Hawaii 2012: Day 8: Pearl Harbor

Today Rich spent all day in conference meetings and Michael and I headed out to Pearl Harbor (the "scenic route"....our GPS disagreeing with the tourist map, and an accidental turn into an Army Post, where the gate guards were happy to allow us to turn around!). We finally made it and were able to see the USS Arizona Memorial, the USS Missouri (which entered action in WWII in 1945 and was the site of the signing of the surrender documents....it also fought in the Korean War and Desert Storm....very interesting to tour), and the Pacific Aviation Pearl Harbor Museum (which opened in 2006). It was my 2nd trip to the Arizona Memorial and it was a moving experience as usual. The feeling when watching actual photographs and film made by Americans as well as the Japanese on that day, as well as hearing their stories, is hard to describe....a pit-in-the-stomach feeling may be be best way to describe it. The survivors of the Pearl Harbor attack will soon be gone....but they will all be remembered. The father of my friend Grant Baldwin was there that day and he passed away a couple of months ago. One especially interesting fact that I learned today is that many survivors from the USS Arizona requested to be buried on board with their fallen shipmates. The urns with their ashes are placed on board by divers. The park ranger said it is an especially moving service to watch. Two men were buried there last month.

Michael was the photographer-of-the-day, as usual....so watch for his photos to be posted later. In the meantime, here are a few of mine: