National Park Service looks to take Ford Island visitors back to 1941

A bit of 1941 ambience — and a more comprehensive telling of Ford Island’s military past — will emerge with a National Park Service plan to restore historic chief petty officer bungalows on the Pearl Harbor isle that was ground zero for the Japanese attack that launched America into World War II.

In 2008 President George W. Bush established the World War II Valor in the Pacific National Monument, which includes the USS Arizona Memorial. The proclamation specifically required the repair of the bungalows by the Department of the Interior.

The Park Service has marshaled enough money to start the restoration of Building 29, and plans to eventually restore the other family residences with period furniture and have public tours.

“What we would like to do is create a 1941 neighborhood and interpret that neighborhood as peace was slipping away and as war was approaching,” said Daniel Martinez, chief historian for the Valor in the Pacific monument.

The Park Service said the former married chief petty officer bungalows, built between 1923 and 1939 on the island’s northeastern tip, are both sentinel and witness to the rise of military aviation and the devastation of Dec. 7.

Battleship Row was just 100 yards away. Burned and otherwise wounded sailors pulled themselves ashore into the yards of the homes. During the salvage of the overturned battleship USS Oklahoma, cabling machinery ran through the neighborhood to right the big ship. The six CPO bungalows make up the remaining Navy prewar quarters built for noncommissioned officers on Ford Island.

“What’s lost now on Ford Island, and what we hope to restore, is that for nearly five decades, that was Naval Air Station Pearl Harbor,” Martinez said. “These chief petty officer bungalows were attached to the Navy’s air wing.”

Most people who set foot on Ford Island “don’t realize they are walking on one of the most historic naval air stations — really the birthplace of naval air in the Pacific,” Martinez said. The Army also had air operations on Ford Island.

As part of a Building 29 restoration that so far has received $485,000 in funding, the dilapidated 1923 bungalow has been deconstructed. Reconstruction will begin soon and is expected to wrap up in March, the Park Service said.

“Imagine that kind of experience, almost an experience of going back in time and walking among these bungalows and being able to go into a restored (residence) with 1941 furnishings — which is a plan that we’re trying to develop,” Martinez said.

The Park Service has pictures of furnishings, including bamboo cane chairs and floral print cushions. It even has a couple of original clothesline poles, he said.

Under Bush’s proclamation, the Park Service received responsibility for the bungalows, which the Navy let fall into disrepair, along with the USS Oklahoma and USS Utah memorials and mooring quays F6, F7 and F8, which constituted part of Battleship Row.

The Park Service hopes to restore the other CPO bungalows as well as give visitors “a glimpse of the history of the naval air station, but also bring them in conjunction with one of the most spectacular views of Battleship Row,” Martinez said.

Although both the Battleship Missouri Memorial and Pacific Aviation Museum Pearl Harbor operate in close proximity, a plan to have tours to the eventually restored bungalows is something that still needs to be figured out. The Park Service also wants to bring visitors to the Utah and Oklahoma memorials.

In the meantime the Park Service and its nonprofit partner, Pacific Historic Parks, are looking for donations to help with restoration of the neighborhood.