Dwight D Eisenhower | Images of Old Hawaiʻi

What once began as an idea by Hilo Board of Trade members for a training ground for the National Guard and an Army “vacation and health recruiting station” has become one of Hawaii’s most unique resorts for the military. (KMC)

Let’s look back.

In 1898, Lorrin Thurston owner of Volcano House and head of the Hawai‘i Promotion Committee (forerunner to the Hawai‘i Visitors and Convention Bureau) worked closely with the Inter-Island Steam Navigation Company to create an excursion business from Honolulu to his hotel at Kīlauea.

Although he sold his interest in Volcano House to hotelier George Lycurgus (1858–1960) in 1904, Thurston continued to promote Kīlauea and Hawai‘i’s other natural sites.

He helped with the establishment of the Hawaiʻi National Park, an entity to encompass both Kīlauea and Haleakalā. Hawai‘i’s new National Park, established August 1, 1916, was the thirteenth in the new system and the first in a US territory. (Chapman)

Besides its volcanic interest, the park is noted for its fine examples of tropical vegetation (some forest species being extremely rare;) its native birdlife which is unique in the entire world; its Polynesian archaeology and history; and its character as an international park. (Edward G Wingate, Superintendent, 1939)

The history of the Park generally mirrors the history of Kīlauea Military Camp (KMC.)

Interest in Kīlauea as a military training and rest area began in September 1911, when Companies A and F, Twentieth Infantry, arrived. They were followed two years later by one hundred men from Company D, First Infantry, who camped near the Volcano House. (Nakamura)

Thurston helped negotiate a lease for about 50-acres of land from Bishop Estate; trustees held the lease (they included Ex officio the Commander of the Army Department of Hawaii; Ex officio the Commanding General of the National Guard of Hawaii; Lieut Col John T. Moir, National Guard, Island of Hawaiʻi; GH Vicars of Hilo and LA Thurston of Honolulu and Hilo.)

In the early years, to get there, off-island folks took steamer ships to either Hilo or Punaluʻu (from Hilo they caught a train to Glenwood and walked/rode horses to Volcano; one mile west of the Volcano House; a five-mile railroad took passengers to Pahala and then coaches hauled the visitors to the volcano from the Kaʻū side.) Later, the roads opened.

“Tours of all the islands are arranged. Connected with the Inter-Island Steam Navigation Company is the world-famous Volcano House overlooking the everlasting house of fire, as the crater of Halemaʻumaʻu is justly named. “

“A night’s ride from Honolulu and an hour by automobile and you are at the Volcano House in the Hawaii National Park on the Island of Hawaiʻi, the only truly historic caravansary of the Hawaiian Islands.” (The Mid-Pacific, December 1933)

The Camp is located at an elevation of 4,000-feet, directly on the belt road around the island (the road was later relocated mauka of the Camp.)

KMC greeted its first group of US Army Soldiers from Company A, 2nd Infantry, November 6, 1916. Three buildings for dining and recreation were still unfinished, so the visiting Soldiers were expected to provide their own sleeping tents.

A couple weeks later, November 17, KMC was officially opened, and many Soldiers came to this unique site through 1917.

Encouraged by local boosters, including John Giles and Lorrin Thurston, KMC became a mainstay of the volcano park for the next three decades. (Chapman)

From the latter part of 1916 into early-1917, the newly designated Kīlauea Military Camp witnessed a steady stream of military units.

Then, WWI broke out and virtually all of the troops in Hawai‘i prior to 1917 had transferred to the continental US, many of them then moving on in succeeding months to the trenches of France and Belgium. (Chapman)

To keep the place going, school summer programs and Boy Scouts stayed at the camp. Following WWI, the trustees transferred their KSBE lease to the Park Service. By late-1921, soldiers on recreation leave started to return to the Camp and the facilities started to expand.

The last major addition to KMC was the provision of an airfield; in 1924, the Army built a landing strip just south of Halemaʻumaʻu (known as Sand Spit Horst.)

However, within a few months an explosive eruption at Halemaʻumaʻu threw boulders onto the site. (Another runway was built closer to the Camp – it was named Boles Field in honor of the Park’s first Superintendent, Thomas R Boles.)

As part of the original agreement, the Navy built its own rest and recreation camp on a 14-acre parcel adjacent to KMC in 1926. The Navy camp was transferred to KMC’s control in 1935, however, due to a slow resolution of the lease agreement between the Park Service and the Navy. (KMC)

In 1941 it became an important staging ground for the war. From March to October 1942, KMC became the headquarters for the Twenty-seventh Division of the Army. The troops used the buildings at KMC for quarters and the grounds for training.

The R&R Camp also became an internment camp. The first detainees arrived in the afternoon of December 7, 1941. Most did not stay at KMC for long, however; within a few months all were transferred to Sand Island on Oʻahu. (Nakamura)

In June 1942 the Battle of Midway changed the tide of the war, and KMC was again re-activated as a rest and recreation camp, but it also continued to support tactical training of troops. In October 1943, the decision was made to return the Camp to a fully recreational facility. (Nakamura)

In the postwar period, General Dwight D. Eisenhower stayed for a few days at KMC in 1946. In 1949, the Army opened KMC to members of all branches of the military. (Chapman)

On, July 1, 1961, Hawaiʻi National Park’s units were separated and re-designated as Haleakalā National Park and Hawaiʻi Volcanoes National Park. The relationship between the military and Park Service was not always smooth.

Today, Kīlauea Military Camp is open to all active and retired armed forces, Reserve/National Guard, dependents, other uniformed services, and current and retired Department of Defense civilians, including Coast Guard civilians and sponsored guests.

On July 7, 1937, Japan invaded China to initiate the war in the Pacific; while the German invasion of Poland on September 1, 1939 unleashed the European war.

As to Hawaiʻi, War Department message of November 27, 1941 read as follows: “Negotiations have come to a standstill at this time. No diplomatic breaking of relations and we will let them make the first overt act. You will take such precautions as you deem necessary to carry out the Rainbow plan [a war plan]. Do not excite the civilian population.” (Proceedings of Army Pearl Harbor Board)

Oʻahu held a position of the first importance in the military structure of the US before and during WWII. During the prewar years, Oʻahu and the Panama Canal Zone were the two great outposts of continental defense. (army-mil)

A key goal in the Pacific was to hold Oʻahu as a main outlying naval base and to protect shipping in the waters around the Hawaiian Islands.

In the year before the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor, American strategists developed a strategy that focused on “Germany first.” In the end, that was what occurred with the American war effort. Then, Japan attacked America at Pearl Harbor on December 7, 1941, and the US entered the war.

But for much of 1942 and well into 1943, the US deployed substantially greater forces to the Pacific than to Europe. This was in response both to political pressure from the American people and the rapidly deteriorating situation in the Pacific over the first six months of the war.

On June 6, 1944, more than 160,000-Allied troops landed along a 50-mile stretch of heavily-fortified French coastline, to fight Nazi Germany on the beaches of Normandy, France.

General Dwight D Eisenhower called the operation a crusade in which “we will accept nothing less than full victory.” More than 5,000-ships and 13,000-aircraft supported the D-Day invasion, and by day’s end, the Allies gained a foot-hold in Continental Europe.

The final battles of the European Theater of WWII, as well as the German surrender to the Western Allies and the Soviet Union, took place in late-April and early-May 1945.

On August 6 and 9, 1945, atomic bombs were dropped on Hiroshima and Nagasaki, Japan. On September 2, 1945, the Japanese signed the Instrument of Surrender on the deck of USS Missouri in Tokyo Bay.

During World War II, Dwight David “Ike” Eisenhower (October 14, 1890 – March 28, 1969) served as Supreme Commander of the Allied Expeditionary Force in Europe and achieved the rare five-star rank of General of the Army. Eisenhower oversaw the invasions of North Africa and Sicily before supervising the invasions of France and Germany.

Following the war, Eisenhower served as Army Chief of Staff; in the spring of 1946 he toured military facilities in the Pacific and elsewhere, including Hawai‘i.

The Commander at Kilauea Military Camp (KMC), who at the time was working on post-war closing up and returning schools, warehouses, land, and even the Saddle Road which had been built by the military to the community (as well as providing military help in cleaning up following the April 1946 tsunami), got word that Eisenhower was coming for a five-day visit, for rest, after a tour of the Pacific nations.

Eisenhower was looking for “quiet time, no protocol, no attention.”

At the time, KMC “was ceasing to be only for war-weary soldiers for rest, relaxation and recreation. The camp still had a contingent of 10 officers and 148 enlisted men; three Red Cross hostesses, a Librarian and a good jazz band.”

“There were 12 good riding horses, 4 pack mules for trips to the summit of Mauna Loa, a number of bicycles, a tennis court, a bowling alley, a fine library, and a first-class bakery in a building by itself. Never-the-less KMC personnel got to work sprucing up the place, the General was coming.”

Eisenhower stayed in Cabin 44; it was called Hale-o-Nalii (house of the chief – it served as quarters for general’s at KMC). It was later renamed Eisenhower House, due to the fact that ~that~ general slept there.

On one night, Eisenhower “was feeling very rested and would enjoy some entertainment and asked for suggestions.” He was offered, “‘How about a party with cocktails, dinner and a Hawaiian troop of dancers and musicians?’”

“The idea was accepted, but that meant we had only one day to prepare for everything.” (Pauline Wollaston, the KMC Commander’s wife, Hawaii Tribune-Herald, Dec 14, 1986)

“All went well. The general ordered several highballs, the dinner was superb, and he loved the entertainment. While this was going on I happened to glance at one of his aides – a gray-haired, battle-worn general. Tears were streaming down his face.”

“I asked him what was the matter, could I do something for him. He answered, ‘Oh, you all already have! When I see this great man enjoying himself, I can’t control my emotions.’”

“Gen. Eisenhower left the next morning; and all along the roadway, from KMC to the airport, there were children and adults waving and cheering.” (Pauline Wollaston, Hawaii Tribune Herald, Dec 14, 1986)

Eisenhower also served as president of Columbia University (1948–1953) and as the first Supreme Commander of NATO (1951–1952). He was elected the 34th President of the United States (January 20, 1953 – January 20, 1961). (Lots of information here from KMC, Hawaii Tribune-Herald, army-mil and GlobalSecurity.)