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** QSL via WØCN ** DAN HAUSAUER, 1807 Mason Hill Dr, Alexandria, VA 22307
QSL Direct or LoTW only
DX: Please send SAE with Green Stamps/ IRCs
USA: Please send SASE
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The QSL card photo (above) is of the Hickam Air Force Base Missing Man Formation Monument in Aloha 'Aina Park behind the Officers' Club and at the entrance to Pearl Harbor. It is dedicated to the men and women of the USAF and is the Air Forces's traditional symbol to honor comrades who have lost their lives in battle.
Shortly after 0800 on 7 December 1941, Japanese dive-bombers and fighters struck Hickam Field simultaneously with the attack on Pearl Harbor. The bombers first attacked Hickam's hangar row and fight test line, blasting the B-17s and B-18s, which were parked so close together that one hit caused several plans to burst into flame, and then attacked the troop barracks and mess hall facility.
Photo: Hickam Field Flagpole Circle, 7 December 1941. Hickam Field's flag waves as the Big Barracks burns in the background.
Hickam's hangar row and the Big Barracks were the main targets of attack on 7 December 1941. On that day, 60 men lost their lives in the barracks out of the total of 189 who died on Hickam during the attack.
The flag that flew from this flagpole during the 7 December attack has been preserved and placed on display in the PACAF Headquarters lobby next to the Courtyard of Heroes. This same flag few over the Big Three Conference in Potsdam attended by President Truman, Winston Churchill, and Joseph Stalin. It also few over the White House when the Japanese surrendered.
When completed in September 1940, Hickam's "Big Barracks" could house 3,200 troops, making it the world's largest single military barracks at the time. Known informally as "Hotel Hickam", the facility was built around the huge consolidated mess hall that could seat nearly 5,000 men in two-hour periods allowed for meals.
Since 1957 the building has been the Pacific Air Forces Headquarters (PACAF HQ). Pockmarks and shell holes can still be seen in the building's walls today. Inside the building the Courtyard of Heroes commemorates the men and women of the Pacific Air Forces who died during the three major conflicts in the Pacific Theater: World War II, the Korean War, and the Vietnam War.
Today Hickam Field is part of Joint Base Pearl Harbor Hickam.
"Let us pray that peace be now restored to the world and that God will preserve it always. These proceedings are closed!" General MacArthur, September 2, 1945, aboard USS Missouri in Tokyo Bay. With those words, World War II was finally over.
USS Battleship Missouri Memorial: www.ussmissouri.com.
USS Battleship Missouri Radio Room, Amateur Radio Station KH6BB: www.kh6bb.org.
USS Arizona Memorial: www.nps.gov/valr
242093 Last modified: 2014-02-08 15:35:53, 3878 bytes
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