Kalaeloa, Save Ewa Field, Ewa Marine Corps Air Station, William Cole, Historian John Bond

By William Cole

KALAELOA -- Bushwhacking through knee-high weeds and thorny

kiawe, John Bond points out the stretches of asphalt and concrete

where World War II fighters once roared into the sky at the former

'Ewa Marine Corps Air Station.

It's what happened here on Dec. 7, 1941, and how that long-neglected

history could be paved over by future development, that's now of

concern to Bond, who wants to see key parts of the base preserved

The defense was "heroic stuff," with Marines manning the machine gun

of a damaged U.S. aircraft, Bond said. "It's like a John Wayne movie at

that point," Bond said. "People are firing .45s and Tommy guns. Man,

what a movie that could have been. Nobody ever made it."

Bond, who lives in 'Ewa Beach and has done a lot of research into the Marine Corps air station, has started a one-man campaign to preserve the original part of the airfield, which began as an airship mooring station in the mid 1920s, and grew considerably in size during the course of World War II.

Bond calls it the "Lost World War II Battlefield."

"There are guys who fly all the way out to the Pacific to hack through jungles to look for B-29 wheels or bullet hole fragments," Bond said. "But here's a base in urban Honolulu that was a battle where Marines were killed. The war started here, and there's not even hardly anything about it. It's amazing."

Bond's cause for concern is a planned land swap that could lead to development of the land. Bond believes Hunt will build shopping centers and expensive homes on the land, which abuts Barbers Point Golf Course.

Bond wants a much larger area preserved than the 4 to 5 acres proposed

by the Navy. He thinks sections of both runways that were in existence

on Dec. 7, 1941, should be set aside, along with the old mooring mast

and control tower locations, and some of the base entry roads in the

vicinity of the intersection of Vinson and Philippine Sea.