Pearl Harbor 75th Anniversary

Both my father and uncle were on ships that day at Pearl Harbor. My dad survived on the Tennessee and my uncle died on the Oklahoma. My dad traveled many time back to honor his brother and the others that lost their lives that day.

John C ✉
Dec '16

It's a bucket list item. I will get there someday.

JeffersonRepub ✉
Dec '16

A promise to America still kept to this day:

"I believe that I interpret the will of the Congress and of the people when I assert that we will not only defend ourselves to the uttermost, **but will make it very certain that this form of treachery shall never again endanger us.**"

- FDR, December 8, 1941

skippy ✉
Dec '16

I lived in Hawaii from part of 7th to part of 8th grade when my Dad was transferred there (U.S.M.C.). For a while we lived right on the Northerly edge of Pearl Harbor and saw the Memorial several times a day. I was fortunate enough that the Jr. High I was going to took a class trip to downtown Honolulu for the premiere of "Tora, Tora, Tora" which had been filmed in the Islands and we finished the trip at the Memorial on the North side of Pearl Harbor (oddly enough, right next to the "Primo" beer bottling facility). The whole experience was definitely impactful, though in the 13 months we lived there (it was supposed to be 3 years, but got cut short) we never actually visited the Arizona Memorial itself.

Flash forward to a bit over 15 years later, my then GF, her Sister & I flew to Hawaii and we had a choice of mini tours to take while there and I made sure that the Arizona Memorial and National Memorial Cemetery of the Pacific (at "Punchbowl Crater") were on our agenda. The Arizona Memorial has even more impact than Gettysburg and all the other Civil War Battlefields I've been to. While they're all hallowed ground, seeing the names on the wall and looking at the ship beneath and realizing what it contains while watching the slight sheen of oil still rising from its hulk is quite overwhelming! If you visit Oahu you really should make sure to visit the Memorial.

https://www.nps.gov/valr/index.htm

http://www.pearlharborhistoricsites.org/pearl-harbor/arizona-memorial

The National Cemetery of the Pacific in Punchbowl Crater (which has its own unique Hawaiian History) overlooks the city of Honolulu and some of its suburbs. Besides the marvelous view at the overlook, the Memorial itself is quite impressive and there are a large number of Congressional Medal of Honor Recipients buried here. Ernie Pyle, famous war corespondent is buried here as well as Lt. Col. Ellison Shoji Onizuka, one of the seven crew members of the Space Shuttle "Challenger" and PFC Paul Kinlahcheeny, one of the now-famous Navajo "Code-Talkers". Check the bottom of the page for more of the more famous people interred there.

http://www.cem.va.gov/cems/nchp/nmcp.asp

Phil D. ✉
Dec '16