The first test firing of Battery Randolph’s guns took place in November, 1914. The Army took pains to warn Waikiki residents, but no one was fully prepared for the effects of the shock wave that rocked the neighborhood. Little actual damage was done, though dishes rattled and some windows cracked blocks away. To avoid damage in later years, as Waikiki continued to grow, the guns were seldom fired.

At the end of World War II, the giant guns were cut up and sold for scrap, never having fired a shot in anger or defense. The battery was then used as a warehouse, and eventually abandoned. The concrete walls repeatedly defied destruction, and it finally was designated as the home of the U.S. Army Museum of Hawai’i in 1976.