Officials seeking information on rural parcel used for bomb
practice during World War II
The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers is revisiting what was once
known as
”
Bomb Target No. 5, Hollister,
”
a dry-farmed plot of land that during World War II was used by
Navy flyers as a practice dive-bombing site.
Officials seeking information on rural parcel used for bomb practice during World War II
The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers is revisiting what was once known as “Bomb Target No. 5, Hollister,” a dry-farmed plot of land that during World War II was used by Navy flyers as a practice dive-bombing site.
The goal is to determine whether the site, located off of Santa Ana Valley Road on what is now the Lightning Tree Ranch, contains unexploded or discarded bomb fragments that could pose a hazard. Some locals recall watching the bombing runs and even collecting bomb pieces after the site was no longer used.
“We’re looking for potential contamination from bombing targets used back in World War II,” said Paul Townsend, project manager of the Corps of Engineers’ Sacramento district.
The Department of Defense is ranking similar sites around the country to determine whether and when to clean up the sites.
“Most environmental laws came into play in the 1970s and 80s, so beginning in 1986 we started inventorying formerly-used defense sites,” said Townsend, adding that there are thousands of such sites under review. “We’re required to put out a public notice upon completion of the site inspection so that we’re following the circle of comprehensive environmental response.”
A three-quarter-page public notice in last week’s Pinnacle sought information from people who “have additional information about past activities” related to the former bomb target, which was used by the Naval Auxiliary Air Station at the Hollister Airport – then known as the Hollister Air Field – as well as other Navy and Army airmen during the early- to mid-1940s.
A site inspection report is available for public review at the San Benito County Free Library at 470 Fifth St.
The 440-acre site in question is bordered by Lone Tree Road on the north and Fairview Road to the west, with property access on Santa Ana Valley Road. According to a 1999 Corps of Engineers report, Paul Hudner in 1943 leased the property – gently rolling rangeland at the base of the Diablo mountain range – to the Navy, which had more than 30 such bombing and rocket targets in California and Nevada during the war.
It is believed that only practice bombs filled with inert material, such as sand, water or dye, were used during the bombing runs and that they didn’t contain fuses or other explosives.
“As far as we know the practice bombs weighed between eight and 100 pounds and were filled with sand,” Townsend said. “Sometimes they had a spotting charge – a pound or so of black powder – so when it hit the ground you could see where it landed.”
Records indicate that pilots dropped the practice bombs on outlined targets representing a 520-foot-long cruiser, a 180-foot-long submarine and a 100-foot-long circle.
Hollister resident Tom Stirewalt, who leased the land for grazing and dry-farming from 1963 until 2005, recalls finding bomb fragments on the property, but “nothing toxic or hazardous.”
Years before farming at the site, he recalls sitting with his cousins on a nearby fence “for hours and hours, watching the bombs being dropped,” almost exclusively on weekdays.
“It seemed at the time that the planes were 10 feet off the ground but they were probably 100 feet or more,” Stirewalt said. “Usually a squadron of three to eight planes would come in together, drop and immediately pull up.”
He and his cousins did not venture to the bombing target site “because we were old enough to know what was going on. We never went out there because you didn’t know when they were coming.”
Stirewalt recalls that if an animal such as a jackrabbit bolted as the planes approached, the pilots “forgot the target and tried to hit that. It was very entertaining.” He also remembers AWOL military men under guard being led around the site to pick up the bomb casings.
“They would arrive in a paddy wagon thing and go out and wander over the hills,” he said.
When Stirewalt and his father began farming at the site, it had already been disced by a tractor many times, so he only found fragments of the practice bombs. In the 1999 inspection report, former property owner Frank Christensen, who owned the property from 1969 to 1997, said he found three, eight-inch iron hollow bomb shell casings in the 1970s, but none after that.
He told investigators at the time that he didn’t remember what happened to the bomb remnants.
“I think the kids took them and did something with them,” he said. “They were hollow so we knew they were of no harm.”
The report also quoted the then-resident caretaker of the land, John Trebino, as saying that he and his brother would also sit along the fences during the war to watch the practice bombing runs. He recalled finding pieces of metal from the bombs, but nothing intact.
During a September 1998 site visit by the Corps of Engineers, an explosives expert from Fort Ord, as well as Stirewalt and Trebino, practice bomb casings were found on the ground and indications were that “more … miniature practice bombs are likely to remain in the area, close to the surface.”
Townsend said only inert materials were found during the surface check of the site, though subsequent investigations – if needed – could include a check beneath the dirt.
“That will be detailed in our work plan [which is expected in December],” he said. “We may do some more geophysics tests to get an idea just what’s left in the subsurface, if anything. If what we find is inert, we wouldn’t do any cleanup. If there’s some evidence that there are charges left in the practice bombs, that’s a hazard we’d want to reduce or eliminate.”
A copy of the final site inspection report will be placed in the library, Townsend said, and “will be ranked for future investigation in line with all other sites.” He estimates that any subsequent work at the site would not occur for “several years.”
