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Harbor Vigilance
1944 - 1945
From this camouflaged concrete observation post, Army and Navy personnel kept a round-the-clock vigil to protect Charleston Harbor. Built in 1944, this fortified underground installation housed the combined activities of the Navy's Harbor Entrance Control Post (HECP) and the Army's Harbor Defense Command Post (HDCP).
The Harbor Defense System included electronic surveillance and coastal lookouts, minefields, harbor gun batteries, minesweepers, patrol vessels, and aircraft. The system was controlled from here.
The observation platform and radio room, message center room, and operations room are equipped today as they were during World War II. If you walk downstairs you can visit some of these restored rooms, and step back into World War II.
Harbor Entrance Control Post / Harbor Defense Command Post
In the lower rooms, two officers and a crew of 36 staffed this "nerve center" day and night. From here they could coordinate air and sea forces and coastal artillery. |