Thomas Schoene wrote:First of all, the Army was reponsible for coast defense
nationwide. The

Army leadership would have been very opposed to having the Navy attempt to
take over the role. In any case, the Army was probably better suited to the
task. The Army Air Corps had more planes and pilots than the Navy, I
suspect. Also, defense of bases required a combined arms approach with both
fighters and anti-aircraft artillery, which was clearly more along the
Army's line.

Also, remember that there were not yet the huge numbers of planes and pilots
we think of later in the war. It made sense for the Navy to concentrate its
efforts on getting sufficient fighters and trained aircrew for its carrier
airwings. This was hard enough, IIRC, without also trying to provide
airfield defense squadrons.

--
Tom Schoene

Also
Budget was not there for the military as yet..
My Dad was there as a coast artilleryman (55thCA ) and on some of the pictures I
have found
of the gear they had. a lot of it was WWI issue.(in his army photo album taken
at that time.)( he arrived in 1940, was at Ft Ruger and Derussy until 1946)
pictures show bald tires on the units trucks 1940-1941. etc:
pictures of the planes at Wheeler and Bellows P-36 A-12 B-18