January 4, 1976.
It was the beginning of America’s bicentennial year year when nine people made an early morning landing on Kahoolawe to protest the island’s use as a U.S. Navy bombing range. We were part of a larger group that set out from Maalaea Harbor that morning. The rest turned back after a flyover and Coast Guard warning that boats entering the area of the island could be seized by the government.
Some hours later, the Coast Guard delivered an Assistant U.S. Attorney and Navy police to the beach where we had landed, and most of our group of nine were detained for being on the island unlawfully, and then shuttled on a CG launch to the waiting Coast Guard Cutter Mallow.
That’s me with the full beard, sitting closest to the camera along with Steve Morse. Gail Kawaipuna Prejean is seated in the stern, holding up a clenched fist, and the two Coast Guard men are unidentified.
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The controversy raged so long that journalist- author Scotty Stone, a naval reserve officer, was called up for active PR duty with the result that the exposure to native Hawaiian activism caused him to explore his own Native American roots. My granddaughter’s seventh grade Punahou class recently made a trip there.
Activists like these brought the end of Bombing Kahoolawe to fruition and began the process that cleaned much of the explosive armament off the Island.
Thanks for your efforts. The ending of the bombing was very welcome, even though we had gotten used to the house shaking and the dishes in the kitchen cabinets rattling every time a bomb exploded.
It was really bad for people in Lahaina.