Building 419 in Paradise

        Building 419 in Paradise

  I wrote about this building some time ago in my "Letters From Paradise." In visiting Sand Island recently with my friend Ray, I just can't get it out of my head. Some of you probably never read it. So here it goes.

  In an area of Honolulu known only to a few and forgotten by many, is this huge warehouse, built in 1935, and slated to be torn down, along with its warehouse companions. The wood is riddled by termites, and is thought to be haunted by ghosts. The building was once home to sorrow and grief. It was here that the bodies of servicemen were brought for inspection, given a brief religious service, then placed in coffins to be sent home. Beginning with Korea, then in 1960's and '70s, war dead from Vietnam came through here. Building 419 served as an over-flow mortuary during the periods of heavy fighting at Tan Son Nhut and Da Nang. An embalmer who worked there estimated that 40 to 80 bodies arrived every month.
For most of the service members killed in vietnam, if a home town was east of the Mississippi River, the first port of call for entry into the U.S. was Dover, Delaware. If the hometown was west of the Mississippi, the port of call was Oakland, California. The huge warehouse is rented by a woman named Sandii Kamau'nu, as a military surplus store and museum. She is determined that this important bit of history not be forgotten. But it is a race between the wrecking ball and the termites. High above the wood crates,ponchos, and $7.49 helmets hangs a quiet sign which reads: "All Gave Some,Some Gave All."
Ray and I went to building 419, and found that it is warehouse for Japanese merchandise. How soon we forget that those $7.49 helmets were once sold for much more.

                Aloha
                Grant