Hawaii Day #7 - Pearl Harbor

After a terrible night sleep and a lot of begging, we ended up going to Pearl Harbor Saturday morning.  We had planned all week to go Saturday morning, but after Friday night's incident with my knee, John was pretty adamant about not going.  But after a lot of begging and walking around the room to show him I could do it, we went :D  (AND I'm happy to say that it didn't hurt at all!  I was just slow getting around).

We had ordered a shuttle to come pick us up and drop us off at Pearl Harbor.  We got that at 7am and got to Pearl Harbor around 7:30am.  They suggest being there as early as possible as they have a limited number of tickets for the USS Arizona Memorial (as it is free), so it is a first come first serve basis.  We were able to get 8:15am tickets and then also bought tickets to go on the USS Missouri (aka Mighty Mo).  We had a bit of time to kill, so we walked around a bit and looked at some of the things they had at the Visitor Center. Here are a few pictures from the visitor center...

Map on the ground when you first come in of what the Pacific looked like in 1941

Anchor from the USS Arizona, it weighs almost 20,000lbs!

USS Bowfin

Mk 45 Nuclear Torpedo

I think this is the MK14

Two Ballistic Missiles

The USS Arizona Memorial begins with a 20 minute video of real footage from the attacks on Pearl Harbor taken from Japanese fighter plane footage.  It helps to explain what happened leading up to the attack and on the day of the attack.  It was very moving and sad to watch.  Once the movie is over, we then go over to a boat which takes us out to the memorial.  Here are a few pictures from the boat ride over.

One of the moors which all the battleships were tied up to the day of the attack on Pearl Harbor.

The USS Arizona Memorial.

Once inside, there are two guides who give you a brief history on the boat that lays in the water and the monument built over top of it.  It turns out the man who built the monument was a Austrian-born American who had been detained for three months in a detainment camp after December 7, 1941 attack.  Despite this, he didn't feel any resentment towards the Americans, and later settled down in Hawaii.  He made it so that the lowest point was directly over the boat and the two higher ends represent the war in Europe and the war in the Pacific.

One of the turret sticking up out of the water

There is still oil seeping out of the boat more than 50 years later.

Shrine room with all the names of the men who lost their lives on the Arizona

Mighty Mo in the background.  Mo is in the location of where the  fighting stopped at Pearl,
while Arizona is resting where the fighting began.

After this, we went back to the Visitor Center and made our way over to the shuttle which takes us over to Ford Island to Mighty Mo.  We were detoured around the island a bit because there was a cancer run going on, so we got to see a bit of the old airfield and building.  We were told that some of the buildings still contain the bullet holes from the attack.  Here are some pictures from the drive..

Radar Station

Pearl Harbor Airplane Museum

The famous red and white control tower, seen in such movies as Pearl Harbor.
Apparently it's in need of repair so they are trying to raise money for that.

Once we got the the Missouri, we were given the option of the type of tour we wanted, we opted for the Ipod, although we sort of followed a group who were getting a guided tour.  There are only 5 levels you can go on the bridge, 3 above and one below.  We did all but the one below.  They saw to give yourself a good 2 hours for the tour, we had about 1 and a half and with me hobbling around, it made it a bit slower.  It was really cool though to see all the old guns, the rooms the officers slept, the officers mess, the drivers room, the tactical room and the captain's rooms (yes, the captain had multiple rooms).  It's surprising how many rooms there were on the boat.  You would have needed to know the ship really really well to get around because it was easy to get lost.  Here are a few pictures from the boat.

After we were done, we had to leave for our hotel so we could check out and then get to the airport.  Watch for the next post for all the details of our return!