Pearl Harbor Memorial

We took a tour of the Pearl Harbor Memorial and we have been talking to the children about WWII while studying Hawaii as it is such a huge part of the United Sates history.  Since my husband is a DOD employee we were able to take a smaller tour with the Pacific fleet and get a more personalized tour which we loved.

This is only open to military families and DOD families and to participate in this tour you must request it months in advance.

There are two boats, the one on the left is only for the most important  VIP's to tour the Memorial on such as the President.  We went on the boat on the right:)

Before going on the tour we entered a small room that showed us many models and maps of what Pearl Harbor and Ford Island looked like before and after the attack.  

This is a model of the actual memorial, most of the ship is underwater but you can still see a few turrets.

Taking the boat out the the Memorial

We were given lots of information of other ships that were destroyed in the attack such as the Utah 

Where you can still see a large portion of the wreckage

We also saw the spot that the USS Nevada beached itself so as to not block the  entrance in/out of Pearl Harbor as it was heavily under attack as it tried to maneuver itself out to sea.

This is the small entrance into/out of  Pearl Harbor.  It was vital that this area was not blocked by any ships

There are markers throughout the area marking where each battleship was docked during the attack

Coming up the the Pearl Harbor Memorial

It is customary to throw orchids or Leis into the wishing well as a way of remembering the men who died and are still buried on this ship.

IT is reported that the ship is leaking a little oil every day and it is called the tears of the ship.  I spoke to the Park ranger and he said they have about 50 years to figure out how to remove the oil from those tanks that are not leaking before there is a natural disaster on the island.  currently there is nothing that can be done for those tanks already leaking

The docking bay for the Arizona

Along the back wall is a list of all the men who died on the Ship with many still buried inside her

There are two benches in front that list the men who survived the attack but when they died chose to be buried with their shipmates

Drivers take the cremated remains of the newly decreased and places it in a urn and takes it down to the ship 

Orginally these windows were suppose to have stain glass inserted but when the architect toured the memorial he decided he liked the island breeze flowing inside the memorial and the windows remained opened

The memorial can get very crowded and people are asked to speak in whispers 

While leaving we noticed that their were divers entering the water of the memorial, the park rangers told us this was the national park service inspecting the wreck and completing surveys

Leaving the memorial is just as awe inspiring as arriving

Prior to Visiting Hawaii, the family watched the Documentary of Pearl Harbor as well as the movie Tora Tora so we could better understand the attack and the many sacrifices of the men on these battleships.