technology was a radical improvement in the performance of high-frequency direction finding. Its design, with uniformly spaced outside the rings of reflector screens, was able to intercept and detect the direction of high-frequency radio transmissions covering 360 degrees. (NPS)

Early work on CDAA systems had been undertaken by the German navy’s signal intelligence research and development center early in World War II.

At that time, it was given the name, Wullenweber, or Wullenweber Antenna (named after Jürgen Wullenweber who was the mayor of Lubeck, Germany from 1533 to 1537. He was an opponent of injustice and a supporter of the Protestant cause who became a legendary figure.)

In addition to the nickname noted above, it was referenced by some as a “Dinosaur Cage; “ the names came from the nature of its construction.

The structure had concentric circles of posts and wires; the innermost ring was an antenna reflector screen made up of 80-vertical wood poles 94-feet high that were spaced evenly about 28′-6″ apart in a circle about 732-feet in diameter.

Moving outward, another circle of 40-poles, 58-feet high, spaced evenly a little over 61-feet apart formed a ring 776-feet in diameter. A third ring, 847-feet in diameter consisted of 120 wood poles, 25-feet in height, spaced 22-feet apart. The outer-most ring had 120-poles, 22-feet in height forming a circle with an 873-foot diameter.

With poles, wire and netting, it looked like a cage to control some big animals, thus its nicknames.

But it served a greater purpose; throughout the post-World War II years, advancing technology helped to shift the means of intelligence gathering by the US, from networks of agents operating on the ground in foreign lands to electronic and over flying systems that could gather data from much greater distances.

Remember, in the 1950s technology was still in its relative infancy; it was only in 1957 that the Soviets launched the first earth-orbiting satellite (Sputnik I.)

The Wahiawa facility was positioned to pick up all radio signals from Asia and the Pacific region, but the antenna was so sensitive that it could also pick up signals from around the world. Its sub-antennas in a complete circle also let operators inside know the direction from which the signal was coming.

Although human intelligence gathering efforts continued, technology played a greater role in the collection of information. The 1950s saw a greater capability of aerial reconnaissance in intercepting voice, radiotelephone, facsimile or Morse code communication, either transmitted in the clear or encrypted.

In addition, electronics were beginning to be able to pick up non-communications signals, such as the releases from foreign radar, and signals sent back from missiles or satellites that indicate performance and operation during a flight.

Supporting this aerial surveillance, during the 1950s and 1960s, work on ways of improving the capabilities and performance of high-frequency direction-finding equipment was improving – part of that research was the refinement of circular arrays, the CDAAs.

Besides the Wahiawa facility (built between 1962 and 1964,) CDAA were operational at Agana, Guam; Homestead AFB, FL; Imperial Beach, CA; Marietta, WA; Howard AFB, Panama Canal Zone; Sebana Seca, PR; Skaggs Island, CA; Sugar Grove, WV; Winter Harbor, ME; Canada: CFB Gander, NF; CFB Masset, BC; Europe: Brawdy, UK; Edzell, UK; Keflavik, Iceland; NAS Rota, Spain; and Asia: Hanza, Japan.

The worldwide network, known collectively as “Iron Horse”, could detect and locate Soviet submarines and other high frequency communications almost anywhere on the planet.

The system was wound down at the end of the Cold War; in the mid-1990s, the network of facilities were started to be torn down. On October 4, 1998, the Wahiawa facility ceased operations and was dismantled in 2005.

In September 2007, it was completely removed to make way for new buildings of the Hawaiʻi Regional Special Operations Center (HRSOC;) the military relocated its state-of-the-art intelligence and data gathering and analysis facility, related to security operations in the Pacific, out to the Kunia Tunnel.

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NSA-CSS Hawaii Regional Security Operations Center-that replaced the Elephant Cage-GoogleEarth

April 12, 2020 by Peter T Young 1 Comment

Hawaiʻi and the American Civil War

When the first shot of the American Civil War was fired at Fort Sumter off the coast of South Carolina on April 12, 1861, nearly six thousand miles away, the Kingdom of Hawaiʻi was a sovereign nation.

On August 26, 1861, five months after the outbreak of hostilities and four months after the news of Civil War arrived in Honolulu, Kamehameha IV issued a Proclamation that, in part, stated, “hostilities are now unhappily pending between the Government of the United States, and certain States thereof styling themselves “The Confederate States of America”.”

With the Proclamation, the King also stated “Our neutrality between said contending parties.”

The discussion of neutrality versus partisanship had to include the reality that the Hawaiian kingdom had no standing army, and most importantly, no navy to protect its harbors if supporting either the Union or Confederacy brought the other side’s vessels to threaten the principal cities of Honolulu or Lāhainā. (Illinois-edu)

Likewise, while the majority of foreigners in Hawaiʻi were Americans from New England who supported the Union cause with great fervor, leadership and advisors to the King included European ties who believed that the Confederacy would succeed in securing its independence.

King Kamehameha IV declared a neutral stance but held largely Unionist sympathies – as did the majority of people living in Hawaiʻi. (NPS)

Although neutrality was declared, Hawaiʻi’s close relationship economically, diplomatically and socially with the United States ensured that the wake of the American Civil War reached the Hawaiian Islands.

Slavery was prohibited by Hawaiʻi’s Constitution of 1852; however, there was considerable debate comparing it to the contact labor system that brought workers from Asia to fill the growing need for labor on the sugar plantations.

This was a kind of indentured servitude, some in Hawaiʻi argued, that was little better than American slavery, a position that tended to fuel opposition to the American slaveholding South.

Prior to the Civil War, whaling and related activities were the primary economic engine of the Kingdom of Hawaiʻi. The war enabled Hawaiʻi to fill part of the void left by the absence of then-blockaded southern exports, including sugar.

Hawaiian-grown sugar soon replaced much of this southern sugar through the duration of the conflict. By the end of the war, over thirty extremely prosperous plantations were in operation and expanded to new levels previously unheard of before the war’s commencement.

In part, because of this boom in business, the majority of Americans living and working on the islands were devoutly pro-Unionist. In fact, many living in Hawaiʻi had an ardent desire to serve in the armed forces.

Hawaiʻi’s neutrality did not prevent many of its citizens from enlisting in either Union or Confederate forces. One, a Hawaiian from Hilo, was Henry Hoʻolulu Pitman, son of Kinoʻole O Liliha, a Hawaiian high chiefess of Hilo. He enlisted in the Union Army and later died of disease in Richmond, Virginia’s infamous Libby Prison.

A dozen Hawaiians (possibly from captured ships) also served as Confederate sailors aboard the famous raider CSS Shenandoah which circumnavigated the globe and sank or captured nearly forty Union and merchant vessels throughout the Pacific. (Captured sailors could be put in chains below deck, marooned on an island or be given the chance to join the crew of the Southern vessel – many chose the latter.)

About 40 individuals who were born and raised in Hawaiʻi served in the Civil War. As many as 200 immigrants to Hawaiʻi who were living here at the outbreak of the war in 1861 may have served in the conflict.

To honor these men, the Hawaiʻi Sons of the Civil War Memorial Committee installed a bronze and stone memorial at the National Memorial Cemetery of the Pacific at Punchbowl. It is dedicated to those from Hawai’i who served in the war.

Oʻahu Cemetery has thirty Union veterans who rest in a Grand Army of the Republic section of the burial ground (it is identified with four cannons at each corner.) (The Grand Army of the Republic was founded by Union veterans in Decatur, Illinois, in 1866.)

The war lasted from 1861 to 1865. Immediately following the war, many of the once prosperous sugar plantations collapsed as a result of the northern states reestablishing trade with their southern counterparts.

On May 11, 1865, Ka Nupepa Kuokoa (noting the death of Abraham Lincoln on April 15, 1865) noted “No words of ours can do justice to our grief. … All over the world the friends of liberty and justice, the poor, the oppressed everywhere, will weep for him, the Savior of his country, the Liberator of four million slaves, the People’s friend. … His name will forever be revered … The Nation still lives.”

In 1868, three years after the Civil War ended, a group of Union veterans established “Decoration Day” on May 30 as a time to remember and decorate the graves of service members with flowers, according to the Department of Veterans Affairs. By the end of the 19th century, Memorial Day ceremonies were being held on May 30 throughout the nation.

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April 11, 2020 by Peter T Young Leave a Comment

The Skate

On April 11, 1900, the Navy purchased the Holland VI, an internal combustion, gasoline-powered submarine from John P Holland for $160,000, after demonstration trials off Mount Vernon, Virginia. This marks the official birth date of the US Navy’s Submarine Force.

Even before the United States entered World War I, the submarine was recognized for its deadly role in warfare as German U-boats torpedoed and sank British shipping in the Atlantic.

Military submarines made their first significant impact in World War I; U-boats saw action in the First Battle of the Atlantic, and were responsible for the sinking of Lusitania, and this is often cited among the reasons for the entry of the United States into the war.

USS F-4, an F-class US submarine, was originally named Skate, making her the first ship of the United States Navy named for the skate (a type of ray.) She was renamed F-4 on November 17, 1911.

The F-4 and three other F-class submarines, the F-1, F-2 and F-3, along with their support vessel, the tender USS Alert, made up the First Submarine Group, Pacific Torpedo Flotilla, participating in the development operations of that group along the west coast, and from August 1914, in Hawaiian waters.

They were the first US submarines to be stationed to the new naval facility at Pearl Harbor.

While on a training mission, on Thursday, March 25, 1915, the US submarine Skate (F-4,) with a crew of twenty-one men, exploded and sank in fifty fathoms of water three-quarters of a mile off of Honolulu harbor.

There had been other submarine fatalities and accidents in world history, but this was the first submarine disaster in US naval history.

There were round-the-clock attempts to make contact with the submerged vessel. It was lodged three hundred feet below the surface, and divers could not reach it.

After dragging cables across the ocean floor in the area in attempts to snag and locate the submarine, it was caught late in the morning of the 26th.

The 142′ long submarine, with a diameter of about 15′, displaced 330 tons and could not be moved. Using a combination of hard hat divers, cables, chains and heavy scows with winches, the F-4 was incrementally raised and moved closer to shore over the next two months.

Frank William Crilley, a Chief Gunner’s Mate, made dives to over 300 feet during salvage operations on the sunken Submarine. On April 17, 1915, he rescued a fellow diver who had become entangled at a depth of 250 feet.

For his heroism on this occasion, Frank William Crilley was awarded the Medal of Honor in 1929.

Five months passed before the submarine could be hauled to the surface.

After so many months underwater, only four of the 21 dead aboard the submarine could be identified. The 17 remaining bodies were sealed in four caskets and shipped to Arlington National Cemetery, where they were buried in a common grave.

Their headstone, the size of an individual marker, was marked simply “17 Unknown U.S. Sailors Victims of the USS F-4 March 25 1915.”

The headstone was going to be replaced and destroyed, but it was retrieved and is now part of the Bowfin Museum in Pearl Harbor.

After the drydock examinations of F-4, the vessel was towed by the tugboat Navajo, using the six pontoons, to “an out of the way spot at Pearl Harbor” with a depth of fifteen to twenty feet that was “as nearly beached as possible” with “the pontoons keeping her clear of the harbor floor”.

Apparently the F-4 was left in this spot, to “rot in the mud bank” presumably near the head of Magazine Loch.

Periodically since, the Navy has announced plans to either destroy or examine the F-4 – the oldest surviving U.S. Navy submarine — but because of the deep silt in Pearl Harbor, the exact location is unknown.

In 1957, a more successful Skate was commissioned (the third US submarine named Skate.) It was the first production model of a nuclear-powered submarine to make a completely submerged trans-Atlantic crossing (1958) and the first to surface at the North Pole (1959).

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F class (SS-20 - 23) submarines and their tender are in DD#2 at Mare Island-(navsource-org)-21 January 1913

F-4 (SS-23) at right at anchor in Honolulu, HI. with F-1 (SS-20), center, and F-2 (SS-21) outboard, moored together-(navsource-org)-

Commemorative photo in memory of the F-4 (SS-23)-(navsource-org)

Commemorative group photo of the crew of the F-4 (SS-23)-(navsource-org)

Diver 'Jack' Adrez going down to search for the F-4 (SS-23), when he had made the record dive of 215 feet-(navsource-org)

Edited photo shows how it was moved from deep water into dry dock from record setting depth of 320 ft (salvage record that lasted 54 ys)-(navsource-org)

F-4 (SS-23), at Honolulu along with (from front to back)-F-2(SS-21), F-3(SS-22) and F-1 (SS-20)-(navsource-org)-1914

F-4 (SS-23), in drydock at Honolulu, note the large implosion hole in her port side-(navsource-org)-1 September 1915

Frank William Crilley receiving Medal of Honor

General plans prepared by the Fore River Shipbuilding Company, Quincy, Massachusetts-(navsource-org)-18 June 1910

Harbor scene as the pontoons used to raise the F-4 (SS-23) pass by-(navsource-org)

Naval Constructor Furer developed this method for recovery of the F-4 (SS-23) from the ocean floor off Honolulu with six large pontoons-(navsource-org)

Naval personnel examine the large implosion hole in F-4's (SS-23) port side, in drydock at Honolulu-(navsource-org)-1915

Salvage of F-4 (SS-23), April-August 1915. Bow salvage pontoons emerging from the depths, off Honolulu, Hawaii-(navsource-org)-circa 29 August 1915

Salvage of F-4 (SS-23). Valve manifold and hose leads to submerged pontoons, on board a salvage vessel off Honolulu-(navsource-org)-circa 29 August 1915

Tender Alert (AS-4) at Long Beach CA., F-4 (SS-23) is outboard-(navsource-org)-1914

The salvaged F-4 (SS-23) sits in a floating dry dock in Pearl Harbor in August 1915.

April 10, 2020 by Peter T Young 5 Comments

Tripler Army Medical Center

Some suggest the Tripler building got its pink color because the color and other design elements were borrowed from the Royal Hawaiian Hotel down in Waikīkī.

However, an engineering booklet related to its design notes, “the layout of the buildings was planned to create an easy, informal environment, avoid an institutional atmosphere and create the impression of a residential community.” (army-mil)

“Therefore, the hospital building, nurses’ quarters, fire house, chapel, bachelor officers’ quarters and mess, theater and enlisted men’s barracks will be of pink stucco finish.” (army-mil)

Let’s step back a bit.

In 1898, the Spanish American war was going on, including in the Pacific (primarily in the Philippines) – Hawaiʻi became involved. The US Army set up Camp McKinley in Kapiʻolani Park and soon realized an urgent need for a hospital in Hawaiʻi.

The Army’s first medical facility in Hawaiian Islands opened in 1898; it was a 30-bed hospital for soldiers and sailors in transit to and from Manila located in the Independence Park Pavilion (an old dance pavilion at the intersection of King Street and Sheridan.) Field medical tents at Fort McKinley added support to the hospital.

Casualties were streaming into Hawaiʻi from the war in the Philippines. The hospital on King Street rapidly grew into a 100-bed operation and was visited by more than 21,000 troops during the Philippine Insurrection following the war with Spain.

Later, in 1907, Department Hospital, a wooden post hospital facility consisting of a single hospital building and mess hall, was constructed at Fort Shafter.

Department Hospital was re-designated “Tripler Army Hospital” on June 26, 1920, named after Brigadier General Charles Stuart Tripler (1806-1866) – in honor of his contributions to Army medicine during the Civil War (he authored of one of the most widely-read manuals in Army medical history, the “Manual of the Medical Officer of the Army of the United States.”)

Then, the US Army Health Clinic, Schofield Barracks, a 500-bed hospital, was completed in 1929. It was activated as the Station Hospital, Schofield Barracks, Territory of Hawaiʻi.

The attack on Pearl Harbor led to the construction of Tripler Army Medical Center. At the outbreak of World War II, the hospital at Fort Shafter had a 450-bed capacity which, over the years, expanded to 1,000 beds through the addition of one-story barracks-type buildings.

Plans for a new Tripler hospital atop Moanalua ridge were drawn in 1942, construction was authorized in June 1944; the ground was broken August 23, 1944; actual construction began in 1945: and construction was completed in 1948.

When it was completed, Tripler was the tallest building in the Pacific region. (Three additional wings to the hospital were completed in 1985 with other additions/renovations over the years.)

Tripler was dedicated on September 10, 1948 and has been a visible and valuable landmark in Hawaiʻi. It is the largest military medical treatment facility in the entire Pacific Basin.

In 1961, Tripler US Army Hospital became known as US Army Tripler General Hospital, and finally in 1964, the name changed to Tripler Army Medical Center.

In a cooperative agreement with the Department of Veterans Affairs in 1992, the Spark M Matsunaga Medical Center was added at Tripler.

Located on a 375-acre site, Tripler Army Medical Center’s geographic area of responsibility spans more than 52-percent of the earth’s surface, from the western coasts of the Americas to the eastern shores of Africa (encompassing three million square miles of ocean and more than 750,000-square miles of land mass.)

Nearly 800,000-beneficiaries in the Pacific Basin are eligible to receive care at Tripler; this includes active-duty service members of all branches of service, their eligible families, military-eligible retirees and their families, veterans, and many residents of Pacific Islands.

In a typical day, more than 2,000-patients are seen in outpatient clinic visits, more than 1,500-prescriptions are filled, more than 30-surgical procedures are performed, and more than 30 patients are admitted. There are more than 200-births each month. (In August 1955, 427-babies are born at Tripler, setting a record for one-month deliveries.)

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Honolulu_Harbor-Diamond_Head-Monsarrat-Reg1910 (1897)-noting_Independence_Park

Independence Park Hospital, Honolulu, late 1898, looking southeast (US Army Museum of Hawaii)

Milk_being_delivered_t-_Tripler-(bobp31)-1935

Mountain_side_entrance_to_Tripler-(bobp31)

Tripler_under_construction_(army-mil)-1947

March 28, 2020 by Peter T Young Leave a Comment

Lualualei

Hiʻiaka (Pele’s sister) passed along the kula (plain) of Māʻili, and then turned to look at the uplands. She saw the dazzling light of the sun on the uplands of Lualualei and chanted:

Wela ka la e! Wela ka la e!
Ua wela i ka la ke kula o Lualualei.
Ua nau ia e ka la a ‘oka‘oka.

The sun is hot! The sun is hot!
The heat of the sun is on the plain of Lualualei.
The sun chews it up entirely.” (Maly)

Two meanings are suggested for the place name Lualualei; one meaning “the valley of the flexible wreaths,” a kaona, and the other meaning “beloved one spared.” (Sinoto)

A reference to Lualualei ahupuaʻa is found in Kamakau where he recounts Kākuhihewa’s birth and upbringing. Taken to ʻEwa and raised on “the sweetness of the poi of Kamaile; the soft mullet of Lualualei…,” it is evident that the Waiʻanae coast was beloved, especially for its coastal resources and quality of kalo. (Sinoto)

Further evidence that Lualualei must have been a favored locality for settlement is indicated by the remnant agricultural terraces in the inland areas and the fact that Kamehameha III kept the ahupuaʻa for himself. For that reason, the number of Land Commission Awards is limited to only six mauka lands. (Sinoto)

In 1921, Congress designated 2,000-acres at Lualualei for Hawaiian Homelands. Then, in the early-1930s, Territorial Governor Judd, through Executive Orders, granted all but 475-acres to the US Navy. (This removed a chunk of land from Hawaiian Homelands.)

The transfers under the EOs were later disputed and in 1998 an agreement was reached between the State and Feds where DHHL gained control of lands at Barber’s Point Naval Air Station (at Kalaeloa) and the Navy had continued use of the Lualualei property.

The agreement was signed in a ceremony at Washington Place with Interior Secretary Bruce Babbitt and Governor Ben Cayetano signing the memorandum of agreement, with Deputy Assistant Navy Secretary William Cassidy in attendance.

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.

Joint Base Pearl Harbor-Hickam, Lualualei Annex’s primary tenant is Naval Magazines whose mission is to receive, renovate, maintain, store and issue ammunition, weapons and technical materials for the Navy, Air Force, Army and other activities and units as designated by the Chief of Naval Operations.

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.

The Lualualei Naval Radio Transmitting Facility is used to transmit state-of-the-art radio signals for the navigation of Navy vessels throughout the Pacific. It is the primary Department of Defense long-range transmitter installation in Hawai‘i. The Navy and Coast Guard jointly use the facility. (hawaii-gov)

The very low frequency (VLF) transmitters communicate with submerged submarines in the Pacific and Arctic regions. VLF signal can travel to extreme depths enabling submarines to receive messages without surfacing and are used 24-hours-a-day, 7-days-a-week.

The most notable features related to this are two 1,500-foot cable-stayed steel truss mast antennas of the Navy’s communication systems at Lualualei (built in 1972) which are the state’s highest structure.

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