Veteran, VA manager and longtime veteran advocate Michael C. Soucie Sr. has been elected to the board of directors of the Friends of the Natatorium. Michael, who retired as a chief petty officer after 22 years in the Navy, returned to civilian life as a case manager and clinical supervisor in Kalaeloa for the United States Veterans Initiative, or U.S.VETS, the largest provider of services to homeless veterans in the country. He has since moved to the Department of Veterans Affairs, assisting veterans struggling with mental illness with their return to gainful employment. Michael now oversees all work therapy programs
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Monthly Archives June 2013
Time Travel: The Natatorium 59 Years Ago
This’ll take you back! A look at photos taken across territorial Honolulu and Oahu in 1954, five years before statehood. Ala Wai Canal. Ala Moana Park. Waikiki. Chinatown. Schofield Barracks. Kaneohe Bay. Kamehameha Highway. Wow; how things have changed in less than six decades! And pay particular attention to the three photos onscreen from 35 seconds to 50 seconds into the video. Yup: That’s the Natatorium. Being used. Being enjoyed. Being exactly what it was meant to be: A place to honor those from Hawaii who served in World War I, simply by enjoying the freedoms they fought to protect.
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The Natatorium Problem: A Concrete Solution?
Natatorium naysayers argue – among other absurdities – that an ocean pool can’t survive being in, well, the ocean. We demonstrated with a post on the ocean pools of Australia just how wrong that kind of thinking is. Turns out, though, that we could have gone a couple of continents farther on and about 20 centuries earlier to make the point. To ancient Rome, in fact. As the science news site Futurity reports, the Romans were whizzes at building concrete maritime structures that have – literally – stood the test of time. Wharves, breakwaters, other harbor structure – all made
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