USS Arizona Memorial

 Trish and I had a very moving day yesterday as we visited the USS Arizona Memorial in Pearl Harbor.

When the Japanese attacked Pearl Harbor on December 7, 1941, there were eight battleships, eight cruisers, thirty destroyers, and seventy-seven other ships in the harbor. Among all the other US ships and aircraft destroyed, four of the battleships were destroyed and the other four badly damaged. 

Of the 2,403 sailors and Marines killed, 1,177 were on the USS Arizona.  These included all members of the 22nd Band Unit who were stationed on board the ship. Of these dead, 1,102 remain to this day on the sunken battleship.

In 1962 the USS Arizona Memorial opened.  This Memorial straddles the sunken ship that is 48 feet below the surface of the water and is acknowledge as the cemetery of those whose remains are there.

Several of the topmost parts of the battleship protrude slightly above the water.

Even after eighty-two years, oil continues to seep up from the wreckage and floats on the surface of the water.

The names of all the deceased are beautifully posted at the end of the memorial.  There is also a continuing listing of those attack survivors who chose to have their remains interred here upon their later deaths.

Each day several flags are hoisted over the Memorial.  These flags then go to special locations.

Just five years after the December 7, 1945, attack, Trish’s father was serving in the Navy aboard the same aircraft carriers that were part of the WW II Pacific Fleet.

It was a very moving day.