Pearl Harbor

 

Our first official vacation day we went to visit the USS Arizona Memorial as well as touring the USS Missouri battleship.  I am glad we took the time to go visit here as it was very different than anything else we did on our trip.  The memorial itself was simple and beautiful.  I found this aerial photo of the memorial where you can get a better sense of what lies beneath the memorial.

 

 Here is the wall of names of the people that were killed aboard the Arizona on December 7, 1941.  I loved the way this beautiful window let light into the room. 

This memorial was peaceful as everyone is quiet and respectful.  It was a moving experience to be there.  Below you can see the oil that is still leaking from the ship, they call it the "sailor's tears".

One of the most interesting things was that we happened to be there on a day when they would be burying one of the survivors with the ship.  There were few survivors but the ones that did survive are able to be buried back with their ship and their shipmates if they so choose.  The picture of the box below shows the survivors that have passed away since then that have returned to be buried here.  The red white and blue tape is covering the name of the man being buried that day with his ship.  I think they said that there are only around 17 remaining survivors.

Once we left Pearl Harbor we headed to visit the USS Missouri which is docked right across from the memorial.  We had a great tour guide who shared with us many interesting facts about this ship.

This ship is huge and it is hard to look at a picture and have any concept of it's size.  Wandering around inside makes me wonder how anyone knew where anything was.  They actually have a full dentist office inside.  I guess I've never thought about having your teeth fixed while on a battleship but it was sure cool to see.

This ship served in World War II as well as the Korean War and the Gulf War until it came to it's final resting place here in 1998.  Just one of the guns that Charlie is standing by weighs as much as a space shuttle and shoots bullets that weigh as much as a car that can hit a target with pin point precision 25 miles away!  Pretty darn amazing.

 

 

 

One of the coolest parts for me was getting to stand on this spot.  This is where the table was that they signed the instrument of final surrender that brought WWII to an end.  So while on this ship you could see the USS Arizona memorial where WWII began for us while standing in the exact spot where WWII was officially over.  Very interesting.