Fort MacArthur became key for coastal defense
Editor’s note: This is the second of two parts on the history of Fort MacArthur. Part One was published last week.
Fort MacArthur in San Pedro got its name not from Gen. Douglas MacArthur, but from his father, Lt. Gen. Arthur MacArthur.
Career soldier
Arthur MacArthur received the Congressional Medal of Honor in 1890 for his valor in battle as a 19-yearold soldier during the Civil War. He and Douglas MacArthur later became the first father and son duo to receive the Medal of Honor. Only politics kept him from rising to head of the entire U.S. Army near the end of his long and accomplished career.
So the Army chose instead
to honor him by naming its new fort, officially established in San Pedro on Oct. 31, 1914, after him.
World War I was already underway when construction on the new Army base began. Its original focus was to strengthen Southern California’s coastal defenses from attack and protect the Port of Los Angeles from invaders during a time of unrest in both Europe and Asia.
The Russo-Japanese war of 1904-05 jarred the U.S. War Department to act to protect the West Coast from the growing threat of imperialism.
To that end, installing artillery fortifications at the new fort became a main priority, in addition to the construction of barracks, administration buildings and other facilities.
Fort MacArthur had three distinct sections: the Upper Reservation, Middle Reservation and Lower Reservation. Long guns were placed in the Upper (batteries Osgood and Farley) and Middle (batteries Merriam and Leary) reservations, and smaller mortars in the Lower Reservation (batteries Saxton and Barlow).
The arrival of the giant guns caused a commotion in San Pedro. Residents watched as the 55-ton tubes had to be inched up the hill to the batteries dug into the hillsides by giant dollies normally used to move houses.
Construction continued as the war raged in Europe. The initial batteries were completed in 1917. Earlier that year, units of the regular Army and California National Guard troops had begun to occupy the post. The U.S. entered The Great War in November 1917 and, by the following March, trainees at the fort had begun to be sent overseas to fight.
At war’s end, the fort returned to its role as a coastal artillery base. By 1919, additional buildings, including its hospital, had been completed, and the gun installations were fully built out by 1923. (Several other installations would be added over the years.)
Concerns were raised during the 1920s over the adequacy of the armaments at the fort, so more large 155 mm guns were installed. Called “railway guns,” they were mounted on rails to absorb the strong recoil amid firing.
Test firings of these guns so rattled the nerves of San Pedro residents during the mid-1920s that the War Department finally had to call an end to the firings in 1928.
Anti-aircraft guns also were added to the fort’s arsenal between the First and Second World Wars in response to the rise in sophistication of military aircraft. All the military hardware began to be beefed up considerably ahead of World War II, the outbreak of which made the fort a key piece in California’s coastal defense system.
Perhaps the most famous wartime incident involving Fort MacArthur occurred in the early morning hours of Feb. 25, 1942. A rumored attack by Japanese aircraft off the California coast caused a major panic. Searchlights combed the sky while coastal anti-aircraft guns fired off rounds at the supposed invaders.
Japan claimed after the war that it never sent airplanes to attack the American mainland, and the U.S. government blamed the panic on a misplaced weather balloon. The Fort MacArthur Museum annually commemorates the “Battle of Los Angeles,” also known as “The Great L.A. Air Raid” on the grounds of the fort.
Fort MacArthur took on a major role during World War II as a training ground and induction center for Army troops headed oversees. More than 750,000 troops passed through its portals.
On July 1, 1945, it became a Separation Center, processing thousands of GIs returning from the war. In the late 1940s, its personnel declined considerably and most of its artillery emplacements were dismantled.
Beginning in 1954, the fort became an important component of the Nike missile system, a collection of missile sites that formed a defense umbrella during the Cold War. At its peak, the operation managed 18 separate Nike missile sites from Fort MacArthur, including the one installed on its own Upper Reservation.
As that program wound down during the early 1970s, the Nike sites began to shutter. By 1974, the missiles were declared obsolete and the Army began to reduce its presence at the fort. It kept its administrative center on the Middle Reservation, but eventually disposed of the rest of its land.
In 1977, the fort was declared surplus by the Army, which transferred the Upper and Lower Reservation lands to the City of Los Angeles. The Upper Reservation was transformed into the Angels Gate Cultural Center, which opened in 2000, and the John and Muriel Olguin Campus of San Pedro High School, which opened in 2015.
The Lower Reservation was cleared, dredged and developed into the Cabrillo Marina, a small-boat facility that opened in 1986.
In September 1979, the Department of Defense approved the transfer of Fort MacArthur from the Army to the Air Force. The move became official on Oct. 1, 1982. The fort’s Middle Reservation now provides housing for USAF personnel stationed at the Los Angeles Air Force Base in El Segundo.
The Fort MacArthur Museum continues to be the on-site authority for the installation’s history, which remains much more detailed and fascinating than the brief sketch I’ve posted here. The museum is closed temporarily due to the coronavirus pandemic, but its website remains lively and informative in the meantime.
Sources: Daily Breeze files. “Fort MacArthur,” Fort Wiki website; “Fort MacArthur History,” by California Center for Military History, California Military Department, Historic California Posts, Camps, Stations and Airfields website; Fort MacArthur Museum website; Images of America: Fort MacArthur, by Stephen R. Nelson and David K. Appel, Arcadia Publishing Co., 2005; Los Angeles Herald files; Los Angeles Times files; San Pedro News Pilot files; Wikipedia.