US Navy wants to homeport carrier in Hawaii or Guam

I feel so old. Used to live in Makai housing (got in as an E5 on
fluke...mostly it was E6 and above) at Barbers, and could walk from my
house to the VP hangar there in less than 10 minutes.

Of course, these were the Regan evil empire years, and open-ocean ASW
was a booming business.





Dave Morris wrote:
I you sure that the Navy sold Barbers Pt. to the state?


The old Barber's air strip is now a municipal strip renamed Kalaeloa. I
fly into it whenever I'm practicing touch and go's in a Cessna. The Coast
Guard and the Hawaii National Guard also use it, but they have their own
facilities located on the strip. The Navy originally retained just over
1,000 acres and about 540 housing units on the base. They have a few MWR
facilities such as a golf course, a gym, a bowling alley, a NEX mini-mart,
and a comissary. There are also a very few scattered offices such as CB
maintenence and DRMO, but these are all scattered in between state national
guard facilities.
There is now a youth boot camp program run out there. Some of the land
is being used for horses. Slowly, the land is becoming more privatized
and/or overgrown. The fences and gates are falling down. All of the
housing units and the land under them were sold about a year ago to a
private company that leases to anyone, not just military. Reopening the
base would require displacing these local families. There is talk of
spreading the air wing out over Barber's, Kaneohe MCAS, and Wheeler AAF, but
it mostly comes down to the politics. Hawaii's government realizes that it
would bring jobs and money to the state, but there is also a lot of concern
with the locals about bringing more military to this already crowded island.
If they complain enough, Hawaii's senators won't buy off on it.


there are at least two piers already sturdy enough and long enough (K-10,
B-22 through 26)


It is true that they are revamping the piers, Kilo piers would be an
excellent location assuming FISC is willing to give them up permanently.
The bravo piers, on the other hand, would require more than just
strengthening. I believe that it would require making the berths deeper.
It is my understanding that B22-26 are too shallow for an aircraft carrier.
They put the LHA's over there all the time, but their draft is less than
that of DDG or CG (31-33'). CVNs have a draft of 37-42'.


rehab work at the former NAS Barber's point has just started in a big
way on the hangers there, and there are rumors that the military
housing at Iroquois Point and Barber's Point (currently
civilian/military) will be reverting purely back to military. To me,
these rumors account for the housing and air wing issues. Again, just
rumors from what I observe here"".


As for the deckplate rumors about housing and hangars, I don't know
anything specific about either. What I've seen while living in the newly
privatized housing, is that despite a lot of talk about bringing in a
carrier, most of the action on the site is geared toward redevelopment as
private/state-owned lands. If the Navy wants to bring a carrier out here,
they need to make up their minds. If they want that land, they need to get
it back before too many people invest money into it for private use.