In Honor of Veterans Day: My Trip to Pearl Harbor

My mother took the family to Hawaii and then she took my sister and me on to Australia and New Zealand.

I have always wanted to go to Oahu so that I could go to Pearl Harbor.  If you don't go to that honored spot, you might as well not have gone to Hawaii.

Besides the Civil War, my three really interesting historical places are the Alamo, Titanic and Pearl Harbor.  I buy any books or magazines I come across on these  events.  And, of the three, Pearl Harbor is #1.

I just never will understand how we got caught so by surprise as we were.  Come on, you had to know that the Japanese fleet, when it escaped detection, was headed somewhere to bring about a knock out blow.  Everybody in the Pacific Ocean should have been on the highest alert.

So, the absolute highlight of my trip to Hawaii was Pearl Harbor.   That trip by boat from the visitors center/museum to the USS Arizona Memorial was a solemn one.  It reminded me of the Vietnam Wall.  The names on that wall of the men below us still entombed in ship.

But, what got me the most were the drops of oil still coming up from the ship.  It was like the ship was bleeding and a real connection to December 7,1941.

There were a lot of Japanese tourists there as well.  I had to wonder what they thought about it.

Thanks Mom.