Bellows History

Covered with sugar cane and guava bushes, Bellows Air Force Station had a simple beginning. In 1917, Waimanalo Military Reservation was established by Presidential Executive Order. The land was leased from Waimanalo Sugar Plantation. The only clearings were for training areas and tents where the men slept.

In 1933 the land was renamed to Bellows Field. The name honors the memory of Lt Franklin Barney Bellows, a World War I hero. Bellows Field was a training area for the infantry, coast artillery, and Air Corps. There was a wooden traffic control tower. The single asphalt runway was originally 75 feet wide and only 983 feet long.

On July 22, 1941, Bellows Field became a separate permanent military post under the jurisdiction of the Commanding General, Hawaiian Department. Overnight, an accelerated construction program began and Bellows began to grow. Two-story wooden barracks and a new and larger runway started filling the landscape.

Today there is little evidence of the old flying field days. The runways that were at their peak in the late 1940’s are overgrown. Six years after the attack on O’ahu, the first beach cabins began construction. Today, Detachment 2, 18th Force Support Squadron presently operates Bellows AFS. Much of Waimanalo community remains the same as it was more than 50 years ago.