Pearl

I went to Pearl Harbor yesterday morning with Barbara & Dean.  I saw the museums, the USS Arizona Memorial, and went on board the USS Missouri, the battleship where the Japanese formally surrendered at the end of WWII.  I was interested in the Missouri, since Rocky - my 98 year old former neighbor back in Commack, NY - was there on the day of the surrender.  He has a photo album of his own personal Brownie Camera pix of the ceremony which he has shown me.  He was in charge of his destroyer's news-bulletins and went aboard the "Mighty Mo" that day to "report the proceedings" back to the guys on his ship, which along with several hundred other U.S. vessels, was anchored in Tokyo Bay that day, September 2, 1945.

Jamie and Jessica brought the boys in the afternoon, and I strolled around the Visitors Center and environs with CJ & TJ while their mommy and daddy took the launch out to the USS Arizona Memorial, too.

So here's the photos I took of the Arizona Memorial and some things related to it:

Over 1,100 died on the Arizona.  Approximately 900 remain entombed in the wreck.  To this day, any survivors are permitted to join their former shipmates by having their cremated remains put in urns and deposited on the wreck by Navy divers.

Yes, oil still DOES bubble up from the wreck. . . .  One day shy of 75 calendar years after the year of the attack:

Here's the photos of the Missouri, including a few of the view of the Arizona Memorial, alongside which the Missouri is moored:

 

 

 

 

Admiral Nimitz, Commander of the Pacific Naval Forces from 10 days after Pearl Harbor attack until the war's end:

 

 

 Mighty Mo was last in service during Operation Desert Storm.  Each of the three turrets fired over 200 rounds of their 16-inch shells during the conflict. . . .  Here's the tally for the 2nd turret from the front of the ship:

 

  

View of The MO from the Arizona Memorial:

And vice-versa:

 

 Some info about the Japanese surrender. . . .

Entrance to the gun turret.  25 guys manned it.  16 inch shells.  Reverberation from shots would kill anyone on deck at time they were shot, so all were ordered below decks when they were fired.

On the forward bridge:

Some controls just behind the bridge:

 

After touring the Missouri, I took "my" bus back from Ford Island (where the Missouri is moored) to the "mainland" and my driver took this shot of me.

 

 

TJ and CJ and I explored the areas near the Visitors Center while their mommy and daddy took their turn riding the launch to the Arizona Memorial:

 
Charlie manned his battle station at an ack-ack gun. . . .

And looked over an anchor. . .

And thus ended our day at Pearl Harbor on the last day of 2015.