It's a hard experience to describe....from the first moments, the place is deeply moving.

If you're going to go, get there as early as you can. An estimated 4,500 people visit the USS Arizona memorial daily. Tickets are available on a first-come, first served basis, and when they're gone, they're gone.

This was the line of people in front of my tour when it arrived at 7:15 am:



Five minutes later, the line was three times that long behind us.

As we entered, we were greeted by a WWII vet who had been at Pearl Harbor during the attacks on December 7, 1941.

Just past the entry point, one of the Arizona's anchors is displayed. One is here, at Pearl Harbor. The other is displayed outside the Arizona state capitol building. The USS Arizona's anchors weigh almost 20,000 lbs each. This one was found some 200 feet from the Arizona - so powerful was the explosion that sank her.


Once inside, you can see the Arizona's bell.


And then you can move through the building. There's a short film on the events leading up to and during that awful day - as you wait for it, you walk past a number of memorial plaques.





Amazingly, the actual hit on the Arizona was caught on film. It's a horrible, sobering moment.

The USS Arizona was 608 feet long; her beam was 97 feet. She had a displacement of over 31,000 tons. And on December 7, 1941, there were over 1500 men aboard.

The armor-piercing bomb that struck the Arizona went through four decks before detonating - right next to 900 tons of powder in the forward magazine. They exploded, lifting the front of the ship ten feet out of the water, and she sank in nine minutes, taking 1,177 American Navy and Marine heroes with her. 75 were recovered. The others are entombed in her hulk. In addition, the ashes of some of the Arizona's survivors are also entombed there with their fallen brothers.

But Pearl Harbor wasn't just about the Arizona. All of the battleships at Pearl Harbor that morning received damage. Five were sunk. Eleven of the other ninety ships there were badly damaged. All of the damaged ships, however, were eventually put back in service, save for the Arizona, the Utah, and the Oklahoma. 2,335 servicemen and 68 civilians were killed. Like all tragedies, the attack on Pearl Harbor has some particularly poignant elements -

34 pairs of brothers were on the Arizona the day she was sunk. Thirteen of those sixty-eight men survived - no fraternal pairs made it through intact.

A father / son pair also died aboard the Arizona that day.

After the film, you board a Navy shuttle and take the short ride across the water to the Memorial.

Along the way, you view some of the many markers that dot the water - markers that show the locations of ships that were in the harbor that day. Among them was the USS Vestal, a repair ship, badly damaged during the attack.


The USS Missouri, on which Japan signed the surrender papers, as seen from the Navy shuttle before we left for the Arizona memorial.


The USS Arizona memorial, as seen from the shuttle boat.


The USS Vestal's marker.



The USS Arizona memorial is striking; simple and subtle, yet profound. The structure has twenty-one windows in it, to honor the Arizona's 21-piece band, which had taken 2nd place in a competition the night before. The band never played again. The competition had been a preliminary for the championship - in tribute, the other bands awarded the Arizona's fallen musicians the 1st place trophy.

The arched design is symbolic as well:

"The form, wherein the structure sags in the center but stands strong and vigorous at the ends, expresses initial defeat and ultimate victory. Wide openings in walls and roof permit a flooding by sunlight and a close view of the sunken battleship eight feet below, both fore and aft...The overall effect is one of serenity. Overtones of sadness have been omitted to permit the individual to contemplate his own personal responses...his innermost feelings" -- Alfred Preis, architect

And there are alot of responses and feelings. At the back of the memorial is a wall, inscribed on which are the names of those who lost their lives on the Arizona in the Pearl Harbor attack.




The views from the memorial are striking. There is the protruding foundation for the No. 3 gun turret, surrounded by the "black tears" of the Arizona. Local lore holds that these drops of oil, still seeping from the Arizona's sunken hulk, will only stop when the last of her survivors is interred with his brethren.







And on the other side, there is the USS Missouri, as well as other markers.


Markers for the locations of the USS Tennessee and the USS West Virginia.






The Missouri and the markers for the Tennessee and West Virginia.


I took some time to pay my respects, and then headed for the shuttle back to shore.




Views on the way back

Once back, I toured the museum. Among the items there are a japanese torpedo that was recovered from the harbor, and memorabilia from the ships in the harbor, including the Arizona. Outside, markers honor the fallen, and explain various events from that dark day. You can also get a great view of the submarine USS Bowfin, moored nearby.





The Missouri and the Arizona memorial, as seen from the Memorial's Visitors' Center.


The USS Bowfin as seen from the back of the Memorial Visitors' Center.

You can also donate to the effort to build a new memorial center. The present one is sinking; it's built on marshland. For your donation, you can get a number of mementos, ranging from postcards, to posters, to t-shirts and lapel pins. I made my donation in the memory of my grandfathers and my step-grandfather, WWII vets. To learn more about this effort, click here.

As I wandered outside to contemplate what I'd seen, I met Rose J., a park employee. She noticed my ever-present 1st Cavalry Division baseball cap (worn in honor of my 1st adoptee, now safely home), and stopped me to mention that she served in the 1st Cav., with the 15th AG. Her brother is a Vietnam vet.


When I found out I was coming to Hawaii, the first thing I wanted to do - the only thing I saw as a must, really - was a visit to Pearl Harbor. It was a very solemn experience, and I shed more than a few tears. It's hard not to.

I wanted to make the trip to honor those who fell here. I'm glad that I did.

For more about Pearl Harbor:
USS Arizona Memorial
The Pearl Harbor Attack, 7 December, 1941
National Geographic
Naval Historical Center
EyeWitness to History