Site to recreate Dec. 7, 1941
| • | Big graphic: Map of the proposed air museum at Ford Island |
By William Cole
Advertiser Military Writer
Imagine watching a documentary about the Dec. 7, 1941, attack on Ford Island, stepping out of the theater, and seeing where it happened — right down to the famous control tower, the crater made by the first bomb dropped on the island, bullet strafing pockmarks, and burned-out PBY seaplanes.
Backers of the Military Aviation Museum of the Pacific envision doing just that, blending the real (hangars, control tower and bullet and bomb marks) with the re-created (battle-damaged airplanes) to return visitors to the time and place that propelled the United States into World War II.
B. Allan Palmer, hired about a year ago to run the planned museum, said the approach represents something of a change as the nonprofit organization seeks to finalize a 65-year-lease for 22.7 acres of Ford Island land.
Officials hope to open the more than $55 million museum on Dec. 7, 2005. A second-annual benefit dinner to help raise $200,000 to complete design work will be held Friday — the day before the 61st anniversary of the attack — in one of the historic hangars.
"The site has gone from just an aviation museum with planes to more of a true historic site and museum," said Palmer, who likens Ford Island to Gettysburg or the Alamo.
"It's not just the hangars, it's the ground and (seaplane) ramp area — that's all part of it," Palmer said. "It's a historic area and we want to keep it that way, including the site of where the first bomb was dropped in the attack on Pearl Harbor and the bullet holes, which are really the scars of the battle."
Museum planners want to ferry visitors around in trams that would pass by historic aircraft and stop at two big hangars, 54 and 79, with exhibits, dioramas and aviation memorabilia from the Pacific theater of World War II, the Korean war, Cold War and Vietnam war.
Hangar 54 would have portions of a World War II aircraft carrier flight deck and hangar deck. Multiple levels would allow floor-to-ceiling aircraft and displays to be viewed from different vantages. The museum tour also would include a trip to the top of the 1930s control tower, and access to the "Memorial Garden" dedicated to aircraft and units that fought in the Pacific.
Another hangar, 37, would be used for aircraft restoration, archives, an education center and possibly a restaurant.
Lease talks continue with Ford Island master planner and developer Fluor Hawai'i LLC, but Palmer said the museum is "practically there" in terms of reaching an agreement.
"We're in the final stages of it, we think," Palmer said.
In June, the Navy picked Fluor, a joint venture between Hawai'i Renaissance Builders LLC (a subsidiary of Hunt Building Corp.) and Fluor Federal Services, for the planning and development of a $100 million to $300 million project to centralize Navy operations on 425-acre Ford Island with new housing, training and office space.
The development plan picked by the Navy calls for up to 420 family housing units, bachelor-enlisted quarters for as many as 1,000 personnel, 190,000-square-feet of office space for 1,500 additional employees, and a "historic visitor attraction" like the museum as part of the private development.
The ambitious development last year drew fire from the National Trust for Historic Preservation, which worried about maintaining Ford Island's character, and put it on its annual list of endangered historic places. Ford Island is part of a National Historic Landmark District.
The Navy last week said negotiations with Fluor are expected to be completed this spring. Congress also must approve the plan.
Palmer said both Adm. Thomas Fargo, head of Pacific Command, and Pacific Fleet commander Adm. Walter Doran "have been very supportive and encouraging." Two former Pacific commanders and a former Pacific Fleet commander are on the museum's board, while U.S. Sen. Dan Inouye, D-Hawai'i is on its advisory board.
The museum, which is accepting cash contributions and artifacts, has a handful of aircraft so far, including a B-25 Mitchell bomber and AT-6 Texan trainer from World War II, a Korean War-era MiG 15, two Vietnam-era UH-1H Huey helicopters and an AH-1 Cobra attack helicopter.
"My biggest worry is not obtaining aircraft," said Palmer, the former executive director of the San Diego Aerospace Museum.
Historic aircraft often were loaned to the 100-plane San Diego museum, Palmer said. The museum eventually had to turn some warbird owners away. He envisions the Ford Island museum having between 65 and 100 aircraft.
What the museum has to do pretty quickly, Palmer said, is raise money for building and repairs. The 100- to 200-seat "Clouds Over Paradise" theater — where the tour would start — would be built to look like a hangar, he said. The Navy and preservationists have to review the plan.
Priority projects such as re-roofing hangars 54 and 79, making electrical improvements to the cavernous spaces, and adding plumbing and sprinkler systems are expensive.
"We've got to spend $46 million just on buildings, and probably $10 million to $12 million inside the buildings, and that doesn't count airplanes," Palmer said.
The control tower, built in the 1930s as a submarine escape training tower (the "cab" on top was added after the Dec. 7, 1941 attack), would be repainted its original barber pole orange and white, but needs extensive lead paint stripping and corrosion repair, Palmer said.
The museum's capital campaign will begin in earnest early next year, he said.
"We know we have to raise the $46 million probably within 18 months to two years to stay on schedule to open the museum in December of 2005," Palmer said. "So we'll be busy little bees raising that."
Friday's $200-a-plate fund-raiser features astronaut Walter Schirra, comedian Bill Dana, and Lt. John Finn, who received a Medal of Honor for Dec. 7, 1941, heroism.
Palmer said Ford Island's seaplanes were attacked first, and evidence of the first bomb dropped can still be seen off the corner of hangar 54 — an area not part of the 22.7-acre footprint, but one he's hopeful the Navy will allow access to as one of many battle "scars" still carried by the island.
"We think the site is so sacred and so important to American history," Palmer said. "We want people to be able to step back in time and see it the way it was during the attack."
Reach William Cole at wcole@honoluluadvertiser.com or at 525-5459.
