The United States Army acquired 322 acres (1.30 km2) of the peninsula when President Woodrow Wilson signed executive order 2900 establishing the Kuwaaohe Military Reservation. Little is known about the operations of the fort, however, at the end of World War I, the military property was leased for ranching. In 1939, Kuwaaohe was reactivated, subjected to many name changes to include Camp Ulupa’u, and eventually named Fort Hase.
Prior to and during World War II, Fort Hase grew from a humble beginning as a defense battalion to a major unit of the Windward Coastal Artillery Command. U.S. Navy planners began to eye the peninsula in 1939 as the home of a strategic seaplane base. They liked the isolated location, the flat plains for an airfield and the probability of flights into prevailing trade winds. In 1939, the Navy acquired 464 acres (1.88 km2) of the peninsula for use of the PBY Catalina patrol seaplanes for long-range reconnaissance flights. One year later, the Navy owned all of the Mokapu Peninsula except for Fort Hase. In 1939 the Navy awarded a base construction contract to the Pacific Naval Air Base Contractors consortituim (PNABC).[5] Most of the original contract work at Kaneohe had been completed when the Navy transferred what was undone to the Seabees of the 56th Naval Construction Battalion on 1 April 1943.[5] The 112th CB was tasked with adding a second runway 400' x 5,000' to the airfield. That was completed by the men of the 74th CB.[5]
During the 1941 Attack on Pearl Harbor, portions of Hangar 1 were destroyed. In 1987, the hangar and five sea plane ramps were designated a National Historic Landmark.
7 December 1941, the Imperial Japanese Navy attacked the air station minutes prior to the attack on Pearl Harbor. Of the 36 Catalinas stationed here, 27 were destroyed and six others were damaged, along with 18 sailors who perished in the attack. The first Japanese aircraft destroyed in action were shot down at Kaneohe, along with Aviation Ordnanceman Chief Petty Officer John William Finn becoming one of the first Medal of Honor recipients of World War II for valor on that day.
During the war, the air station was a major training base in the Pacific Theater. The Fleet Gunnery School trained thousands of Navy gunners. There was a school for celestial navigation, sonar, aircraft recognition, and turret operations. Flight instructors also trained Navy and Marine Corps aviators in flight operations prior to being sent to a forward combat area. Following the war, Fort Hase had become a skeleton outpost and the air station consisted of limited air operations, a small security detachment, and a federal communications center.
President Richard Nixon shaking hands with Senator Hiram Fong prior to departing for Guam from Kaneohe Marine Corps Air Base on February 20, 1972
In 1949, the Navy decommissioned the air station. On 15 January 1952, the U.S. Marine Corps recommissioned the idle airfield Marine Corps Air Station Kaneohe Bay, making it an ideal training site for a combined air/ground team.[8] Station Operations and Headquarters Squadron supported flight operations until 30 June 1972, when Station Operations and Maintenance Squadron (SOMS) was commissioned in its place. SOMS served until it was disbanded on 30 July 1994. Marine Corps Air Facility Kaneohe Bay was formed on that date and continues today to serve the operational needs of the aviation community.
The installation was re-designated as an Air Station (vice an Air Facility) in May 2009.[12] At the same time, the airfield was named for Major generalMarion Eugene Carl, and the USMC announced that new squadrons would be stationed there.
On 15 January 2016, two Marine helicopters from the air station collided over the North Shore of Oahu, leaving twelve U.S. Marines missing and feared dead.[13]
Based units
Flying and notable non-flying units based at MCAS Kaneohe Bay.[14]
On the afternoon of 20 November 2023, a United States Navy P-8 overshot the runway on landing, coming to rest in the water beyond the runway's end. All nine crew members onboard escaped the aircraft with minor injuries.[15]
^ abcBuilding the Navys Bases in World War II, History of the Bureau of Yards and Docks and Civil Engineering Corps, 1940-46, Chapter XXII, Pearl Harbor, part 1, Oahu, p.[1]
^"Air Station Salutes". Hawaii Marine. Vol. 11, no. 2. Marine Corps Base Hawaii. 13 January 1982. p. 4. Retrieved 13 January 2021.
^"Kaneohe Naval Air Station". National Historic Landmark summary listing. National Park Service. Archived from the original on 1 March 2007. Retrieved 4 July 2008.
^Kaminski, Tom (2021). "US Marine Corps Aviation / US Navy Aviation". US Navy & Marine Corps Air Power Yearbook 2021. Key Publishing. pp. 104–115. ISBN978-1-913870-13-3.
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