Naval Air Station Barbers Point

Coordinates: 21°18′26″N 158°04′13″W / 21.30722°N 158.07028°W / 21.30722; -158.07028
Source: Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia.
Naval Air Station Barbers Point
John Rodgers Field
AMSL
Runways
Direction Length and surface
4R/22L 2,438 metres (7,999 ft) Asphalt
11/29 1,829 metres (6,001 ft) Asphalt
4L/22R 1,372 metres (4,501 ft) Asphalt

Naval Air Station Barbers Point (

Honolulu International Airport), is a former United States Navy airfield closed in 1999, and renamed Kalaeloa Airport. Parts of the former air station serve as a film and television studio
for the Hawaii State Film Office.

History

Attack on Pearl Harbor

On December 7, 1941, Barbers Point was one of the many targets attacked by the Japanese during the attack on Pearl Harbor. During the second wave, American pilots George Welch and Kenneth Taylor engaged Japanese aircraft, shooting down two aircraft.[citation needed]

Gate at Naval Air Station Barber's Point as it appeared in December 1958

The Navy acquired the airfield in early 1943. At that time it consisted of two short runways and four

Seabees of the 5th Naval Construction Battalion took over the airfield.[1] When they were done there would be three runways. The Navy would turn the airfield into a major facility by sending Seabees from the 13th, 64th and 133rd Construction Battalions to do it.[1]

Marine Corps Air Station Ewa

Marine Corps Air Station Ewa was adjacent to NAS Barbers Point. Due to lack of space to expand Ewa for jet aircraft operations, the Marine Corps field was closed and merged into Barbers Point on June 18, 1952.

Operation Dominic

In 1962 NAS Barbers Point was used as a staging base for Operation Dominic. Experimental nuclear weapons were loaded into two B-52s at Barbers Point and flown to points near Kiritimati (Christmas Island) where they were dropped in 24 test detonations. B-57 sampler aircraft that had flown into the mushroom clouds were later flown to Barbers Point and scrubbed down to reduce their radioactivity.[2]

Army use

In 1972 the United States Army posted a

CH-47 Chinook company, the 147th Assault Support Helicopter Company "Hillclimbers", supporting the Army's 25th Infantry Division and United States Army Pacific, and it was moved to the historic Wheeler Army Airfield, Schofield Barracks
, for Hawaii Army National Guard use.

In May 1976 the Joint Casualty Resolution Center moved here from Thailand.[3]

Closing

NAS Barbers Point in 1958.

NAS Barbers Point was closed by

P-3C Orion maritime patrol aircraft assigned to squadrons of Patrol Wing Two, relocating to Marine Corps Air Station Kaneohe Bay, now Marine Corps Base Hawaii
, on the other side of the island.

HC-130H Hercules aircraft, remained after the Navy's departure; Barbers Point is the only Coast Guard Air Station
within the 14th US Coast Guard District.

With the closure of NAS Barbers Point, the present day Kalaeloa Airport / John Rodgers Field became home to Naval Air Museum Barbers Point, which preserved the history of the base and a collection of aircraft that reflected the US Navy's, US Marine Corps', US Coast Guard's and US Army's aviation presence on Barbers Point and in the state of Hawaii. The museum closed in 2020.

Production studio

By early 2017, the massive building which once served as the air station's aircraft intermediate maintenance facility had been leased by

ABC Studios and Marvel Television's Inhumans was the first production to use the newly created production facility.[4]

Environmental contamination

Barbers Point consists of at least 35 sites where soil and or groundwater were contaminated per the DOD. As of 2017, 34 had been cleaned up, according to the DOD. This does not mean that these sites are no longer hazardous, as many of these sites were put under long-term monitoring or other restrictions.[5]

See also

  • Hawaii World War II Army Airfields
  • Historic American Buildings Survey

References

Public Domain This article incorporates public domain material from the Air Force Historical Research Agency

  1. ^ a b c d Building the Navys Bases in World War II, History of the Bureau of Yards and Docks and Civil Engineering Corps, 1940-46, Chapter XXII, Pearl Harbor, part 1, Oahu, p.142 [1]
  2. ^ Operation Dominic I (PDF) (DNA6040F), Washington, DC: Defense Nuclear Agency, 1983, archived from the original (PDF) on 23 August 2012, retrieved 12 January 2014
  3. ISBN 9781482384055.Public Domain This article incorporates text from this source, which is in the public domain
    .
  4. from the original on February 11, 2017. Retrieved February 9, 2017.
  5. ^ "Bombs in Your Backyard: BARBERS POINT NAS". ProPublica. Retrieved 2022-07-10.

Further reading

External links

Media related to Naval Air Station Barbers Point at Wikimedia Commons