USS Arizona

A highlight of our trip was our visit to the USS Arizona Memorial.  Straddling the sunken battleship, the memorial is reached by Navy launches leaving from the shoreline facilities every half hour or so.

In order to be on time for the 8:15 tour, we left Ko Olina about 5 in the morning.  We were supposed to meet our tour bus at the Ala Moana Hotel in Honolulu at 5:30.*  No thanks to Siri (who found herself lost quite a few times this trip) we finally found where we were supposed to be, parked at the nearby mall, and left on the tour.  By the time we picked up other people and got to the Monument** it was 7:15 and almost time for the tour itself.

*We booked our trip through Costco Travel and while the flight and hotel arrangements were great, the add-ons left a little to be desired.  Because we stayed in a location other than Honolulu or Waikiki, we were expected to drive ourselves to our two different add-on side trips.  It would've been nice to know beforehand so we could've make other arrangements if we wanted to.

** The World War II Valor in the Pacific National Monument also encompasses the USS Utah Memorial and the USS Oklahoma Memorial as well as a couple of locations in Alaska and California.  The US Navy retains ownership of the actual wrecks.

Part of the Monument honors the 52 United States submarines and their crews that were lost during the war in the Pacific.  Each sub is represented by a stone marker bearing a plaque with the history of the sub and the names of her crew at the time of her loss.

The view from the launch on the way to the memorial.  Moored to the west is the USS Missouri.  There is a tour for that ship but we just didn't have time.  Maybe some day.  Years ago (and I mean years ago) we toured the USS Alabama in Mobile, Alabama.  We had gone to spend Christmas with Kim and Marilyn while they were in Fort Walton Beach, Florida and we were still in Cleveland.  

This photo from pearl-harbor.com

At the time of the attack on Pearl Harbor, all the battleships were moored along this side of Ford Island, their bows pointing westward, toward the harbor opening.  Symbolically, the Missouri is anchored in the opposite direction, a fitting bookend to the end of the war in the Pacific.

On the far wall of the memorial are listed the names of the 1177 men of the USS Arizona who died on Dec. 7, 1941.  On either side below the main panel are inscribed the names of the survivors of the ship's sinking who have since passed away and have chosen to have their ashes interred with their comrades.  The park service and Navy place their urns in the ship through the #4 turret mount.

A time for silent reflection and thanks.  The atmosphere reminded me of our recent visits to several Civil War battlefield cemeteries.

The USS Missouri is seen over my right shoulder and in the foreground (foreocean?) the #2 turret mount is just visible.

Looking the other way, the turret ring for the #3 turret is the most prominent visible part of the wreck.