Hawaii Coastal Artillery Batteries

[vostoktrading]

Gil,

 

Great stuff on Hawaii. Some of these places such as Ft Kam are really hard to get to unless you have Military ID. Even then, when looking around in the bushes you attract the attention of the base police. The world of US Military Bases is not the same since 911.

 

The last few pictures you posted of Diamond Head summit are a very popular tourist hike. When I was a kid back in the 1960's you could hike up there on a week day and not run into another soul the whole way. Now it's like the sidewalk on 5th Avenue in New York City. To make the experience safer the City has paved most of the trail with concrete and added railings and similar "improvements", understandable with liability and all. Unfortunately it's not the old mule trail anymore...

It is still well worth the hike if any of you USMF members find yourselves visiting Hawaii. The bunkers are still intact at the summit and the view is supurb. On crystal clear days you can see Molokai, Maui and Lanai islands over to the south east. You should be in reasonably good shape to attempt this hike. At prime tourist season in good weather (especially when it's hot) our Air One fire rescue helicopter must lift off at least one collapsed person a day from this mountain.

Jon.

[gwb123]

Jon,

 

The articles that I read about Ft. Kam made it pretty clear they don't want people poking around there any more. One was pretty direct about it that non official vehicles were banned from the area.

 

The shore front road that leads to the Hickam golf course should still be open i would think, and I assume the battery that fronts it is still visible. The bunkers near the Hawaii Air National Guard should also be accessible, at least on the outside for those who have access to that area.

 

But yes, I am sure things are tighter there today. Back in the 1990's, I had a car load of Japanese grad students I was showing around Hickam and Pearl Harbor. I went so far as to run them by the submarine docks. Even then I told them no pictures of the sensitive stuff. I doubt access is that free today.

 

I never got over to Ford Island.... you had to take the ferry back then, and I wasn't sure if they'd let me on without a Pearl Harbor sticker on the care (ours said Hickam). Now of course you not only have a causeway, but an actual air museum there. There is another shore battery there as well.

 

I drove through the back acres of Schofield Barracks and past some of the bunkers of the naval munitions storage. I never worked up enough nerve to drive through the West Loche area.... later I learned the USS Arizona superstructure is still stored in pieces there. But I think you had to have special access for that area even then. I also didn't explore the tunnel and railroad system that the Army had through the center of Oahu ... I just had a vision of getting the car stuck in red mud back in those sugar cane fields and then having to explain what I was doing there to start with! Also didn't go back to the "Vietnam village" either... but they were shooting Tour of Duty back then and that would have been another one hard to explain. So there were limits to my explorations!

[Kaneoheboy]

The tower at Ft. Kam. functioned as the Harbor Entrance Control Post or HECP for Pearl Harbor. One level was manned by army and navy personnel. Battery Hawkins was assigned as the "Examination Battery" for Pearl Harbor and received orders to challenge any unidentified vessel attempting to enter the Pearl Harbor channel from the HECP.