Naval Air Station Barbers Point
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Naval Air Station Barbers Point (
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]
The Navy acquired the airfield in early 1943. At that time it consisted of two short runways and four
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
In May 1976 the Joint Casualty Resolution Center moved here from Thailand.[3]
Closing
NAS Barbers Point was closed by
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
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
This article incorporates public domain material from the Air Force Historical Research Agency
- ^ 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]
- ^ Operation Dominic I (PDF) (DNA6040F), Washington, DC: Defense Nuclear Agency, 1983, archived from the original (PDF) on 23 August 2012, retrieved 12 January 2014
- .
- The Business Journals. Archivedfrom the original on February 11, 2017. Retrieved February 9, 2017.
- ^ "Bombs in Your Backyard: BARBERS POINT NAS". ProPublica. Retrieved 2022-07-10.
Further reading
- Maurer, Maurer, ed. (1982) [1969]. Combat Squadrons of the Air Force, World War II (PDF) (reprint ed.). Washington, DC: Office of Air Force History. ISBN 978-0-405-12194-4.
External links
Media related to Naval Air Station Barbers Point at Wikimedia Commons
- Resources for this airport:
- FAA airport information for JRF
- AirNav airport information for PHJR
- ASN accident history for JRF
- FlightAware airport information and live flight tracker
- NOAA/NWS latest weather observations for PHJR
- SkyVector aeronautical chart for JRF