Old photo leads WWII veteran’s family to Hawaii in his honor

On Friday the family of a World War II veteran who had always hoped to return to Hawaii got to see the part of the island he called home during his service, guided by one of the many photos he had kept.

During the war Brady Smith had been a U.S. Marine Corps aviator in the Pacific assigned to the aircraft carrier USS Vella Gulf, fighting in island campaigns before ultimately getting stationed on Oahu at Marine Corps Air Station Ewa — better known as Ewa Field. His daughter Jean Smith recalled that he always spoke fondly about Hawaii and that not long before his death in 2015, he finally began making plans to go — but never quite made it.

“He wanted to come back here and revisit it, and he always instilled in all of us to come back if we could,” said Smith as she stood under the former base’s Revetment 12, a concrete structure built to protect planes from aerial attacks. “So I’m doing this in his honor.”

For her the journey began with a photo dated 1946 of her father sitting by the structure, which at the time housed an F4U Corsair. Today it’s part of the Ewa Field Revetment District, which is now home to the Barbers Point Horse Stables. But it took some research to bring Smith and her family there.

Going off the picture, she did online research to find out where the photo may have been taken. It led her to the Barbers Point Riding Club. In March she sent an email asking to confirm whether the photo was taken there. As it turned out, Revetment 12 is where BPRC board President Robert Sotelo’s horse Fire­dancer currently lives. Smith asked whether her family could visit the site.

“When we talked about doing this, we decided we were going to do something special for these guys,” said Sotelo.

Members of the BPRC arranged for local Marine Corps JROTC cadets to greet the family when they arrived and took them to the Revetment, where they received gifts from the club and a Hawaiian blessing from an associate of the club. Smith broke into tears as she stood under the structure.

“That part of the military heritage here and the history associated with that is really important to us, to the majority of the folks that you’ll talk to out here,” said Sotelo, a Navy veteran. “We want to make sure that we keep things preserved, and it’s important to us to maintain that. So when you get an opportunity to have someone that can come out and reinforce that sort of the history behind that, it’s just very rewarding.”

Ewa Field was one of several military sites on Oahu attacked by the Japanese navy on Dec. 7, 1941. All 48 aircraft based there were destroyed in the attack, but the runway itself was not bombed and remained serviceable. MCAS Ewa became a hub for Marine Corps aviation throughout the war.

But by 1952 the Marines left it as jet aircraft became the standard for military fighters and the service moved its operations on Oahu to Kaneohe, while the expanding Naval Air Station Barbers Point absorbed what had been MCAS Ewa. Eventually, the Navy began keeping horses there for a time.

NAS Barbers Point closed in 1999, but the Navy still owns much of the land. That includes the Revetment District, which the BPRC has rented out from the service. However, the Navy and companies like the Hunt Development Group have discussed ambitious plans for Southwest Oahu, some of which have irked preservation- minded community members.

Valerie Van der Veer, BPRC community liaison, said that years ago they were sure the Navy was going to shut them down. She said what’s important is “the stewardship of the facility, so that we can do things like this in a nice environment and have people come out and say ‘wow.’” Van der Veer said she hopes visits like the one Friday can help reinforce the site’s importance.

Jean Smith said she was deeply moved to finally walk the island her father remembered so fondly. She had with her a book full of photos he had saved from his time in the war and after in Hawaii, including a photo of him and fellow Marines relaxing at Ewa Beach and one of him in Waikiki. Her sister Julie Schwab said their father saved everything from photos to newspaper clippings. She said that growing up, she doesn’t think she fully appreciated them.

“As a child you see this so many times, and Dad wants to go down memory lane,” she said. “Now I would love to sit down and listen to it.”