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                 Gilbert Lodge Blog
         The life and times of Mark and Paula Persons
Thursday, January 10, 2013:  Mark and Paula headed to Pearl Harbor for the day.  They went by city bus, which cost only $2.50, but took just over an hour from Waikiki.  Not a problem because they had all day.
On the left is the Battleship Missouri Memorial and on the right is the Battleship Arizona Memorial.
The Arizona Memorial sits above, but does not touch the sunken Arizona.  Many come to pay their respects to the final resting place for 1102 of the 1177 sailors and Marines who were killed when the ship blew up after being struck by Japanese bombs on December 7, 1941.  The event dragged the United States into World War II.  Learn more at:  http://www.ussarizona.org     
   
A wall at the end of the memorial has the names of those who died.  Just this stack  remains sticking above the water in Pearl Harbor.
 
The Arizona Memorial, now run by the National Park Service, attracts many thousands of visitors each year. 
The Arizona leaks fuel oil at a rate of 2 to 9 quarts a day.  There are no plans to change that because of the difficulty of attempting such a repair.  It is also a fitting reminder of the war.
 
Then it was off to see the Battleship Missouri Memorial.  Nicknamed the "Mighty Mo," she has nine 16" guns and served in World War II. 

The Japanese surrendered on her decks in Tokyo Bay on September 2, 1945, thus ending World War II.  About 1000 Allied airplanes flew overhead at the conclusion of the surrender ceremony. 

Mark remembers the Battleship New Jersey, sister ship to the Missouri, laying off the coast of Vietnam lobbing shells over his head to enemy positions just a bit further inland in 1968.     

Feeding 5000 sailors must be a big job.

You can see five of the Mighty Mo's guns from port side of the bridge.
Mark was a happy guy when he sat at the controls of the KH6BB Amateur Radio Station in the Radio Room of the Missouri. 

Someday he hopes to talk to this station from his station at home in Brainerd.  Mark's call is W0MH.

Hawaii is a mere 6000 miles from Minnesota, but that is not a problem!

 
Next it was off to tour the USS Bowfin submarine.  Launched exactly one year after the Pearl Harbor attack, she went on to sink 4 Japanese military ships and 39 Japanese merchant ships in the Pacific Ocean before the end of WWII. 

The Bowfin crew consisted of 7 officers and 63 enlisted men.

 
Mark was particularly interested in the radio room and the engine room.
 
 
Flags were painted on the conning tower indicating enemy vessels sunk. 
A pinup was spotted onboard the submarine.  Mark was surprised because he did not know that women had been invented before he was a teenager in the mid-1960's.
 
A rainbow shown over Pearl Harbor that day.  Great stuff.

There was a statue of the Kissing Sailor from the end of World War II.  It is an iconic image of a sailor with a woman he did not even know at the time.
The United States and their Allies went on to win unconditional surrender of the Axis powers in Europe and Asia in 1945.

Stay tuned for more stories about the Hawaii visit.

Quote of the day:  There was a lot to learn that day.   Mark    < Back to previous story Ahead to next story >

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page last edited 02/10/2013