Pearl Harbor Day

Although I loved the beautiful beaches and swimming in the ocean, the day we went to Pearl Harbor was fascinating.  I love history and this place is full of it!  I grew up hearing stories of the war from my grandparents who lived through it, so it was special to be able to be where many of the stories actually took place.  This picture is of the warship, USS Missouri, the "Mighty Mo" for short.  On the deck of this ship is where the Japanese signed the treaty that ended the war.  It truly is a mighty ship and has see a lot of combat.  It was built in 1940 and was later recommissioned and served in the gulf war.  It is now retired and many visitors get to walk it's decks every year and learn the history that has taken place on this remarkable ship.  We had an exceptional tour guide whose name escapes me right now, but we learned so much in the 30 minute tour!  I would recommend this tour to anyone who even has the slightest interest in warships or Pearl Harbor or WWII.

These are the 16" guns that are mounted on the front of the ship.  There are 6 on the front and 3 on the back.  To say they are huge would be an understatement!

Another view of the impressive guns.

Please excuse the funny look on Sean's face and just look at the size of these chains!  Everything, except for the living quarters on this ship is huge.  I can't remember how much it weighs but it is much bigger and heavier than modern warships.

This is the gun powder that is used for the 16" guns.  Each time a gun is fired it takes 6 of these 50lb bags of powder to fire it.

And this the bullet, or I suppose the term shell would be more correct, that is fired.  These guns can accurately fire up to 23 miles away and will destroy an area the size of a football field!

This plaque is mounted over the exact spot on the deck where the treaty between Japan and the Allied Forces was signed ending WWII.  Years later the bronze seal around the outside edge was added.  They asked for a penny from each person who was on the ship that day and they took a chip out of each penny to make the seal then gave the pennies back to their owners.

These next 2 pictures are of a plaque mounted on the deck so the quality isn't great but the story behind them is quite interesting!  If you look closely at this picture in the upper left hand corner, you will see a place with it's wing almost touching the deck of the ship.  A sailor took this shot from the upper deck looking down on the lower deck.  Now remember cameras weren't what they are today so it is a pretty amazing shot!  That plane is a Japanese Kamikaze plane piloted by a young Japanese man.  His mission was to fly his plane into the upper part of the ship detonating the bomb held inside.  And he almost succeeded!  The men in this picture were able to bring the plane down before he could get it high enough to cause any real damage, however, the dent from that plane on the side of the ship and the railing is still visible.  If he would have made it a couple of inches higher on the ship, serious damage would have been much worse.

This is the picture of that pilot who was buried at sea the day after he attacked the Missouri.  He is pictured as a young boy around 2 years old with his family.  He is holding a model plane in the picture.

This is also a picture of a picture, but this is what the ship looks like when the 16" guns are shot.  If you look very closely you can actually see 2 shells headed to their destination in the middle left of the picture.  It looks to me like the whole thing is about to blow up, but this is apparently normal.  There's a lot of power behind those shells!

Sean and I in front of the Mighty Mo!

I am not at all sure a pregnant woman should assume this pose!!  It was much more difficult than it looks:)

Next we got to go to the USS Arizona Memorial.  The Arizona is one of only 3 ships that were damaged on December 7, 1941 that was not fixed and put back into commission.  It is still at the bottom of the ocean 70 years later and a memorial was built over it to commemorate the event and the soldiers who gave their life that day.  Not much is visible above the water, but this part you can see.  There are buoys all around it marking where the ship lays.   There were many efforts to rescue the men trapped on that ship, but every effort failed and the damage to the harbor was so great that it was decided to let that ship lay where it sunk.

1,177 men lost their lives aboard the Arizona.  This marble wall at the back of the Memorial has all their names and ranks on it.  Fresh flowers are placed there daily.

70 years after the Arizona sank, oil still comes to the surface.  The day we were there was really windy so we could see and even smell the oil on the water.  They have tried to stop the leaks, but have been unable to do so.

The American flag stands proud and tall seen through the top of the memorial.

 The USS Arizona memorial.

On the ferry headed back to the visitor's center.

Sam and Erin have a friend named Joanne whose husband is in the Navy.  Because she has a military ID, she could sponsor us and we actually got to go on the base.  We got to take a tour of the submarine that Sam was stationed on when he was in the Navy which was really cool.  Unfortunately we weren't able to take any pictures of the sub for security purposes.  But let me tell you that thing was tiny and very closed in!  I could not handle being down there for any length of time.  Sam said that the longest he spent under the water was 4 weeks at a time!  I think I would go insane!  It looks like they build the sub and then all of a sudden remembered there were going to have to be people aboard it and so they scooted things around a bit to make a tiny amount of room for them.  I guess you would get used to it, but I am certainly glad I don't have to do it!  This picture is of the 4 of us in a park on Pearl Harbor.  They have toy ships and subs and inactive torpedoes in their parks:)

We went over to Ford Island which is where much of the attack was concentrated.  This is the tower that is pictured in the movie, "Pearl Harbor."  It took 3 million to restore this tower and they need another 4 million to restore the building under it!

These are bullet holes that are still visible in the concrete from the Japanese attack.  Planes were tied down here on this cement pad wing tip to wing tip so it was very easy to cause major damage to the fleet.

And this is an old plane we found out behind a museum.  We almost drove by, but then turned around and I'm so glad we did!  This thing was, in the words of my 7 year old, super cool!  It amazed me to see just how flimsy and small these planes were.  They were mostly made of wood with a thin metal sheeting over top.

I believe this is a Japanese plane with bullet holes on both sides of it.  I cannot imagine it survived the attack.

On Ford Island there is a park that houses the biggest and coolest tree I have ever seen!  It sends down these vine things that implant into the ground and then turn into trunks.  This one is very old and very large.  To get an idea of the size, look at Sam climbing it!  It is kinda like a maze and you can walk partially inside of it.  Many people have carved their names in the bark and if you get in far enough and look high enough, some of the names date back to the 1940's.  This tree has seen lots of history!

The boys showing off their climbing abilities!

I was so tired when this day ended, but it was such a great experience that I will always remember.  We live in a great country and we should never forget the sacrifice of men and woman who have fought for the freedoms we still enjoy here.