World War II Database

Contributor: David Stubblebine

ww2dbaseThe low Ewa plain on Oahu's southwest shore is perhaps the driest area of the island. Attempts to develop the area for agriculture had mixed results. In 1925, the United States Navy leased 150 acres and erected a 100-foot mooring mast for airships, later shortened to 50-feet but never used to moor an airship. In September 1940, the Navy bought 3,500 acres adjacent to the mooring mast for use in Navy and Marine Corps aviation. The area surrounding the mooring mast was developed into Marine Corps Air Station Ewa, commissioned Feb 3, 1941, and the other end of the property would become Naval Air Station Barbers Point.

ww2dbaseWork began on the naval airstrip in November 1941 with plans for it to be an Outlying Landing Field for the Ford Island Naval Air Station. By Dec 7, 1941 construction had barely begun so the station escaped damage in the Japanese attack. Following the attack, as the Navy moved onto a war footing, crews and material were pulled from Barbers Point and applied to expanding the Marine base at Ewa Field. Work quickly resumed at Barbers Point with adjusted plans for it to be a training base on a scale to surpass Ford Island. The station was commissioned Apr 15, 1942 even before the facility was fully operational. Much of the training and maintenance being administered by the Barbers Point Air Station was actually taking place at the neighboring Marine Corps Air Station Ewa until Barbers Point could be built up enough to handle its own work. Construction continued and would continue throughout the war.

ww2dbaseOperations at Barbers Point initially centered on working up carrier air groups and squadrons for carrier deployment in combat areas further west. Four months after opening, Barbers Point was capable of accommodating more than four carrier air groups at the same time and that capacity continued to grow. The station became one of the busiest air bases in the world, at one point handling more take-offs and landings in a 24 hour period than known of at any other airfield during the war.

ww2dbaseBarbers Point also became the center of the Navy's aircraft maintenance operations. Chief among the maintenance facilities was the engine overhaul shop. Even though the shop was not opened until late in the war, in October 1944, it was still able to perform complete overhauls on 2,500 of the finicky radial engines and in its best month, 345 engines. The Assembly and Repair Department put so many aircraft into service, both new and refurbished, that the station opened a 150 acre plane-pool storage area near Iroquois Point.

ww2dbaseNumerous Navy and Marine Air Groups were serviced at Barbers Point during the war but the facilities were not limited to these services. At least three US Army Pursuit Squadrons were stationed at Barbers Point early in the war, leaving in February 1943. They flew coastal defense sorties and were in a constant alert status. In April and May of 1943, three Royal Navy carrier squadrons from HMS Victorious ("USS Robin") underwent overhaul and night flying training at Barbers Point.

ww2dbaseAircraft maintenance and flight training were vital functions but Barbers Point also saw some innovative aviation projects during the war. Drone aircraft were tested there, largely intended as airborne targets, and experiments with jet propulsion on airplanes were taking place as early as Dec 1944.

ww2dbaseMechanics of Carrier Aircraft Service Units (CASUs) were trained and staged at Barbers Point prior to deployment to carriers and forward air bases. Special SeaBee units, ACORN, ARGUS and GROPAC units also went through Barbers Point where they were readied for their final deployment. These were specialized units designated to quickly create and then operate air bases in forward areas, vital component in Nimitz' island hopping strategy. While Pearl Harbor was the Navy's wartime hub for everything pertaining to ships of the Fleet, the corresponding hub for all things related to Naval aviation was Barbers Point.

ww2dbaseBy the end of the war, the main runway at Barbers Point, directly in line with the prevailing trade winds, was among the largest in the Pacific, at 1,000 feet wide and 8,300 feet long. As combat units were demobilized and being routed back to the United States, Barbers Point became the preferred stopping point for returning Army B-29 Superfortress aircraft. So well suited was Barbers Point for the large bombers that by 1947, weekly B-29 training flights were initiated from Davis-Monthan Field near Tucson, Arizona, United States to Barbers Point Naval Air Station and back, a round trip of 6,000 miles.

ww2dbaseBarbers Point resumed many of its familiar naval aviation support functions during the Korean conflict and again during Vietnam. The air station remained the Navy's principal land-based air facility in the central Pacific throughout the Cold War but with the downsizing that followed the collapse of the Soviet bloc, Barbers Point was closed on Jul 1, 1999. The facility was turned over to the State of Hawaii and became Kalaeola Airport with the Navy's air functions transferred to Marine Corps Base Hawaii in Kaneohe, but the United States Coast Guard still (2013) operates an air station at Barbers Point.

Barbers Point Naval Air Station Interactive Map

Photographs

Barbers Point Naval Air Station Timeline

Visitor Submitted Comments

Show older comments