Compiled by Ewa Historian John Bond
Kipapa Ammunition Storage Site (KASS) History
Army concrete ammunition tunnels on Oahu have been estimated to total at least 16 miles in length, from Koko Head to Moanalua.
The Kīpapa Ammunition Storage Sites (KASS) are located in the Kīpapa Gulch to the southeast of Wheeler Army Airfield on Oahu's central plateau and consists of 374.4 acres. During World War II, 1944, the Army Corps of Engineers built one of the most extensive sets of underground storage sites in the Hawaiian Islands. The sites contain 79 tunnels or magazines of standard size and shape excavated into the canyon walls of Kīpapa Gulch and fitted with large steel doors.
The Army Kipapa Ammunition Storage Sites (KASS), KASS are located within the Kipapa Stream Valley of Central Oahu, approximately 12 miles northwest of the city of Honolulu. It consists of two separate land areas: Lower Kipapa, which is located towards the southern portion of the stream valley, south of Mililani town and a half-mile west of the town of Waipio, and Upper Kipapa, which is located towards the northern portion of the stream valley adjacent to the southeastern side of Mililani town. The two areas, totaling approximately 400 acres, are separated by a distance of about one mile.
The Upper Kipapa facility contains 53 tunnels in Upper Kipapa, while the Lower Kipapa facility contains 26 tunnels dug into the rock formation of both sides of Kipapa gulch. In total, KASS has 70 buildings and structures over 50 years old in the RPLANS real property database; 68 of these are ammunition storage or air raid/fallout shelter with active historic status (listed, eligible, or contributing to an eligible historic district). There are an additional 2 air raid/fallout shelters not yet evaluated.
The Kipapa storage tunnel sites were constructed during World War II for the purpose of storing incendiaries and high explosives. The tunnels were subsequently used to store insecticides and chemical agents, primarily mustard gas, but also phosgene and lewisite. All of the tunnels have reportedly been sealed, except for one magazine in the Lower Kīpapa group utilized by the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) as a tsunami and earthquake detection station, Pacific Cooperative Studies Unit University of Hawaii, 2010.
At the onset of World War II, the Army was importing ammunition in huge quantities, requiring construction of ammunition storage facilities. Small facilities were built above ground, but the bulk of the ammunition was stored in massive underground storage facilities. The first to be developed was in Waikakalaua Gulch just south of Wheeler Field, as well as at Kipapa Gulch.
“Tunnels driven into the almost vertical walls of the two gorges would have entrances invisible from the air. To keep out bomb fragments, passageways to the storage chambers would be dog-legged or provided with baffles.”
The tunnel numbers are identified in historical records, but there are identified discrepancies with the current tunnel numbers. Possible reasons for the discrepancies are that the numbering changed or the tunnels referred to in the reports are actually located at another installation (i.e. Waikakalua or Waikele). Readily available documentation is missing these key details.
The historic reports documented many instances of leaking bombs. The extent of leaking is not usually described and there is little mention of soil; however, some photos clearly show leaking agent on the ground in some tunnels. It is not possible to tell which tunnels these are from the information garnered to this point. The records were originally secret or confidential, but have since been declassified. The date of declassification is not known at this time.
The tunnels in Lower Kipapa were put out of service and all munitions removed in the early-1960s. The last of the chemical munitions and gas identification kits were removed from the site in the early-1970s. The tunnels in Upper Kipapa were also put out of service at that time. After removal of the chemicals and ammunition, a few of the tunnels were used by the Army for other purposes which included prisoner of war (POW) training.
Kipapa Ammunition Storage Site, located in Kipapa Gulch, was comprised of three sections. The lower unit is accessed from the south side of the Kamehameha Highway Bridge and extends south to the Kipapa Navy Ammunition Storage Area. The other two units are in the gulch to the east of Mililani Town.
Other tunnel complexes were built, including Schofield Barracks, Wheeler Field, Fort Shafter and Fort Ruger. The tunnels at Wheeler Field and Fort Ruger were for ammunition storage. The tunnels at Fort Shafter included a bombproof radio station, an underground cold storage facility, an anti-aircraft command radio transmitter tunnel, and the Air Defense Command Post. (army-mil)
The property is excess to the needs of the Army and US Army Garrison (USAG)-HI plans to transfer the property to a private land owner following the performance of all required site investigations and potential remedial actions. Due to the former use of the property, it is critical to ensure that transfer does not present a risk.
An RI/FS was funded in FY14 to determine the nature and extent of contamination at the site. The RI fieldwork is currently underway. The RI/FS will determine the need for future phases of work.
This system of tunnels was the location of the primary storage for ordinance for B-17s and other bombers stationed just above at the Kipapa Army Airfield. The site was also used to store anti-tank and rifle fragmentation grenades. (army-mil)
Kipapa Ammunition Storage Site, located in Kipapa Gulch, was comprised of three sections. The lower unit is accessed from the south side of the Kamehameha Highway Bridge and extends south to the Kipapa Navy Ammunition Storage Area. The other two units are in the gulch to the east of Mililani Town.
By WW-II's end, the Army had built 37 miles of runways, 32 miles of taxiways, 2.7 million square yards of aircraft parking, and 470 aircraft bunkers.
Fort Ruger – Fort Shafter Tunnels
Other tunnel complexes were built, including Schofield Barracks, Wheeler Field, Fort Shafter and Fort Ruger. The tunnels at Wheeler Field and Fort Ruger were for ammunition storage. The tunnels at Fort Shafter included a bombproof radio station, an underground cold storage facility, an anti-aircraft command radio transmitter tunnel, and the Air Defense Command Post. (army-mil)
In connection with Richardson Hall there are three underground, bombproof tunnels in its vicinity. Tunnel 103 is presently a command center, while the current uses of tunnels 113 and 114 are unknown. National Register of Historic Places Inventory Fort Shafter.
Kunia Tunnels
Army construction during this period also included “The Hole” (now the Kunia Field Station,) a facility originally intended for airplane assembly (with a runway connection to Wheeler Field to the east.)
“The entrance appeared to lead only to a small dugout in a rolling hill, but at the end of a quarter-mile tunnel two elevators – one big enough for 20 passengers and the other able to carry four ½-ton trucks – gave access to a three-floor structure, self-sufficient even to a cafeteria that could serve 6,000 meals a day.”
“’The Hole’ was intended for plane assembly, but since it was not needed for such use, it proved ideal for the reproduction of maps and charts. Its huge air conditioning and ventilating systems provided easy control of temperature and humidity, and its fluorescent lighting furnished a flood of shadowless illumination.” (Allen; army-mil)
Kunia Regional SIGINT Operations Center
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kunia_Regional_SIGINT_Operations_Center
http://totakeresponsibility.blogspot.com/2013/10/the-hole.html
In a first, NSA allows news cameras into Kunia facility. And vets aren’t happy
Aliamanu Crater Tunnels
http://www.rcarchive.com/hhg/alia.html
In October 1941, work was started to convert the storage facility in the rim of Aliamanu Crater into a joint Army-Navy command post; although not completed at the time of the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor, the post was shortly after put into service by the island command.
To alleviate continued housing shortages in the early-1970s, the Army, Navy, and Marines developed a joint project at Āliamanu Military Reservation, once a World War II era Navy-Army command post and important ammunition storage facility.
The ammunition was moved to the Lualualei storage depot and the crater was transformed into a 2,600-unit housing development.
You can get an idea how HUGE these Waikakalaua Ammo Storage tunnels are by looking about halfway into this hike video
https://www.youtube.com/watch?reload=9&v=RClHh4gO6Q0
Apparently some ordinance cleanup was or will be done by 2015-20??
https://aec.army.mil/application/files/4715/0007/9167/HI-WAIK.pdf
http://imagesofoldhawaii.com/ammo-tunnels/
There are far more batteries and bunkers out there than meet the eye. Many who have had access to them discover inside them more than an echo and moldy interior.
"We're surprised every day. We find more and more," said John Bennett, a retired city prosecutor's investigator and member of the Coast Defense Study Group.
The military controlled one-third of O'ahu during the war years, and one Army official said there are probably 300 tunnels.
Sandii Kamaunu, owner of Military HQ on Sand Island Access Road, several years ago bought up a Civil Defense field hospital stored and long forgotten since the early to mid-1950s in a World War II gun battery in Kailua. She was flabbergasted by what she found.
The cache included hundreds of sealed crates. There were 200 cots and 200 wool blankets, splints, blood transfusion kits, porcelain bed pans and urinals, and vials of dried-up potassium penicillin crystalline for shots that Kamaunu says were given with "horse needles that hurt like hell." Some of the items bore 1940s dates.
All were like new, in the box, directions included.
Wayne Jones, the acting director of the O'ahu Civil Defense Agency, remembers inspecting the supplies.
"There was an old dentist's chair up there if I remember correctly, an old operating table — all stainless steel — but of no use to us," Jones said.
For decades, Ron Deisseroth and his mushroom business co-existed with the field hospital in twin 155-foot-deep bunkers, a spot that suited both. Sheltered beneath at least 200 feet of earth at the deepest point, Battery 405 — with kitchen, infirmary and bunks — originally supported two MK VI 8-inch Navy guns. Five similar batteries were built around the island. A facade meant to look like a two-story home — intended to throw off would-be invaders — once camouflaged the tunnel's entrance.
Deisseroth, who grew mushrooms from 1950 to about 1992, remembers schoolchildren trooping up the hill for a disaster preparedness drill.
"I guess they wanted them to know where to go in case of an attack," said the O'ahu man, who leased the property from Kane'ohe Ranch.
There are also many large tunnel systems on Oahu for
Artillery Gun Batteries to support 8 and 14 inch guns
