Where in the World is LB?: A Morning of History

Thursday, November 6, 2008

A Morning of History

I was up at 5:30am to get showered and ready to start my first official day in Hawaii. The first order of business was to visit Pearl Harbor. They recommend you do it first thing in the morning because it gets more crowded as the day goes on. With that in mind my plan was to be there around 7am. I was out the door by 6:30am and on the road. I figured out how to get on the freeway but not without stopping at Jack in the Box for a large Diet Coke and a Breakfast Jack sandwich. I know it's not an exotic breakfast but whatever it was close and on the right side of the street for easy access in and out!!!

I arrived to Pearl Harbor a little after 7am. The line was already about half way down the sidewalk so I hurried over and took my place. The visitor center didn't open until 7:30am so I just stood around listening to all the tour guides tell their groups what to expect.

Once inside I was in the first group. We watched a 23 minute movie on the events that lead up to the Pearl Harbor attacks and some actual footage of December 7, 1941. I know I learned about all this in school but to actually be there and hear it all again made it so much more real to me.

Once the movie was over it was off to a boat to take us out to the Memorial. On the way out to the Memorial I was trying to imagine how this place, that was so beautiful and peaceful, was the same place where one of the worst attacks on the U.S Navy occurred. It was very hard to fathom.

Here is the Memorial from the boat as we approach. Now, just a little history on the design of the Memorial. The architect described the reason for the design "wherein the structure sags in the center but stands strong and vigorous at the ends, expresses initial defeat and ultimate victory."

Here is the wall with the names of all the people that were killed that day on the U.S.S Arizona. There were 38 sets of brothers on the boat and 23 of the died that day.

These cement blocks are placed where each battleship was lined up in the harbor.

Once at the Memorial you can walk on either sides and see what remains of the U.S.S Arizona below. It is very rusted and has coral and other things growing on it now. However, it's still quite clear that it's a huge battleship below that is now also the final resting place of those men who were unable to escape. The ship went down with over 1.5 million gallons of oil on it and this oil today is leaking out slowing at a rate of about 1 quart a day. They call these slow drops of oil that appear on the water the "black tears" of the men who perished that day on the ship
Here you can see the oil shimmering on the top of the water. It was actually pretty cool to see.

This is one of the visible gun turrets. They told us that a few men that survived the attack that day had requested to be buried here with their fellow crew mates when they passed away. There ashes are normally poured into this gun turret.

You may need to click on the picture to enlarge it but you can see the boat below the water.

As a special tribute to the ship and the lost crew, the flag flies from a flagpole, which is attached to the severed mainmast of the sunken battleship. Yeah, I went black and white on this one to make it look a bit more historic......

It's hard to describe what it was like being out there that morning. I felt sadness for those people who lost their lives. I felt honored that I was able to pay my respect to these men for what they gave up for our country. I also felt proud to part of a country that fought back after this attack and won! It's a very humbling experience to be here and I highly recommend it to everyone. I also got to meet a Pearl Harbor survivor that day. He wasn't on the U.S.S Arizona that tragic morning but he was there in the Harbor and it was an honor to have met him. This is me with Alfred Benjamin Rodrigues.