Christmas through the years

By Dave Hilkert on December 24, 2009 12:00pm
 

Christmas and the Holiday Season has always been a very special time for Fort Shafter Soldiers, their families and civilians. Although many of them were separated from their loved ones and far from home, the photos depicted here show how they have continued to enjoy the friendship and camaraderie among fellow Soldiers and their Ohana here in Hawaii. This sampling of Christmas at Fort Shafter dates from 1918 through 2009.
 

  World War II Comes to Fort Shafter

By Dave Hilkert on December 8, 2009 1:32pm
 

On December 7, 2009, our Nation commemorated the 68th Anniversary of the Day of Infamy, which thrust America into World War II. At Pearl Harbor, Hawaii, where veterans of the USS Oklahoma, Utah, Maryland, Pennsylvania, Arizona, and other ships of the Pacific Fleet remembered their participation on that fateful day. At Kaneohe Marine Base, 100 year-old Lieutenant John Finn, surviving recipient of the Medal of Honor for his role in defending Kaneohe (then a Naval Air Base) with a .50 caliber machine gun, received honors. As part of a larger effort to preserve Ewa Field, the site of Ewa Marine Corps Air Station, a commemoration ceremony was held Dec. 6th.
 

Fort Shafter sustained only very minor damages during the Japanese attack on Oahu. It did not suffer the enormous loss of life of Pearl Harbor, Hickam Field and other military installations on the island. The post still served an important role as the Army’s headquarters for defending the Hawaiian Islands.  
 

To learn more about Fort Shafter on December 7, 1941, click here.
 

  A Passion for History

By Dave Hilkert on October 21, 2009 8:05am
 

Fort Shafter is now more than a century old. It has played a huge role in our national defense and has many stories of Soldiers and civilians serving our Nation across those 100 years. Set in a beautiful paradise, those of us who have the honor to serve at Fort Shafter have had a close relationship with our community from the earliest days of our history, and there are many stories about our ties here in the Pacific.
 

As the historian for USARPAC, it is a great thrill to learn of so many of these wonderful stories of the Army’s past at Fort Shafter. With so many deployments in today’s Army, we sometimes wonder what Soldier’s life was life like long ago. From the many stories of Fort Shafter, we catch a glimpse of that life across the years. Technology is different now, the uniforms of Soldiers are different, the unit names and missions are changed (although with some similarities) and many buildings from our history are gone with new ones in their place. The Soldiers who served long ago, however, are no different from those who serve at Fort Shafter today.   Read more...