JE 61

Thursday, January 13 – Waikiki

Another beautiful day! I ended up spending most of it at Pearl Harbor. To get there I decided to take the local bus. It took about an hour and cost $2.75. I like taking public transportation when traveling for a few reasons: interaction with the locals; see different parts of the city; and most importantly, I’m cheap!

The grounds of the Pearl Harbor Memorial are beautiful. In the background are the USS Missouri and the USS Arizona Memorial.

One of the Arizona’s three 19,585-pound anchors. The USS Missouri and USS Arizona Memorial are once again in the background.

Lone Sailor Statue, the base of which contains steel from the USS Arizona.

The short Navy shuttle boat ride taking visitors out to the USS Arizona Memorial. Reservations for the shuttle can be made in advance online at a cost of $1. Fortunately I did that. Those that came to Pearl Harbor without a reservation were required to queue for standby tickets.

Sidenote 1: As I travel I find it interesting that there are times when my perception of something that I have seen over and over again in photos and film are completely different from reality. The USS Arizona Memorial is one such case. For some reason, I thought it was further offshore; more isolated. Maybe it’s because I only ever recall seeing photos of it from overhead and by itself.

At the far end of the Memorial is a shrine made of marble bearing the names of all those killed on the USS Arizona. The bases on the left and right are inscribed with the names of those crew members who survived the 1941 sinking, have subsequently passed away and had their ashes interred within the wreck by U.S. Navy divers.

Sidenote 2: As I was looking at the names on the shrine I discovered that an admiral, Isaac Campbell Kidd, was one those killed on the USS Arizona. He was the highest ranking casualty of Pearl Harbor.