Monday, April 17, 2006

The Parade Ground Fort Lawton 4/16/06






Two views from the parade ground at Fort Lawton. One view looks NW showing the one remaining building on the west side. I also dug out a shot from winter of '05 which shows the building up close. Another view looks east up toward the ridge where the officers quarters are still standing and the radar dome dominates the skyline. There used to be a whole row of buildings on the lower west side of the the parade ground but the government decided they were too much trouble to maintain and burned them down which opened up the view to the west but really abolished the historical look and feel of the place. Now it is just another park.


There used to be a rifle range south west of the parade ground with the firing toward the bluffs. Early in 1942 my father was at this fort to qualify with the 30-06 for the army. He achieved the top rating (expert ?) with the rifle but only marksman with the Colt .45. Then he was off to MIT for a one month crash course on Radar after which he was shipped off to Iceland to command a radar installation where he remained for the duration of the conflict. When I was running out here in the late '60s you could still find shell casings laying in the grass.

Hard Light on Elliott Bay - 04/16/06