Please take a minute to recognize those that died today at Pearl Harbor!
Pearl Harbor Day
- Thread starter mfinkelstein3
- Start date
Rusty in Montana
Well-known member
A day that will live on in Infamy , may we never forget those who have served !
Pierre Shakes
Registered
It is pretty amazing that we (or history?) have turned an enemy into an ally. Also that many of us have come to admire Japan's deep culture, aesthetics, martial arts and religion.
I'm going to cut-and-paste my post from last year on this same subject. I was actually telling someone about this yesterday.
My first trip to Hawaii was in the early 1980s when I was in my very early 20s. My buddy and I spent the day at Pearl Harbor, and around Hickam Field, even did a ship tour of a sub tender that day. What I remembered is that there were a bunch of guys in tan colored shirts and those hats like American Legion guys wear. They seemed to be tour guides, and we listened to them a bit, but never really spent much time with them. They had a museum with lots of artifacts and personal belongings from guys on the various ships, and that was interesting. We got a ticket for the movie and ride out to the Arizona, but missed it because we were in the museum, so we went with a later tour. The site was run by the park service, but the trip to the Arizona and back were run by the US Navy. On that trip, we went mostly because it was something we felt was a must-see on a trip to Hawaii.
Next time was on my honeymoon in 1987. By then I realized that those guys in the tan shirts were Pearl Harbor Survivors. I wasn't going to miss that opportunity this time. We got into a group with a guy named Jim Fiske, who was later seen on a lot of the television shows about that day. If I remember correctly, he was on the West Virginia. That ship rolled over and capsized after getting hit that day. He talked about how for days and weeks, they would hear knocking and would cut through the hull in different places to free those trapped inside. One tale was of a few guys trapped and knocking, but in an area difficult to access. They heard knocking up until around Christmas and then it stopped. When they did eventually penetrate the hull there, they recovered the bodies of guys that survived an additional two weeks trapped, knocking back and forth, waiting rescue that didn't come in time. Seriously puts a different take on things when a guy that was there tells you about that. We tend to think of it as "that day", but for those there, it was much longer dealing with the aftermath. The layout of the site was pretty much the same as I remembered, and we spent the day there again, much of it with those tan shirts. There's nothing like having a guy point at Ford Island and tell you what was where, and where it went, and when this one rolled over and such. I'm truly glad that we spent that day there.
Went back on another trip to Hawaii in 2021, and the site is completely different. Those tan shirts are all now gone to their rewards, and they have a lot of waist-high storyboard signs along the water that tell the story of that day, and I appreciate that they made the effort to put them there, but they don't offer the connection that a survivor provided. It felt so much more like any other tourist attraction. Previously, there was a kind of a silent reverence that people had while there. Hard to explain, but very noticeable and in stark contrast to what I experienced on this last visit. They still show the movie before the boat ride to the Arizona, but it seems like the gift shop and the snack bar are now the main attractions. The little museum is still there, and it had a few things that I remember seeing, but the crowds were different and I honestly didn't enjoy that visit as much. We had my dad there, and he's an ex-Navy guy, wore a ball cap from his carrier, and more than a few people came over and shook his hand. He was at Pearl in the 1950s, but nothing looked like he remembered, which is understandable.
My first trip to Hawaii was in the early 1980s when I was in my very early 20s. My buddy and I spent the day at Pearl Harbor, and around Hickam Field, even did a ship tour of a sub tender that day. What I remembered is that there were a bunch of guys in tan colored shirts and those hats like American Legion guys wear. They seemed to be tour guides, and we listened to them a bit, but never really spent much time with them. They had a museum with lots of artifacts and personal belongings from guys on the various ships, and that was interesting. We got a ticket for the movie and ride out to the Arizona, but missed it because we were in the museum, so we went with a later tour. The site was run by the park service, but the trip to the Arizona and back were run by the US Navy. On that trip, we went mostly because it was something we felt was a must-see on a trip to Hawaii.
Next time was on my honeymoon in 1987. By then I realized that those guys in the tan shirts were Pearl Harbor Survivors. I wasn't going to miss that opportunity this time. We got into a group with a guy named Jim Fiske, who was later seen on a lot of the television shows about that day. If I remember correctly, he was on the West Virginia. That ship rolled over and capsized after getting hit that day. He talked about how for days and weeks, they would hear knocking and would cut through the hull in different places to free those trapped inside. One tale was of a few guys trapped and knocking, but in an area difficult to access. They heard knocking up until around Christmas and then it stopped. When they did eventually penetrate the hull there, they recovered the bodies of guys that survived an additional two weeks trapped, knocking back and forth, waiting rescue that didn't come in time. Seriously puts a different take on things when a guy that was there tells you about that. We tend to think of it as "that day", but for those there, it was much longer dealing with the aftermath. The layout of the site was pretty much the same as I remembered, and we spent the day there again, much of it with those tan shirts. There's nothing like having a guy point at Ford Island and tell you what was where, and where it went, and when this one rolled over and such. I'm truly glad that we spent that day there.
Went back on another trip to Hawaii in 2021, and the site is completely different. Those tan shirts are all now gone to their rewards, and they have a lot of waist-high storyboard signs along the water that tell the story of that day, and I appreciate that they made the effort to put them there, but they don't offer the connection that a survivor provided. It felt so much more like any other tourist attraction. Previously, there was a kind of a silent reverence that people had while there. Hard to explain, but very noticeable and in stark contrast to what I experienced on this last visit. They still show the movie before the boat ride to the Arizona, but it seems like the gift shop and the snack bar are now the main attractions. The little museum is still there, and it had a few things that I remember seeing, but the crowds were different and I honestly didn't enjoy that visit as much. We had my dad there, and he's an ex-Navy guy, wore a ball cap from his carrier, and more than a few people came over and shook his hand. He was at Pearl in the 1950s, but nothing looked like he remembered, which is understandable.
My Marine unit was transported from San Diego in 1966 on a LST 1077 Park County,we spent 3 days in port in Hawaii and to this day I regret not going to see the Arizona memorial.
After Hawaii we spent 5 days on Guam then off to Japan.
Other than a couple days of very rough seas the Pacific was like a big flat lake.
The 3 weeks or so I was on that ship was one of the highlights of my 4 years in the Corps.
After Hawaii we spent 5 days on Guam then off to Japan.
Other than a couple days of very rough seas the Pacific was like a big flat lake.
The 3 weeks or so I was on that ship was one of the highlights of my 4 years in the Corps.
FDR is to blame for Pearl Harbor attack, he use the attack to get USA, into WW2.