January-February - Air Defense Artillery

Jand-Control at Fort Story
k of the fore dunes at Fort Story. on Cape Henry,
illia. the homeless sands have been brought to a perent
stand so that not only h3\'e they ceased to menace
ll1illions of dollars worth of defe~se structures and
anisms at Fort Story. but have been made to produce a
dIV verdant growth that effectively conceals their man-
J/e might.
r 1921, when a site was selected among the sand dunes
S~pe Henry for the construction of fortifications. it was
ht that the dunes had stabilized. These dunes ranoe
, 0
h ration from fifteen to ninety feet and were considered
~ an asset to the site because of the natural protection
.ded. However. after about $350,000 had been spent
defense structures, it was noted that the drifting sand
I raking new courses. It began to cover up the defense
lures, to get into the mechanisms of the guns. into
ments, and even into buildings. It had to be dug away
the structures before entrance could be made, and
spring. huge guantities of sand that had drifted in
g the winter had to be cleared away. In one place, at
e ntrance to a tunnel, from tweh-e to fifteen hundred
h yards had to be removed and disposed of periodically.
1 situation became critical. Somebody had to do someg
about it.
n he Engineers did. And the man who originated the
el()(1 and carried out the job was Arthur P. \Vare. J\'Ir.
e! has been working for the ll. S. Engineer Department
1. ) years; his father worked a lifetime for the Engineers;
lis grandfather, who took charge of the 1I. S. Engineer
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By Anne Douglas
~_."
'.
GRice at Fort J\ lonroe. \ 'irginia. in 1863, worked an extra
long lifetime for the Engineers-such a long lifetime that
when he reached
take uneguivocal
the aoe o of 91 the Government
action in making him retire.
decided to
And did
Granpa \\lare strenuously object to that!
J\ Ir. \ Yare knows Cape Henry. its winds, its tides, every
contour of its surface. with an intimacy that comes only
from long years of living and working daily on a particular
bit of terrain. After studying the course of these sands, experimenting
and trying out plans with beach grass, bay
bushes and other native growth. he decided that the most
effecti\'e results could be obtained by the use of pine
needles. brush fences. black locust and loblolly pine seedlings
in the following manner. An area to be fixed was laid
out in blocks approximately 200 feet by 100 feet. varying
with the topography. Brush fences from three to four feet
high were constructed arollnd these blocks, then the blocks
were covered with pine needles. Directly behind the fences,
a row of black locust seedlings was planted about four feet
apart; then starting live feet back of the locust, loblolly
pine seedlings were planted all across the block in rows five
feet apart, in a checkerboard design.
The brush fences acted as the first echelon of defense in
breaking the force of the wind. The pine needles, the second
echelon, prevented the sand from drifting and blowing
away from the roots of the seedlings and at the same time
helped to hold the moisture in the sand. Thus the seedlings
were given a chance to dig in and establish a permanent
base. The black locust trees, being fast growing, were
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A dune area at Fort Story, 1924.
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