KGMB TV News Report, Save Ewa Field, by Brooks Baehr, Historian John Bond

Written by Brooks Baehr

A quiet controversy is brewing on Oahu's Ewa Plain over a forgotten

World War II battlefield.

Veterans and historians consider it hallowed ground, but parts of the

airfield are being transferred to a private company and there is concern an important chapter in U.S. history will soon be bulldozed to make way

for homes and shopping malls.

"We're right here by where the operations tower building was. This is

where the planes were lined up basically when the Japanese planes came

flying in," said John Bond, a Ewa resident and historian.

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Bond recently gave us a tour of the old base. It closed back in

1952 and there is not much left.

"People moved and nobody paid any more attention to this whole place

and its just become overgrown with keawe trees and tall brush,"

Bond added.

Bond is worried what about what Hunt will build on the property.

"Burger Kings, McDonalds, Blockbuster Videos, shopping malls. Anything could be developed as part of their lease," Bond said.

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Bond wants a national park or national monument established at the

old airfield. And he hopes President Bush will help.

On May 28 the president issued a memorandum to the Secretary of the

Interior. Bush wrote "... there are objects of historic and scientific

interest at Pearl Harbor and at other sites across the Pacific that may

be appropriate for recognition and possible protection through the

designation of a national monument."