Your Engineering Heritage:

Historic Radar at Pearl Harbor and Beyond

by Michael N. Geselowitz

7 December 2001 marked the 60th anniversary of the Japanese attack on the U.S. base at Pearl Harbor in Oahu, Hawaii. That seminal event in 20th-century history has been recognized in various ways, and dedications and commemorations abounded during this decimal-anniversary year.

While the site is surely an important landmark in political and military history, few realize that it is also a landmark in technological history. Specifically, in February 2000 the IEEE Hawaii Section dedicated the Opana Radar Site at Kahuku, Oahu, directly north across the island from Pearl Harbor, as an "IEEE Milestone in Electrical and Computer History." This dedication came with the following citation:

"On December 7, 1941, an SCR-270b radar located at this site tracked incoming Japanese aircraft for over 30 minutes until they were obscured by the island ground clutter. This was the first wartime use of radar by the United States military, and led to its successful application throughout the theater."

Work on the SCR-270, the first long-range search radar developed in the United States, started in 1937 at the Army Signal Corps Electronic Laboratories at Camp Evans, Fort Monmouth, New Jersey. The Defense and Electronics System Center of Westinghouse (Baltimore, Md.) received a production contract in 1940. In July 1941, the company rushed one of the first production models to Hawaii, where it was installed amid growing tension between the United States and Japan.

At 7:02 a.m. on 7 December 1941, two soldiers who were operating the Opana Radar set detected a large flight of planes approaching Oahu from the north at a distance of 136 miles. One of the operators, Joseph Lockard, telephoned the information center at Fort Shafter and reported the incoming planes. Joe McDonald manned the switchboard that morning, and he was sure that this call was serious. But the warning was ignored, and minutes later Hickam Field was hit by the first bombs of the attack.

Interestingly, the initial application for an IEEE Milestone from the IEEE Hawaii Section caused a great deal of discussion within the IEEE History Committee; in fact, it forced them to confront the meaning of "technological achievement." The innovative hardware worked perfectly, but the people involved did not utilize the new technology properly — that is, the chain of command ignored the warning — so the technology did not do its job at all. The design was well executed; the result was just ignored.

While the History Committee debated the circumstances and interpretations, IEEE-USA moved to recognize all three of the involved sites with special plaques: Camp Evans; the Westinghouse Electronics Division; and Opana Station. In 2000, the History Committee placed a full Milestone plaque — recognized by the entire IEEE — at the site.

Where to Visit

For those interested in technological heritage, all three sites are fascinating to visit. The pleasures of Hawaii speak for themselves, and Pearl Harbor is a United States National Historic Landmark that includes the U.S.S. Arizona National Memorial. When you visit, be sure to stroll into the garden of the Hilton Turtle Bay Resort and look for the IEEE plaque that designates the Opana Radar Site as an IEEE Milestone in Electrical Engineering and Computing. You can also visit the IEEE History Center's website to find out more; it offers has a great deal of information — including photographs and personal accounts — about the Opana Milestone.

If you are near Baltimore, Westinghouse donated space, equipment, and funds to help establish the Historical Electronics Laboratory in Linthicum, Maryland, just south of their Electronics Center. In 1990 the museum obtained the original Opana radar set, which is on display alongside other fascinating artifacts from radar history.

Finally, you may also want to check out Camp Evans in New Jersey. Recently closed and transferred to the local county as part of the U.S. military base decommissioning process, local volunteers are taking advantage of Camp Evans' historical significance (in addition to the work done on the SCR-270, Camp Evans was a Marconi Station even before the U.S. Army took it over), to turn it into the InfoAge Learning Center for the public.

Michael N. Geselowitz is Director of the IEEE History Center at Rutgers University in New Brunswick, N.J. Visit the IEEE History Center's Web page at: www.ieee.org/organizations/history_center/.