As he rode out onto the lush, forgiving greens of Palm Circle on the grounds of Fort Shafter, Chris Dawson couldn’t help but feel the weight of history all about him.

"I felt like I had slipped back to the World War II era with all of this field and all of those historic homes all around us," said Dawson, whose dream of returning polo to its Army roots was realized yesterday with an enthusiastically received match on the field around which Gen. George Patton once lived and rode.

About 1,000 military personnel and civilians attended yesterday’s first Palm Circle Polo Pa’ina, which featured an exhibition match between Army Gold and Army Black teams made up of local players. (A "paina" is a small party with food.)

For Dawson, a U.S. Polo Association circuit governor, the event was a major milestone in an ongoing effort that began when he attended a USPA national meeting earlier this year.

"All aspects — professional, recreational, scholastic — were represented," Dawson said. "But there was no mention of the miliary. That was surprising because polo started with the Army and the Army officers who played for camaraderie, for recreation and for tactical planning. But over time, that connection just sort of faded away."

Back home in Hawaii, Dawson and his uncle Allen Hoe, president of the Honolulu Polo Club, local attorney and civilian aide to the secretary of the Army, set out to organize a series of benefit matches intended to "bring polo back to the Army." They have also been instrumental in promoting alliances between polo clubs and military installations around the country.

Yesterday’s event took place at the invitation of U.S. Army Pacific commanding general Lt. Gen. Francis Wiercinski, an equine enthusiast who took in a polo match at Mokuleia earlier this year and was quickly enamored of both the sport and its Army roots.

"Today’s paina is a way of giving back as well as holding on to the history of the Army in Hawaii," Wiercinski said. "People thought I was crazy when I first brought it up but I’m very pleased. For our first time, I think it’s wonderful. Now that we know it works, hopefully next time it will be even bigger."

The match was dedicated to Hoe’s son, 1st Lt. Nainoa Hoe of the 2nd Platoon, Company C, 3rd Battalion, 21st Infantry Regiment, 25th Infantry Division, who was killed by a sniper while serving in Mosul, Iraq, in 2005. Players on both sides wore a button on their jersey with Nainoa Hoe’s image.

Allen Hoe declared yesterday’s match a "absolutely incredible day."

"It was just awesome," Hoe said. "There were big smiles everywhere."

The event saw a mingling of military and civilian, polo aficionado and curious onlooker. While women in wide-brimmed sun hats sipped from long champagne flutes in the VIP area, sunburned soldiers downfield experimented with espresso martini recipes and young parents snapped photos of their toddlers at the nearby pony rides.

Among the added attractions were horse rides courtesy of Gunstock Ranch and an exhibition of historic military equipment hosted by the Hawaii Historic Arms Association.

Jackie Chapman of Red Hill brought her sons Elijah, 5, and Noah, 3, to the exhibit to check out "cool Army stuff." While Elijah learned the safe way to hold a pistol, Noah scanned the crowd with a pair of binoculars as large as his head.

"It was a great idea to host it here to take advantage of the field," Chapman said. "It’s not very often that the general public gets a chance to see how beautiful Palm Circle is."