Images of Old Hawaiʻi

by Peter T Young 2 Comments

Camp Very

“The Hawaiian Islands are to be created into a military department headquarters as soon as the new plans of the war department are carried into effect for the concentration of troops in the city of Honolulu.”

“(T)he District of Hawaiʻi is to have twelve thousand men stationed on the Island of Oʻahu and with a third of that number of troops here Hawaiʻi would have a right to the designation of a department headquarters.”  (Hawaiian Gazette, May 23, 1911)

After Hawaiʻi became a territory of the United States, the first Naval Station in the islands was established in 1899 at Honolulu Harbor, as there were no facilities and no navigable channel at Pearl Harbor.

The property was transferred to the US by the Republic of Hawaiʻi under the joint resolution of annexation and, to protect the mouth of Honolulu Harbor, the US Army filled a submerged coral reef on the ‘Ewa side of Kaʻākaukukui for a gun emplacement.

The first permanent Marines arrived at Honolulu on board the Army transport Sheridan on February 9, 1904. For four years, the Marines lived in an empty coal shed at the Honolulu Naval Station. (PACNAVFACENGCOM)

In January 1905, President Teddy Roosevelt instructed Secretary of War William H Taft to convene the National Coast Defense Board (Taft Board) “to consider and report upon the coast defenses of the United States and the insular possessions (including Hawai‘i.)”

In 1906 the Taft Board recommended a system of Coast Artillery batteries to protect Pearl Harbor and Honolulu.  Between 1909-1921, the Hawaiian Coast Artillery Command had its headquarters at Fort Ruger and defenses included artillery regiments stationed at Fort Armstrong, Fort Barrette, Fort DeRussy, Diamond Head, Fort Kamehameha, Kuwa‘aohe Military Reservation (Fort Hase – later known as Marine Corps Base Hawaiʻi) and Fort Weaver.

Fort Armstrong, built in 1907, was named for Brigadier General Samuel C Armstrong.  His father, Reverend Richard Armstrong (1805-1860,) had arrived in Hawaiʻi in 1832 and later replaced Hiram Bingham as pastor at Kawaiahaʻo Church (1840-1843.) In 1848, Armstrong (the father) left the mission and became Hawaiʻi’s minister of public education.

From 1908 until about 1913, the Marines lived in tents at nearby Camp Very (named in honor of Captain Samuel W Very, Commandant of the Naval Station) “a site which was later known as Fort Armstrong”.  (PACNAVFACENGCOM)

The complement of Marines in Hawaiʻi comprised some 2,000-men who are distributed between Honolulu and Pearl Harbor.

Training facilities at Camp Very included a small-arms practice range consisting of 6 targets with the ranges from 200 to 500-yards, and at the Army ranges.  (Navy Department, 1913)

“The sea-soldiers are well taken care of, they have their own rending and billiard rooms and at the post exchange, formerly called the canteen, they can buy almost anything the heart of man could wish.”  (Evening Bulletin, May 6, 1911)

The original garrison at Fort Armstrong was the 1st Coast Artillery Company, followed by the 104th Mine Co. operating the harbor mines. Also stationed there was the 185th Coast Artillery Company.

In 1914, temporary barracks were built – wooden structures that were continually occupied since January, 1914.  Buildings are constructed of 1 x 12 rough boards, with tar-paper roofs.

The facility later had a barracks, 4 officers’ quarters, 3 noncommissioned officers’ quarters, administration building and post exchange, guardhouse, fire apparatus house, quartermaster storehouse, gymnasium and related infrastructure; the standard strength was 109 men.

Battery Tiernon at Fort Armstrong was armed with two pedestal mounted 3-inch Guns from 1911 to 1943.

The Army mission in Hawaiʻi was defined in 1920 as “the defense of Pearl Harbor Naval Base against damage from naval or aerial bombardment or by enemy sympathizers and attack by enemy expeditionary force or forces, supported or unsupported by an enemy fleet or fleets.”

Fort Armstrong continued under the Coast Artillery program until September 15, 1922.  It was reserved for military purposes by a series of Executive Orders in 1930 and was described as the Fort Armstrong Military Reservation.

The present seawall was constructed 500-feet out from the original shoreline in 1948, and the area was backfilled. The Army Corps of Engineers took over the post in 1949. Kakaʻako Park was created over the landfill area.

On December 13, 1951, because the site was no longer needed by the military and was needed by the Territory of Hawaiʻi for harbor improvements, President Truman transferred the land to the Territory of Hawaiʻi.

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Camp Very-Post Card

by Peter T Young 1 Comment

Fire Power … to Fired Power

Camp Malakole (originally called Honouliuli Military reservation) was an anti-aircraft and anti-tank artillery training facility … later, Kalaeloa’s Chevron fuel refinery took over the site (they later sold); just down the road is HECO’s oil-burning 651-Megawatt Kahe Power Plant.

Let’s look back.

On March 22, 1939, the North Shore’s Kawailoa military firing point was relocated to Honouliuli Military Reservation, on over 1,700-acres situated between Barbers Point and Nanakuli, Oʻahu; it then served as a Hawaiian Separate Coast Artillery Brigade.

Firing positions were prepared for six batteries along the shoreline and plans were prepared to add an additional three positions, allowing three battalions to conduct firing practice at the same time.

The location provided adequate space to exercise the searchlight and sound locator units to work with the guns in tracking targets that were towed off-shore by towing aircraft consisting mostly old bi-planes.  (Bennett)

The installation initially consisted of a tent camp on the southern half of the tract; officers were quartered on the east side with their mess, showers, and latrines. The post kitchen and bakery tents were located across the roadway from the officer’s encampment.

Closer to the beach were the ammunition storage tents. The camp’s primary observation station was located to the rear of the firing line atop a steel-frame tower.

The 251st Coast Artillery (AA,) California National Guard, was sent to Hawaiʻi in November 1940 and stationed at Honouliuli Military Reservation.  (army-mil) The facility’s peacetime strength was 1,200-men and the wartime strength was 1,800-men.

“(A)fter we’d been there for about a week or so, we had a tremendous rainstorm and the water got to be about two foot high and just washed us all out. And we had to move everything up on the higher ground because our foot lockers and our shoes, and everything else was pouring right down to the sea”.  (Anthony Iantorno)

As a result of the flooding, a large sand berm was built between the firing line and the beach that ran parallel to the beach.

With the 251st arrival came the plan to build more permanent facilities.  The regiment lived under canvas pending completion of their new quarters, which they were tasked to build under the supervision of engineers from Schofield Barracks.

The regiment spent every morning on the firing line, with the evenings reserved for clearing away the kiawe and building the camp improvements.  (Sebby)

Upon completion in early 1941, the camp consisted of temporary theater of operations-type structures.  There were 48 barracks structures (90 feet by 24 feet,) 12 mess halls, 9 magazines and storehouses, 5 officers’ quarters, 7 showers (equipped with only cold water) and latrines.

Other improvements included a dispensary, officers’ mess, headquarters building, post office, regimental day room, movie theater, laundry, motor repair shop, gasoline station, fire house, guard house, photo laboratory, quartermaster and engineers’ buildings. The majority of the buildings were built on piers with the footings buried in the coral ground.

With the improvements, on January 9, 1941, the facility’s name was changed to Camp Malakole.  (Bennett)  It was part of the growing presence in the Islands.

Back in 1941, the Hawaiian Department was the Army’s largest overseas department.  For more than three decades the War Department had constructed elaborate coastal defenses on Oahu.  The Hawaiian Department’s two main tasks were to protect the Pacific Fleet from sabotage and defeat any invasion.

The previous 18 months had seen the arrival of the Pacific Fleet, war scares, the start of selective service, numerous training exercises, the mobilization of the National Guard, and the doubling of the department’s strength to 43,000 soldiers (including Air Corps.)  (army-mil)

Besides carrying out extensive training (firing exercises, field maneuvers and gas attack drills,) several members of Camp Malakole participated in sports activities and entered the Hawaiian Department track meet on May 29, 1941, winning several first places and some second and third places.

Then, like other military installations in the Islands, things changed with the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor on December 7, 1941.

Sgt Henry C Blackwell, Cpl Clyde C Brown and Sgt Warren D Rasmussen were the first American casualties of the Pearl Harbor attack; they were stationed at Camp Malakole, F Battery.  (Kelley)

Licensed pilots, that morning, they had gone on pass to Rodgers Airport (now Honolulu International Airport) and rented a couple of piper cubs to practice flying over the water.  The Cubs took off to the northeast, then flew parallel to Waikīkī Beach toward Diamond Head before reversing direction and heading west.  (Harding)

They were about two miles offshore at an altitude of between 500 and 800 feet, headed toward Camp Malakole.  (Harding) They were out over the water just as the Japanese attacked. They were shot down.  (Kelley)  Guards at Camp Malakole shot down a strafing Japanese plane at about 8:05 am with small arms fire.

Newly arrived coast artillery units on Oahu in 1942 were quartered at the camp during the early months of the war.  Later in the war, the Hawaiian Antiaircraft Artillery Command (HAAC) took over operation of the camp, which was used completely as the principal facility for training antiaircraft units on Oʻahu during the war.

Camp Malakole served as a base camp for anti-aircraft and anti-tank weapons training, and staging and temporary lodging for troops preparing for deployment to the Pacific during the height of World War II. During its years of service, 43,350 troops were billeted to Camp Malakole for staging and training purposes.  (Dye)

Today, the fuel refining facility sites on the former Camp Malakole grounds.  A reminder of the prior use is a steel turreted machine gun pillbox; it’s still there (in the lawn area on Malakole Street at the entrance to the refinery facility.)

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by Peter T Young Leave a Comment

SPAM

In 1926, Geo. A. Hormel & Co. developed the world’s first canned ham. The transfer of leadership of Hormel from father to son Jay C. Hormel brought new products, including Dinty Moore beef stew, Hormel chili and in 1937 a new canned luncheon meat.

The goal of the new luncheon meat product was to produce an affordable canned meat item that was convenient enough to enjoy every day.

A contest was held in 1937 to give the promising new product a name. New York actor, Ken Daigneau, the brother of then Hormel Food vice president, entered with the name “SPAM.” Speculation indicates the name was a way to shorten “SPiced hAM.”

Daigneau won $100 for the contest and, his name is mostly unknown, he went down in the history books as the Bestower of Appellations of one of the most iconic pork product in the world. (HormelFoods)

First introduced on July 5, 1937, SPAM is made with Pork with Ham, Salt, Water, Potato Starch, Sugar and Sodium Nitrite. First, the pork and ham are pre-ground.

Then, salt, sugar and the rest of the ingredients are added and mixed, to reach the desired temperature. From there, the mixture is moved over to the canning line, where it’s filled into the familiar metal cans, 12 ounces at a time.

Once filled, cans are conveyed to a closing machine where lids are applied through vacuum-sealing. Next, the cans are cooked and cooled for about three hours. At this point they’re ready for labels and then they are off to be cased, where they await distribution. (SPAM)

With the passage of the Lend-Lease Act of 1941 (this was a pre-US entry into WWII act that set up a system that allowed the US to lend or lease war supplies to any nation deemed ‘vital to the defense of the United States’) the US gave needed supplies to Great Britain, while remaining ‘officially’ neutral.  (HormelFoods & National Archives)

Because of its shelf-stable status (and the fact that it wasn’t rationed like beef), Hormel Foods began shipping the stuff abroad during World War II.

By 1941, Minnesota-based Hormel Foods sent more than 100 million pounds of SPAM to allied troops; by 1944, more than 90% of the canned foods were shipped for government use. (HormelFoods)

The easy-to-pack product became a staple food for GI’s during the war. SPAM sales skyrocketed; by 1959 Hormel had produced their one-billionth can of SPAM. (TasteOfHome)

If you live in a part of the world where US troops were stationed during WWII, you’re probably pretty familiar with SPAM. The product is most popular in these areas, with the most extreme example being Hawai‘i.

Folks in the Islands completely adopted the ham-in-a-can product and consume nearly 7-million cans of SPAM products each year. You’ll find fried eggs and rice with spam for breakfast, SPAM fried wontons as a snack, and sushi-inspired SPAM musubi rolls at nearly every home and restaurant. You’ll even see SPAM on McDonald’s breakfast menu! (HormelFoods)

The product has sold more than nine billion tins since it was introduced on July 5, 1937. More SPAM is consumed per person in Hawai‘i than in any other state in the United States – almost seven million cans of SPAM are eaten every year in Hawai‘i.

SPAM is also a popular ingredient in various Asian cuisines, particularly Korean.  South Koreans consume more SPAM than the residents of any other country besides the United States.

Despite having only a sixth of the population of the US, South Koreans consume half as much SPAM each year.  The popular Korean dish ‘budae jjigae’ — which translates to ‘Army stew’ or ‘Army base stew’ — developed after the Korean War, when an economic downturn meant that meat was scarce and expensive.

A US Army base in the South Korean city of Uijeongbu had a surplus of various processed food, including SPAM — which ‘was totally new to Koreans’.

As of 2023, SPAM is available in 11 varieties: SPAM Classic, SPAM Lite, SPAM 25% Less Sodium, SPAM Maple Flavored, SPAM with Real HORMEL Bacon, SPAM Oven Roasted Turkey, SPAM Hickory Smoke Flavored, SPAM Hot and Spicy, SPAM Jalapeño, SPAM Teriyaki and SPAM with Tocino Flavoring. (Rousselle)

Another preparation is SPAM Musubi.  We can thank Barbara Funamura (from Kauai) for that.  Barbara graduated from Colorado State University with a degree in food sciences and nutrition and went on to Ames, Iowa for post-graduate study in institutional management.

“Her first job was as an extension agent at the University of Hawaii. She traveled all over, and when she came home, she was an extension agent until the kids came.”

When she started working after raising the kids, she became the first food supervisor for the Meals on Wheels program before joining Big Save as a supervisor for the Kauai Kitchens.

Barbara Funamura was the originator of the SPAM musubi – SPAM and rice are combined in a musubi (rice ball) wrapped in nori (sheets of dried seaweed.)

“The first one was triangular” her husband said – to differentiate it from the musuburrito, a similar rice-and-chorizo musubi.

Eventually the SPAM musubi was made using a box, morphing it into its now familiar shape.  “Barbara saw it and recognized that it was the way to go,” her husband said.

“The sushi would come out all uniform, and it just happens that it fits two slices of SPAM side by side.”  (The Garden Island and Kauai Hongwanji.

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by Peter T Young Leave a Comment

Ship to Shore

The USS Lexington (CV-2) and sister-ship USS Saratoga (CV-3) were originally designed as battle cruisers.  During construction, the cruiser hull was fitted with a flight deck.  Instead of the typical 16-inch cruiser guns, they each received four twin turret 8-inch guns and other armament.

The Lexington, the first of the Lexington class carriers, launched December 14, 1925, was the US Navy’s first fleet aircraft carrier.  Lexington later served as flagship out of Pearl Harbor on January 11, 1942.  (Alex)

The Lexington-class carriers had one major design flaw – the inclusion of their four twin 8-inch/55 caliber gun mounts, which could only be fired in starboard broadsides.

On January 17, 1942, Rear Adm. William S. Pye, acting commander in chief Pacific Fleet, asked if the Hawaiian Department, US Army, was interested in 8-inch naval mounts and guns that might be removed from navy vessels. The Hawaiian Department immediately replied in the affirmative.  (Bennett)

Lexington and Saratoga underwent armament refitting.  Their original 8-inch guns were replaced with the correct weapon against the carrier’s true foe: enemy carrier aircraft.

In early-1942, these 8-inch guns and turret mountings were removed from Lexington and Saratoga and reused as coastal artillery on the island of Oʻahu.

When selecting locations for the naval turret (NT) batteries, commanders desired to extend fields of fire, chiefly for those areas in which current coverage was light, while placing the turrets far enough inland to function as second lines of defense and to reduce the difficulty of protecting them against small raiding parties.

Four battery sites were picked; on the North Shore were Battery Brodie (later renamed Battery George W Ricker) (775-foot elevation in Waialua;) Battery Opaeula (later renamed Battery Carroll G Riggs) (1,120-foot elevation above the Waialua Agriculture Company’s sugarcane fields near Haleiwa.)

On the South Shore were Battery Salt Lake (later renamed Battery Louis R Burgess) on Damon Estate land at Āliapaʻakai (Salt Lake) (170-190 foot elevation) and Battery Wilridge (later renamed Battery Lewis S Kirkpatrick) on Wiliwilinui Ridge (1,200-foot elevation mauka of Waiʻalae.)

Each 8-inch naval turret (NT) mount included a pair of guns mounted in one slide, both guns elevating and traversing as one unit.  The 8-inch gun-mount housings were lightly armored, only providing shelter from the weather and possibly flying splinters.

All 8-inch NT mounts were designed for 360° fire without interfering with each other. The batteries had a high rate of fire (12-16 rounds per battery per minute.)  Each gun could send a projectile over 18-miles.

The turrets and battery commanders’ stations were the major above-ground features.   All the batteries were constructed of reinforced concrete by cut and cover, with projectile and powder magazines, gas-proof plotting rooms, and bombproof generator rooms 15 to 40-feet below the surface.

Target data was plotted in 24 by 30-foot bombproof and gas-proof plotting rooms.  The rooms were equipped with a vertical escape shaft at one end. Metal staple ladders attached to the wall led to small housings on the roofs with steel-plate doors.

Each magazine contained a room for powder and a room for projectiles (holding 250 of each.)  An additional 600 projectiles were to be stored in racks in the open. Powder and projectiles were elevated to the turret mounts by the elevating mechanisms.

All four battery sites were extensively camouflaged, including dummy gun positions to make up for the lack of antiaircraft defenses.

Target practices were usually carried out once a week, firing one round from each gun at a hypothetical target off shore. Homes near the batteries occasionally suffered broken window glass during firing practices.

The North Shore batteries, Brodie and Opaeula, covered the waters to the north, east and west, and as far south as the Pearl Harbor entrance.  The South Shore batteries, Salt Lake and Wiliwilinui Ridge, covered the waters to the south, southeast and southwest, including the approaches to Honolulu and Pearl Harbors, and could also fire north.

This marked the first time NT mounts had been emplaced on shore as seacoast artillery for the US; it created an engineering and design challenge for the shore-based folks.   Upon completion, however, the batteries proved very successful, being rated four of the best seacoast batteries.  (Lots of information here from Bennett.)

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by Peter T Young Leave a Comment

Flag Day

Flag Day is celebrated on June 14.

(It also marks the birthday of the US Army; Congress authorized “the American Continental Army” on June 14, 1775.)

Flag Day commemorates the date in 1777 when the Second Continental Congress approved a resolution to adopt a design for its first national flag –

“Resolved, that the flag of the United States be thirteen stripes, alternate red and white, that the union be thirteen stars, white in a blue field, representing a new constellation.”

Today, the American flag consists of thirteen equal horizontal stripes of red (top and bottom) alternating with white, with a blue rectangle in the canton (referred to specifically as the “union”) bearing fifty small, white, five-pointed stars arranged in nine offset horizontal rows of six stars (top and bottom) alternating with rows of five stars.

The 50-stars on the flag represent the 50-states and the 13-stripes represent the thirteen British colonies that rebelled against the British monarchy and became the first states in the Union.

The first flags were used to assist military coordination on battlefields.  National flags are patriotic symbols with varied wide-ranging interpretations, often including strong military associations due to their original and ongoing military uses.

Bernard J. Cigrand is considered by many to be the “Father” of Flag Day as we know it today. Working as a school teacher in Waubeka, Wisconsin, Cigrand arranged for his pupils at Stony Hill School to celebrate the American flag’s ‘birthday’ on June 14, 1885.

Shortly after this celebration, Cigrand moved to Chicago, Illinois, to attend dental school. His dedication to observing the birthday of the flag did not stop with his move.

In June 1886, he publicly proposed an annual observance of the flag birthday in an article entitled “The Fourteenth of June,” published in a Chicago newspaper. His efforts remained steadfast in the years to come. (Postal Museum)

From the late 1880s on, Dr. Cigrand spoke around the country promoting the annual observance of a flag day on June 14, the day in 1777 that the Continental Congress adopted the Stars and Stripes. (University of Illinois at Chicago College of Dentistry)

In 1888 William T. Kerr of Pennsylvania founded the American Flag Day Association of Western Pennsylvania, an organization to which he dedicated his life.

(A lesser-known claim is that of George Morris of Connecticut, who is said to have organized the first formal celebration of the day in Hartford in 1861.)

In 1916 Pres. Woodrow Wilson proclaimed June 14 as the official date for Flag Day, and in 1949 the US Congress permanently established the date as National Flag Day. (Britannica)

Flag Day is not an official federal holiday, though on June 14, 1937, Pennsylvania became the first (and only) US state to celebrate Flag Day as a state holiday.

According to the American National Standards Institute (ANSI), “Our national standard has undergone more design transitions than any other flag in the world.”

4 U.S. Code § 8 – Respect for flag notes (from Cornell Law School): No disrespect should be shown to the flag of the United States of America; the flag should not be dipped to any person or thing.

  • The flag should never be displayed with the union down, except as a signal of dire distress in instances of extreme danger to life or property.
  • The flag should never touch anything beneath it, such as the ground, the floor, water, or merchandise.
  • The flag should never be carried flat or horizontally, but always aloft and free.
  • The flag should never be used as wearing apparel, bedding, or drapery.
  • The flag should never be fastened, displayed, used, or stored in such a manner as to permit it to be easily torn, soiled, or damaged in any way.
  • The flag should never be used as a covering for a ceiling.
  • The flag should never have placed upon it, nor on any part of it, nor attached to it any mark, insignia, letter, word, figure, design, picture, or drawing of any nature.
  • The flag should never be used as a receptacle for receiving, holding, carrying, or delivering anything.
  • The flag should never be used for advertising purposes in any manner whatsoever.
  • No part of the flag should ever be used as a costume or athletic uniform. However, a flag patch may be affixed to the uniform of military personnel, firemen, policemen, and members of patriotic organizations.
  • The flag represents a living country and is itself considered a living thing. Therefore, the lapel flag pin being a replica, should be worn on the left lapel near the heart.
  • The flag, when it is in such condition that it is no longer a fitting emblem for display, should be destroyed in a dignified way, preferably by burning.

The original Pledge of Allegiance was written by Francis Bellamy (1855 – 1931), a Baptist minister, in August 1892. The Pledge was published in the September 8th issue of The Youth’s Companion, the leading family magazine and the Reader’s Digest of its day.

In 1892, Francis Bellamy was also a chairman of a committee of state superintendents of education in the National Education Association. As its chairman, he prepared the program for the public schools’ quadricentennial celebration for Columbus Day in 1892. He structured this public school program around a flag raising ceremony and a flag salute – his Pledge of Allegiance. (WA Secretary of State)

Bellamy’s first recited Pledge of Allegiance was:  “I pledge allegiance to my Flag and to the Republic for which it stands one Nation indivisible, with Liberty and Justice for all.”

“One Nation indivisible” referred to the outcome of the Civil War, and “Liberty and Justice for all” expressed the ideals of the Declaration of Independence.

“The flag of the United States” replaced the words “my Flag” in 1923 because some foreign-born people might have in mind the flag of the country of their birth instead of the United States flag. A year later, “of America” was added after “United States.”

No form of the Pledge received official recognition by Congress until June 22, 1942, when the Pledge was formally included in the US Flag Code. The official name of The Pledge of Allegiance was adopted in 1945.

The last change in language came on Flag Day 1954, when Congress passed a law, which added the words “under God” after “one nation.” (US District Court, Southern District of WV)

I pledge Allegiance to the flag
of the United States of America
and to the Republic for which it stands,
one nation under God, indivisible,
with Liberty and Justice for all.

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