Oahu Military Sites

[DonC]

All, just got back form four days on Oahu. Had been looking forward to this trip for quite some time due to the military history there that is not my usual ETO focus. I'll try to avoid the usual touristy stuff to some extent. Enjoy!


Don


First up, a shot of Diamond Head (more to come) and some of the outside displays at Battery Randolph, one of the Coastal Artillery forts still surviving on Oahu. The Type 95 tank was captured on Makin Atoll in 1943.

[DonC]

My son and I hiked up to the top of Diamond Head, which was a major military installation from 1910 to the late 1940's as Fort Ruger, having mortar batteries inside the crater bowl and observation posts throughout the crater at one point. We hiked to the highest of the OP's overlooking the ocean. You can see some of the camouflage that was used in some of the pictures - looks like masonry painted to resemble the surrounding rock:

[DonC]

More...

[DonC]

I am not going to put a lot of the USS Arizona/USS Missouri photos up as they are generally done to death. Suffice to say even though the Arizona memorial was closed due to structural damage, it was still a moving experience.

[DonC]

Punchbowl Crater, the National Cemetery of the Pacific. We walked up to it form Waikiki, and it was worth every step: Ellison Onizuka was on the Space Shuttle Challenger when it was destroyed, and Franklin van Valkenburg was commander of the USS Arizona - his body was never recovered from her wreck.

[DonC]

Ernie Pyle's gravesite as well as Henry Oliver Hansen, one of the original Iwo Jima flag raisers. Admiral Isaac Kidd was commander of the battleship fleet at Pearl Harbor; also KIA on Arizona.


Can't post to the forum now, apparently - will get back to it when WAF improves...


Don

[Tom B]

Great photos, Thank you for posting them ! Tom

[DonC]

More from the Punchbowl:

[DonC]

Ford Island and the airfield. The hangars show original (opaque) and replaced (clear) glass panels as a result of Japanese strafing and bomb damage.

[DonC]

USS Bowfin and a Japanese Kaiten suicide sub:

[bobgee526]

Great pics! Looks like you & son had a great Hawaii vacation! Bob

[paulruss]

Excellent photos. Went there a couple years back, Army museum next to the Hale Koa also has some nice displays

[DonC]

Some fine modelling at the Arizona Memorial:

[DonC]

Inside Battery Randolph, the US Army Museum of the Pacific. Substantial displays on the 442nd RCT and 100th Infantry Regiment of Japanese-Americans, many of whom were from Hawaii. Unfortunately, Battery Randolph's original 14 inch naval cannon on disappearing mounts were scrapped in the late 1940's - these "small" seven-inch guns were in their place:

[DonC]

We rented a car the last day and drove all over Oahu. Here's the site of the radar station that actually detected the Japanese aircraft but was told it was an expected flight of B-17's from California as well as a modern radar and communications facility nearby: