Hawaii civilians have greater access to Barbers Point, now Kalaeloa, in the wake of the military base closure. Here's a look at historical and recreational points of interest.

By Craig T. Kojima, Star-Bulletin
This part of hanger No. 117 at Barbers Point, built during WWII,
may lose its Navy wings when the Hawaii Army Guard moves in.

Entropy threatens historic
sites with no plan for
preservation

Recreation sites short on amenities

By Burl Burlingame
Star-Bulletin

IT'S said that the best way to visit the Hawaii your grandparents knew is to visit a military base here. The neighborhoods have a solid balance between vegetation, yard space and structures. Nothing's too big, things are clean, quiet, orderly and well-kept, and civilized behavior is the rule of the day. Nothing is too ostentatious; the accent is on frugal rather than cheap.

The "industrial" areas, the military training zones, are utilitarian. Giant aviation hangars, with their beams and pipes exposed, are designed to be useful rather than awesome.

The U.S. military base is in effect a little country, with borders, different laws and strange cultures. It was the first place in the United States to practice desegregation, the first place to prioritize the elimination of toxic waste dumps, the first communities to embrace coexisting wildlife sanctuaries and the last place you'll be kept awake by thoughtless neighbors.

The closure of Barbers Point is the first big base shut-down to hit Hawaii since World War II. Last Thursday, the U.S. Navy handed the keys over to the state. It remains to be seen whether Hawaii government officials will be able to competently manage the property.

The Navy bought the property from Campbell Estate, starting with a couple of hundred acres to corral giant airships. When the dirigible program folded in the late '30s, the mooring mast was converted to a control tower for a small Marine Corps air field, built to relieve congestion on Ford Island. Ewa Field was strafed during the Pearl Harbor attack and plans were made to create a larger airfield for the Navy. They got under way in 1942, with most of the construction occurring in late 1943.

At last count, 251 buildings remain from the 1940s. Many are unchanged from the war period and are a time capsule of military vernacular architecture.

The air base ramped up again during the Korean War and it became the focal point of maritime surveillance and anti-submarine patroling in the islands.

The Cold War period added several bunkerlike buildings, as well as significant numbers of single-unit family housing, but the "downtown" areas of Barbers Point are relatively unchanged since 1945.

This unique historic and cultural landscape may soon be gone forever. The state is piece-mealing little parcels here and there to various agencies, or letting structures sit unattended. Soon the sense of visual coherence will vanish as entropy sets in.

Like most military buildings, you'll see numbers painted on the corners. These indicate the order in which they were funded, not necessarily the order in which they were built. Interesting buildings to watch out for are:

No. 140, now being used by the Defense Reutilization and Marketing Organization. It has been "rehabilitated," unfortunately erasing it's historic infrastructure.

Hangar No. 117, the giant structure at the heart of base that will be used by the Hawaii Army Guard. Look for the period military-art deco facade on incorporated office structures to the south.

Hangars No. 110 and No. 111, and the large apron in between. Car show, anyone?

No. 115, a former torpedo-assembly structure. Charming, like a scale model of the larger structure. It had war-era murals on the walls that the Navy has removed.

No. 1, the former base-operations building, which is a prime example of military vernacular architecture. We were told it will be given to Hawaiian Homelands as office space.

The big aircraft runways sit at the heart of Barbers Point and everything is arranged around them. The airport will continue to operate as a working field called Kalaeloa.

The key words for the rest of Barbers Point are big, flat and dusty. It sits on an alluvial coral reef, with sinkhole in the limestone karst. The soil goes down about six inches before hitting jumbled limestone. During particularly heavy rains, the base floods because there's no place for the water to go. Navy chiefs in the hangar complexes learned not to keep files in their bottom drawers.

The scrubby areas to the southeast of the airfield are a hot and blasted tangle of limestone and coral, interlaced kiawe branches and shattered World War II-era concrete foundations. Bits of the old Ewa Airfield are used for go-cart racing and police-car driver training.

There are rumors of Hawaiian archaeological sites at Barbers Point, although only token excavations have taken place. Evidence indicates the area did have a Hawaiian agricultural community in pre-contact days. Water would have been a problem, however, and it is likely the native population was never large. The miltary's need for open and secure spaces at the airfield has prevented urban development from erasing Hawaiian sites, as well as post-contact history for the region, such as sisal farming and ranching.

You may have to buy a new map to get around. There is a move afoot to rename the streets -- currently named after naval battles, heroes and famous ships -- obliterating one of the military's means of commemorating personal sacrifice. It probably won't be long either before naval wings are chipped off of building decorations, or the welcome-home paintings made by military dependents are whitewashed, or squadron insignia are sandblasted away.

The last structure built by the Navy at Barbers Point was completed only a few weeks ago; a memorial base commemorating the Navy's stewardship of the property, capped off by a large model of a P-3 submarine-stalking aircraft. Is it too early to start a betting pool on when vandals will trash the memorial?

Click for online
calendars and events.