John Rudolph Slattery

John Rudolph Slattery graduated fifth in his class at West Point Class in 1900.  Typical for a new engineer officer, after graduation, Slattery was assigned to the Philippines to work on bridges and roads.  Within a couple of years he was living and working in Honolulu.

On April 15, 1905, Slattery opened the first Honolulu Engineer District office in the Alexander Young Building on Bishop Street – this marked the birthdate of the Honolulu Engineering District for the Army Corps.  Slattery’s duties were divided between land acquisition and lighthouse matters.  The bridge to Sand Island is named for him.

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World War II - Italian POWs

On July 7, 1937, Japan invaded China to initiate the war in the Pacific; while the German invasion of Poland on September 1, 1939, unleashed the European war.

World War II (WWII or WW2), also known as the Second World War, was a global war that was underway by 1939 and ended in 1945.

 Italy entered World War II on the Axis side on June 10, 1940, as the defeat of France became apparent.  On December 7, 1941, Japan attacked the United States at Pearl Harbor and the US entered the conflict.

World War II was fought between two sets of partners: the Allies and the Axis. The three principal partners in the Allies alliance were the British Commonwealth, the Soviet Union and the United States; the three principal partners in the Axis alliance were Germany, Italy and Japan.

During World War II, American forces captured 50,000 Italian soldiers and sailors.  5,000 Italian prisoners of war were sent to Hawaiʻi and held at Schofield, Kāneʻohe, Kalihi Valley and Sand Island.

Japanese Americans were also incarcerated in at least eight locations on Hawaiʻi.  On December 8, 1941, the first detention camp was set up on Sand Island.

The Sand Island Detention Center held war captives as well as civilians of Japanese, German or Italian ancestry who were under investigation.

This Italian prisoner contingent was highly skilled in construction and engineering, and as a voluntary effort they were used extensively on many construction projects around the island where skilled labor was, at that time, in short supply, particularly around Honolulu Harbor, Sand Island, etc. (Ponza - Army-mil)

"For the most part, the US Army welcomed their labor and skills in construction of needed military facilities."  (Moreo)

"At the end of each day, the Italians would salvage whatever waste materials were about as well as scouring and scooping up cement from spillage."  (Moreo)

With this salvaged material the Italian POWs built buildings and works of art (fountains and statues) at various locations on Oʻahu (these pieces are at Schofield Barracks, Fort Shafter, Sand Island and the Immigration Building.)

The Mother Cabrini Chapel, designed by POW Astori Rebate, “was huge, with an alter, and two large paintings of Mother Cabrini all done by the POWs.  The chapel had a full basement for vestments and religious articles.  Out in front of the chapel, the area was paved and filled by ‘well constructed benches acting as pews for a thousand or more worshippers.’”  (Moreo)

The Italian POWs "decided to dedicate to the memory of Mother Cabrini, who was at that time being considered for sainthood for her earlier good works in the United States, and who was subsequently canonized as the first American saint by the Vatican around the year 1946."  (Ponza -army-mil)

Upon the chapel's completion, Sunday mass was celebrated every week with the prisoners exiting the prison compound in order to attend the services, seating themselves in the open air pews. As word spread to the adjoining areas, Pearl City, Honolulu, Nanakuli, and even as far as Waikiki, a small group of Catholic worshipers started to drive up to the chapel on Sunday mornings to attend the services."  (Ponza - army-mil)    In the way of Kamehameha Highway construction, it was torn down in 1948.

At Sand Island, "(a)t sunset, hundreds of Italians formed a male chorale and sang for an hour. It became widely known and so popular that visitors came in the evening to listen and applaud."  (Moreo)

At Fort Shafter, a fountain crowned with pineapples was designed and crafted by POW Alfredo Giusti, with winged lions and topped with pineapples.  (Reportedly, Giusti inscribed his name and address on the north side of the fountain.)

Dedicated to give hope to those without hope, Giusti also crafted two statues, “The Hula Dancer” and “The Bathing Beauty,”) which now sit outside the Coast Guard administration building on Sand Island.

A hard-to-see fountain crafted by the Italians is within the secured Immigration Center on Ala Moana Boulevard (you can see it through a chain link fence on the makai/Fort Armstrong side of the facility.)

The war ended in December 1945 and the Italian POWs were repatriated in 1946, having left some lasting legacies of the war and their time in Hawaiʻi.  (Unfortunately, due to increased security concerns, access is restricted at the facilities where their work is located.)

The image shows the Giusti fountain at Fort Shafter.  In addition, I have added other images in a folder of like name in the Photos section on my Facebook and Google+ pages.

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Tripler Army Medical Center

Some suggest the building got its pink color because the color and other design elements were borrowed from the Royal Hawaiian Hotel down in Waikīkī.

However, an engineering booklet related to its design notes, “the layout of the buildings was planned to create an easy, informal environment, avoid an institutional atmosphere and create the impression of a residential community.”  (army-mil)

“Therefore, the hospital building, nurses’ quarters, fire house, chapel, bachelor officers’ quarters and mess, theater and enlisted men’s barracks will be of pink stucco finish.” (army-mil)

Let’s step back a bit.

In 1898, the Spanish American war was going on, including in the Pacific (primarily in the Philippines) – Hawaiʻi became involved.  The US Army set up Camp McKinley in Kapiʻolani Park and soon realized an urgent need for a hospital in Hawaiʻi.

The Army's first medical facility in Hawaiian Islands opened in 1898; it was a 30-bed hospital for soldiers and sailors in transit to and from Manila located in the Independence Park Pavilion (an old dance pavilion at the intersection of King Street and Sheridan.)  Field medical tents at Fort McKinley added support to the hospital.

Casualties were streaming into Hawaiʻi from the war in the Philippines. The hospital on King Street rapidly grew into a 100-bed operation and was visited by more than 21,000 troops during the Philippine Insurrection following the war with Spain.

Later, in 1907, Department Hospital, a wooden post hospital facility consisting of a single hospital building and mess hall, was constructed at Fort Shafter.

Department Hospital was re-designated “Tripler Army Hospital” on June 26, 1920, named after Brigadier General Charles Stuart Tripler (1806-1866) - in honor of his contributions to Army medicine during the Civil War (he authored of one of the most widely-read manuals in Army medical history, the "Manual of the Medical Officer of the Army of the United States.")

Then, the US Army Health Clinic, Schofield Barracks, a 500-bed hospital, was completed in 1929. It was activated as the Station Hospital, Schofield Barracks, Territory of Hawaiʻi.

The attack on Pearl Harbor led to the construction of Tripler Army Medical Center. At the outbreak of World War II, the hospital at Fort Shafter had a 450-bed capacity which, over the years, expanded to 1,000 beds through the addition of one-story barracks-type buildings.

Plans for a new Tripler hospital atop Moanalua ridge were drawn in 1942, construction was authorized in June 1944; the ground was broken August 23, 1944; actual construction began in 1945: and construction was completed in 1948.

When it was completed, Tripler was the tallest building in the Pacific region.  (Three additional wings to the hospital were completed in 1985 with other additions/renovations over the years.)

Tripler was dedicated on September 10, 1948 and has been a visible and valuable landmark in Hawaiʻi.  It is the largest military medical treatment facility in the entire Pacific Basin.

In 1961, Tripler US Army Hospital became known as US Army Tripler General Hospital, and finally in 1964, the name changed to Tripler Army Medical Center.

In a cooperative agreement with the Department of Veterans Affairs in 1992, the Spark M Matsunaga Medical Center was added at Tripler.

Located on a 375-acre site, Tripler Army Medical Center’s geographic area of responsibility spans more than 52-percent of the earth’s surface, from the western coasts of the Americas to the eastern shores of Africa (encompassing three million square miles of ocean and more than 750,000-square miles of land mass.)

Nearly 800,000-beneficiaries in the Pacific Basin are eligible to receive care at Tripler; this includes active-duty service members of all branches of service, their eligible families, military-eligible retirees and their families, veterans, and many residents of Pacific Islands.

In a typical day, more than 2,000-patients are seen in outpatient clinic visits, more than 1,500-prescriptions are filled, more than 30-surgical procedures are performed, and more than 30 patients are admitted. There are more than 200-births each month.  (In August 1955, 427-babies are born at Tripler, setting a record for one-month deliveries.)

The image shows the initial Tripler Hospital at Fort Shafter (army-mil.)  In addition, I have added other related images in a folder of like name in the Photos section on my Facebook and Google+ pages.

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Pineapple Pentagon

At the time of annexation, there was no assigned garrison in the Islands until August 15, 1898, when the 1st New York Volunteer Infantry regiment and the 3rd Battalion, 2nd US Volunteer Engineers landed in Honolulu for garrison duty – the Spanish American War was waging in the Pacific (Honolulu served as a stopover point for the forces heading to the Philippines.)

The two commands were initially camped alongside each other as though they were one regiment in the large infield of the one-mile race track at Kapiʻolani Park.  The initial camp at the race track was unnamed; it was later called Camp McKinley.  It was a temporary encampment.

The US government looked for land for permanent facilities.

Of the two major tracts of land assigned to the War Department (Kahauiki and Waiʻanae-uka,) a board of Army officers in 1903 recommended establishment of the principal infantry post at Kahauiki.

Construction started in 1905 at what was first called Kahauiki Military Reservation.  It was later named Fort Shafter and was Hawaiʻi’s first permanent US military installation.  (Camp McKinley remained in existence until Fort Shafter was opened.)

It was named in honor of Major General William R. Shafter (1835-1906,) a Civil War and Spanish-American War veteran and commanding general of the headquarters for Hawaiʻi, then in California, until 1901.  (Until 1913, the Army establishments in Hawaiʻi were under the Department of California.)

First, they started construction of officers’ quarters and battalion barracks around Palm Circle, as well as support facilities on and near Funston Road.

Palm Circle (earlier called the 100 Area and later named for the 200-royal palms along its edge) has a large, grassed oval parade ground. Fifteen two-story, officers’ quarters line the north and east sides of Palm Circle Drive which encircles the parade area.

Along the southern side of the drive are former enlisted men’s barracks, now converted to administrative offices, and other administrative buildings, including a swimming pool.  The initial structures were completed June 22, 1907, with more by 1909.

A post hospital was built across King Street, in the area now occupied by the Fort Shafter interchange of the Moanalua freeway.

Streetcars ran from downtown along King Street; the route originally ended at Fort Shafter, and was eventually extended to Pearl Harbor. The streetcars ran until 1933, when the current post bus route was established.  A railroad line ran from the Middle Street gate, across Shafter Flats and down Puʻuloa Road.

During World War I, all regular Army Field artillery and infantry regiments were transferred to the continent, leaving between December 1917 and August 1918. To replace the troops, one battalion of the 1st Hawaiian Regiment of the Hawaiʻi National Guard was stationed at Fort Shafter in June 1918.

A regimental officer’s school was established July 1918 at Fort Shafter and Schofield Barracks. Food gardens were planted on the post. The National Guard regiments were demobilized in 1919, leaving the Post vacant except for the 9th Signal Service Company.

In June 1921, the Headquarters of the Hawaiian Department moved to Fort Shafter from the Alexander Young Hotel in Honolulu. Since then, Fort Shafter has been the base of the senior Army headquarters in Hawaiʻi. Gradually converting the original troop facilities into administrative space, the headquarters organizations occupied the Palm Circle area.

From 1921 through World War II Fort Shafter was also the antiaircraft artillery post. The Hawaiian Coast Artillery District was located at Fort Shafter from June 1921 through October 1929.

Only a few casualties occurred at the post in the December 7, 1941 attack, from US Navy antiaircraft shells rather than Japanese planes. Palm Circle was strafed during the attack.

World War II saw significant increase in building activity at Fort Shafter, in every area where there was space. Buildings were also expanded and remodeled during this period.

As duties increased for Lt. General Robert C. Richardson, the commanding general (becoming US Army Forces in Central Pacific Area,) his headquarters became known as the Pineapple Pentagon (after the War it was renamed Richardson Hall in his honor.)

From 1943 to 1945, Richardson's command carried out logistical planning for the invasion of the Gilberts, Marshalls, Marianas, Guam, Palau and Okinawa.

After World War II, Fort Shafter remained the senior Army headquarters post for the region, while the 25th Infantry Division occupied the more spacious Schofield Barracks.  In 1947, the headquarters was renamed US Army, Pacific (USARPAC.)

After Tripler Hospital moved to its new hillside farther west in 1948, and after the Moanalua Freeway was cut through a portion of the old site in 1958-60, the remaining hospital area was redeveloped with enlisted housing.

Today, more than 5,000 Soldiers, civilians, contractors and military families live and work on the 589-acre post. In fact, if USARPAC were a business, it would rank as one of the state's largest employers with more than 25,000 full-time Soldiers and civilians employed throughout the Pacific and 9,000 more in the National Guard and Army Reserve. (army-mil)

Palm Circle and the Pineapple Pentagon continue to serve as command headquarters for the US Army in the Pacific. (Lots of information here is from the National Register (NPS.))

The image shows the Pineapple Pentagon (Richardson Hall) at Fort Shafter (1940s.)  In addition, I have included other images in a folder of like name in the Photos section on my Facebook and Google+ pages.

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