Cactus HQ

[ww2instc]

I was looking into the Cactus Headquarters during the battle of Guadalcanal, and Geiger set up his Headquarters in a Japanese-built wooden structure, aka: The Pagoda.
By October 1942, the radio equipment was moved into a newly completed radio tunnel, and the Pagoda was destroyed.
After Geiger was replaced by admiral Marc Mitscher, Mitscher made his Operations HQ in a Quonset hut by a river.

So my questions are:

• Were those tunnels only used from October till the beginning of February?

• Was the Ground Control, starting from February, in a Quonset hut?
• How many people were present in the Operations HQ?

 

[Barrett]

I wish I could remember who among my Cactus contacts mentioned it,
but
The Pagoda was demolished partly because it was old but partly because the roof reflected moonlight, which was devoutly to be avoided...

 

[Retattack]

I wish I could remember who among my Cactus contacts mentioned it,
but
The Pagoda was demolished partly because it was old but partly because the roof reflected moonlight, which was devoutly to be avoided...

Remember reading claims it was used as an aiming point. This one is typical:

Early in the morning on the 14th, Geiger and his staff emerged from a defensive trench to find a wrath of destruction. Only five SDBs were operational and virtually all of his Wildcats were damaged or destroyed.30 The radio station was demolished, the Pagoda badly damaged, and 41 officers and men were killed, included the commanding officer, executive officer, a flight leader, and two other pilots of a Marine Scouting Unit.31 Geiger had some quick decisions to make, as the attack wiped out the island"s offensive power. He needed to do everything in his power to reduce losses and deceive the enemy. His first decision was to bulldoze" The Pagoda," which provided too convenient of a target for the Japanese. He moved his Command Post to the secondary airfield known as the "Cow Pasture," outside of artillery range. In addition, wrecked planes from the bone yard were lined up wing to wing as inviting targets for Japanese pilots to waste their ammunition.32 Next, he had to address the fuel situation, because virtually all of the aviation gasoline went up inflames. There was a desperate search for fuel supplies and Geiger"s men resorted to draining gas tanks from wrecks in order to provision the few working aircraft. He also submitted emergency requests for fuel resupplies, which incoming transport planes and escort ships delivered to CACTUS.

https://apps.dtic.mil/sti/tr/pdf/AD1019687.pdf