Check Six – 1917: Bellows Field History
From the Images of Old Hawaii website
Bellows in the late 1940s | click to enlarge
Waimanalo Military Reservation was created in 1917 by Presidential Executive Order, and later renamed to Bellows Field in 1933 (named after Lieutenant Franklin Barney Bellows, a war hero who was killed in action during World War I while on a reconnaissance flight near St. Mihiel, France, on September 13, 1918.)
The land was leased from Waimanalo Sugar Plantation. It was used as the bivouac area and a target practice area by the Coastal Artillery, which strung a line of 90-mm guns along the beach. During the 1930s, Bellows was used as a bombing and gunnery range by aircraft from Luke (Ford Island,) Wheeler and Hickam Fields.
Both the Hawaii Army and Air National Guard have long associations with Bellows Field/ Bellows AFB / Bellows AFS and now Marine Corps Training Area Bellows.
Comments are closed.