{"id":14744,"date":"2015-12-02T08:10:22","date_gmt":"2015-12-02T18:10:22","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/retireenews.wordpress.com\/?p=14744"},"modified":"2026-04-29T20:00:59","modified_gmt":"2026-04-29T20:00:59","slug":"my-back-pages-armories-named-after-hawaii-guard-leaders","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/dod.hawaii.gov\/retireenews\/2015\/12\/02\/my-back-pages-armories-named-after-hawaii-guard-leaders\/","title":{"rendered":"My Back Pages: Armories named after Hawai\u2018i Guard leaders"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Contributing editor\u00a0<\/em><\/span>Stephen Lum\u00a0<\/em>provided this article and the photographs for this Retiree News post.<\/em><\/span><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Former Big Island armory was named after former 299th Infantry commander<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

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click on photographs to enlarge<\/em><\/span><\/p>\n\n\n\n

The Hawai\u2018i Army National Guard\u2019s Honoka\u2018a Armory, constructed May 1965, was named the Lester W. Bryan Armory, after the former 299th Regiment Combat Team commander, Colonel Lester (Leicester Winthrop) \u201cBill\u201d Bryan. The armory-gymnasium, built on the campus of Honoka\u2018a High and Intermediate Schools cost less than $300k. The gym was used by the Guard\u2019s Company C, 2nd Battalion, 299th Infantry unit and the Honoka\u2018a schools. As part of the Base Realignment and Closure process by the U.S. federal government, the armory was officially turned over the Honoka\u2018a Schools October 13, 2006.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The Boston-born Bryan, who studied forestry at the Massachusetts College of Agriculture, came to Hawai\u2018i in 1921. The forester was soon assigned to Hawai\u2018i, where here stay until his retirement in 1961 and even continued as a consultant after he retired. Over the years he directed the planting of more than 10 million trees, established six nurseries and 22 arboreta, introduced many different species of plants, and helped launch the vanda orchid industry. He helped preserve many endangered plant species and planted many species of native trees at Manuka State Park, Ka\u2018\u016b. He also directed development of other state parks on the Big Island.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

He began his military service in 1918, enlisting as an Army private and served in World War I. In 1933, he joined the Hawai\u2018i Army Guard as a second lieutenant. Bryan was a captain and commanded a rifle company when Hawai\u2018i Guard was activated October 15, 1940 for World War II. He rose to lieutenant colonel by deactivation of the Hawai\u2018i Guard.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

He credited with the post-World War II reorganization of the 299th Infantry Regimental Combat Team on Hawai\u2018i, Maui and Moloka\u2018i. He retired from the Guard in 1955.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Contributing editor\u00a0Stephen Lum\u00a0provided this article and the photographs for this Retiree News post. Former Big Island armory was named after former 299th Infantry commander click on photographs to enlarge The Hawai\u2018i Army National Guard\u2019s Honoka\u2018a Armory, constructed May 1965, was named the Lester W. Bryan Armory, after the former 299th Regiment Combat Team commander, Colonel Lester […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":189,"featured_media":14747,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"_relevanssi_hide_post":"","_relevanssi_hide_content":"","_relevanssi_pin_for_all":"","_relevanssi_pin_keywords":"","_relevanssi_unpin_keywords":"","_relevanssi_related_keywords":"","_relevanssi_related_include_ids":"","_relevanssi_related_exclude_ids":"","_relevanssi_related_no_append":"","_relevanssi_related_not_related":"","_relevanssi_related_posts":"58077,41570,56582,61791,4865,62604","_relevanssi_noindex_reason":"","footnotes":"","_links_to":"","_links_to_target":""},"categories":[12399,15],"tags":[4959,4997,5473,6300,7938],"class_list":["post-14744","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-1960s","category-history","tag-hawaii-army-national-guard-hiarng","tag-hawaii-island","tag-honokaa","tag-kau","tag-my-back-pages"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/dod.hawaii.gov\/retireenews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/14744","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/dod.hawaii.gov\/retireenews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/dod.hawaii.gov\/retireenews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dod.hawaii.gov\/retireenews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/189"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dod.hawaii.gov\/retireenews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=14744"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/dod.hawaii.gov\/retireenews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/14744\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":87230,"href":"https:\/\/dod.hawaii.gov\/retireenews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/14744\/revisions\/87230"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dod.hawaii.gov\/retireenews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/14747"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/dod.hawaii.gov\/retireenews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=14744"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dod.hawaii.gov\/retireenews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=14744"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dod.hawaii.gov\/retireenews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=14744"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}