Darice Suan of Honolulu is intrigued by a pair of coral "gateposts" on the mauka side of Farrington Highway in Nanakuli, across from Nanaikapono Elementary. The piles of coral make a pair of tall, pyramidal plinths, each with a section of pipe on top. Welcome to
Camp Andrews
Sometimes, a cigar is just a cigar. The "gateposts" are exactly that. They framed the entrance to an Army encampment called Camp Andrews during World War II. The pipes braced another horizontal pipe that held up the entrance sign.
There was nothing fancy about Camp Andrews. Thousands of soldiers could eat and sleep and train there, and then be shipped off to war.
Science-fiction author Isaac Asimov was a camp tenant when he was drafted, and he recounts in his autobiography that he was bored out of his skull at the then-remote location.
Roy Bodnar of Honolulu moved to Nanakuli in 1949, long after the Army had vacated. "The buildings were still there, and they were just two-by-four framings with canec walls and screens. You could just poke your hand right through. What the Army couldn't sell, they gave away," he said.
Bodnar's church acquired 10 of the buildings, and they were all moved in a weekend, he recalls. Nanaikapono Elementary used the ramshackle barracks as classrooms in the late '40s -- until they fell down.
In 1980, the state set aside a third of the 30-acre site for a "Nanakuli Cultural Plaza," which hasn't happened yet. In the meantime, the kiawe-covered area is still called Camp Andrews by Nanakuli residents, although many don't know why.
By Burl Burlingame, Star-Bulletin.