A day which will live in infamy

I couldn't think of a better way to kick off my recap of our time in Hawaii then with a small tribute on such a large day. Of course this is a little out of order but with today being December 7th, I'm not sure it's so wrong to go out of order. I'll jump back to the rest of the trip a little later.

December 7th, 1941 in the small harbor off the south shore of the island of Oahu, was a quiet morning and that's just how it was for us when we arrived at Pearl Harbor that morning. There is nothing more sobering than to enter what is now a national monument that is visited by over 2.5 million people.

Most of those people aren't there to see the things that are happening in the Welcome Center of the complex. Sure there are facts that line the shoreline and small monuments to some of the fighting forces but everyone wants to head out into the harbor and see the ship that is eternally on patrol of the waters below.

From the shoreline, the USS Arizona Memorial looks a little like this:

So as we boarded our navy taxi boat, the memorial began to come a little bit more in view.

The memorial is made up of three sections, the first holds the flags of the branches of the armed services, the US flag, and the Hawaiian flag. And then you enter the viewing room. Laying perpendicular across the hull of the USS Arizona, the memorial is open on all sides and even on top.

Looking over the sides, you can see parts of the ship, mostly covered in coral and home to some fish that find their food source there everyday.

The most amazing part though is the oil that still lingers on the surface of the water. Just before the attack on Pearl Harbor, the USS Arizona was refueled to it's maximum. When the attack happened, 1/3 of the oil in the ship blew up, 1/3 of it burned for 2 days straight, and 1/3 still remains on the ship. 69 years later, 2 gallons of oil still escape from the ship each day and probably will for the next 50 years. The smell of oil is prominent from the deck of the memorial, a constant reminder of the tragic events of that day.

Lining the walls of the last room of the memorial are the names of all of the men that lost their lives on the ship. As I stood to say a small pray of thanks, I thought about the men who survived the attack on Pearl Harbor. There were even a few survivors of the Arizona. So far 33 of them have opted to be cremated and have been returned to the Arizona to forever lie with their shipmates - their urns taken by divers and entombed in one of the cannons of the ship.

It's hard to do this place justice by showing some photos because of the gratitude and humbleness you feel when you step onto the memorial. As we left that day, I felt saddened by the events of that day but happy that it is something that this world will never forget as we always remember the day which will live in infamy.