Marine Air Base Ewa - USGS Air Photo - Expanded Runways & Ramps, Navy Golf Course

Overlay of 1948 Ewa Base showing WW-II Expansion of facilities,

runways and ramps. Original 1941 Field is outlined in YELLOW.

Blue lines are military railway spurs, red line at top shows base Main Gate and

Fleming Road--across from today's Hawaiian Railway Museum.

ABOVE: A 1948 Map of the Marine Air Base overlaid with a recent USGS air photo.

Because the original field is largely hidden by extensive Keawe trees and tall grasses, most people today do not even KNOW that it was a famous battlefield where Marines fought against highly skilled Japanese naval pilots who continuously strafed the field for nearly TWO HOURS!

The battle was astonishingly heroic! The Marines fought, sometimes with just a 45

pistol firing at treetop level strafing Japanese pilots, who were often highly trained

aerobatic pilots and experts in their airborne attack.

WHY did this battle last so long? Because the Japanese Naval Air Groups used the EwaArea as their bombing run Rotation Point- meaning that planes went into Pearl Harbor, Hickam and dropped their bombs, and then returned to circle over the area awaiting the completion of all the other mission tasks. Because the Japanese planes had nearly COMPLETE AIR SUPERIORITY, and with excess machine gun belts that were not needed for defense, allowed them to empty their guns on any available target on Ewa Field and the adjacent areas, including civilian cars and anything else that moved.

Most people TODAY know very little about the full Ewa Field story!

And WORSE, the air field could be overrun with BULLDOZERS

After July, 2008!