Monday February 10, 2025 – Oahu, Hawaii, USA
Phu (Phil) the taxi driver picked us up as planned and drove us to the Pearl Harbour Military site (Pearl Harbor National – 1 Arizona Memorial Place, Honolulu, HI 96818; Phone +1 (808) 422-3300; http://www.nps.gov/perl) Memorial where there is very well laid out history of the Pearl Harbour “Day that will live in Infamy” as the US president said at the time. Usually you have to book prior to 3PM the prior day (www.recreation.gov), to go to see the USS Arizona Memorial, however, we were very lucky and arrived, went to the Standby area and put in phone, name etc and were told – go over to the building where the boat leaves from as there is a 100% chance that you will get through. We did as instructed and by the time we got to the building we had received the second email (the first just confirmed that we had made the standby application) stating that you have 5 minutes to check in or loose the booking. So we got into the queue to see the Memorial. We were shown on the boat (capacity of about 100) and off across the harbor to the USS Arizona Memorial. On that fateful Sunday December 7th, 1941, there were 185 Naval Vessels in the Harbour when the Japanese planes in the first wave flew over Ford Island striking the USS West Virginia, Oklahoma, California and Nevada and tore through the Arizona. We asked why pick out the place where the USS Arizona and not the others that were sunk? The answer was that there were more people killed on the Arizona (1,177) than elsewhere. In total 2,390 people were killed (1,999 sailors, 233 soldiers and airmen, 109 marines and 49 civilians and 21 ships were sunk or heavily damages with only three – the USS Arizona, USS Oklahoma and USS Utah were never returned to service). There were a total of 1,178 wounded. The Arizona Memorial is there to honor all who were killed and constructed over the top of the remains of the ship. Also because the expectation was that any attack would come by sea, the coasts were well fortified, but the aircraft were all bunched together in the center of the runway, making it easy for the Japanese to destroy 164 aircraft and damaged 159 more.
The small ship took us out to the Memorial, which is actually considered a cemetery as 900 of the dead were never recovered and all the others who died on the day can and are buried underneath the memorial. The boat drops you at one end of this open white steel structure that is 184 feet long, 36 feet wide and 21 feet high at the ends and 27 feet wide and 14 feet high in the center. The main part of the memorial is just an open space with open “windows” on both sides a couple of plaques on the walls and a hole in the far end where you can see wreckage of the original vessel at right angles to the Memorial. The most sacred place is the far end (from the access point and closest to shore) where a wall has the names of each person killed. A couple of side panels have been added with names of others who might have been there on the day, but survived and after their death, were placed in the bottom and their names added. There are some places for more, if needed. After about 20 minutes at the site, we were then taken back to the central area by a similar ship, which was bringing the next wave of visitors. All were quiet and had hushed voices as it is considered a grave site and respect for the dead was important to be maintained.
The entrance and visit to the USS Arizona is free, but access to the other ships etc has a cost and a per site or all day pass can be purchased. If you have an interest in the entire story, it certainly is well worth a full day visit. A small snack bar is available, but Anne, bravely visited the Bowfin submarine that is one of the other ships in the area. At the entrance of the submarine there is a cafe where one can order burgers and hot sandwich type meals and an open air, covered seating area where there is a nice breeze and a great place to go for nutrition during the day. I say “brave” as anyone who is in the slightest claustrophobic, should definitely not attempt to visit the Bowfin. Anne’s pictures demonstrate the close quarters that are the submarine and the home of 60 sailors. Triple bunk beds are in constant use with each sailor resting for 8 hours then on duty for 16 while two others used the same bunk each having it for 8 hours at a time. Only the cooks were permitted to take daily showers. Toilets were cramped and even the Captain who had a single bed and desk was cramped, senior officers had 2 bunk beds to a room, others 6 to a room and the “men” 16 to a room. Winding passage ways with a myriad of weapons, cables gauges etc filled the restricted space.
Other sites to visit are a shuttle that takes you to Ford Island and all the buildings there as well as the Pacific Air Museum, the USS Oklahoma Memorial and the USS Missouri on which the submission and end of the War in the Japanese theatre was signed. Thus the place where the war for the USA started – USS Arizona – and ended – USS Missouri – are together in a fitting memorial to the war in the Pacific Theatre.
It was time to go to the next activity which we had booked yesterday, even though there was a great deal more to see at Pearl Harbor. So we got another Taxi driver from Vietnam (Rich Hoang – Phone +1 (808) 200-6640 in a 7 passenger Honda Odyssey), who was also good, but complained at having a relatively short run. Pearl Harbor, the International Airport and the Heliport are all relatively close by on the Eastern side of Honolulu. We arrived at the Blue Hawaiian Helicopter (99 Kaulele Place, Honolulu, HI 96819; Phone +1 (808) 275-4531; Web http://www.bluehawaiian.com; E-mail – info@bluehawaiian.com) departure office, a good hour before our scheduled departure time of 2PM. We got weighed and checked in and were told that the other three passengers and our pilot Chris, were all there so we could leave early. We met up with a mother and two daughters, originally from Czech Republic but now living in Vancouver, Canada and proceeded with the pre-flight educational / safety briefing. The husband was there but did not want to fly so we were in total 5 passengers and the pilot, but there was room for 6 passengers. There is a weight restriction, so it is best to check with the reservation people before making the final reservation. We walked out to one of the two helicopters that they own and fly and were escorted into our seats, harnessed into the seat restraint and given earphones and a microphone as there was quite a lot of noise. The entire flight was recorded as there were several cameras both inside and outside the helicopter – we purchased the USB Thumb drive at the completion of the flight. We were now ready to have the experience of our lifetimes. It is expensive, but truly well worth the experience of the 1 hour flight. We felt comfortable with the pilot who is one of 5 full time and several part time pilots that do 3 from a maximum of 7 flights a day, depending on the season and the demand. They have been in business for several decades and at least for the past 30 years there has not been a serious incident as they are inspected by the authorities, have their own mechanics and support staff, so we felt very comforted that all will be well.
We took off heading West over the ocean past downtown Honolulu, with a great view and picture of our ship docked at Pier 2, then over to Waikiki beach area where Chris did a full 360 degree turn so all could see and take pictures and from the air we were able to see a whale coming out of the ocean and splashing down some yards further on. I believe it is called breaching and was indeed very spectacular. We then proceeded to circumnavigate the island continuing over Diamond head / point volcano / crater where you got a great view over the now extinct volcanos. We cut across at Sandy Beach cutting off Makapu’u point as it sometimes gets a bit rough there. Turning North we followed along the mountain range to our left and the sea to our right over the ground passing Waimanalo, Kailua, Kane’ohe, Kahalu’u seeing the housing, golf courses, surged coastline but gorgeous beaches and what was particularly fun was to see over the top of the many volcanoes seeing Honolulu on the other side of the island. At one point Chris pointed out a spectacular 2 step waterfall in a sort of crevice in the volcanoes which was also spectacular and can only be seen from a helicopter due to the lush thick vegetation surrounding it. He did a full 360 degree turn to be able to see it from all angles. We proceeded to Hau’ula and the Northern tip at Kahuku with the Turtle Bay Resort and Golf Course. Coming around the end of the volcanic range we flew along the beautiful beaches and landscape towards Hale’iwa., Mokule’ia, and Waialua where there was a vast farm of solar panels, many wind turbines / wind “farm” for producing electricity and the observatory. Turning inland on the other side of the volcano range we flew over the enormous Dole pineapple farm. It is unmistakable as there is a very large pineapple in the center of the world’s largest hedge maze and a lot of buildings with what seemed like endless acres of pineapple production. A must visit next time. At this point we were heading South over Wahiawa and Mililani and over Pearl City, and Pearl Harbour flying over where we spent the morning so we were able to see from above all we had seen from the ground in the morning which was amazing. Then past the Honolulu International Airport and back to the Blue Hawaiian terminal. An absolutely breathtaking and spectacular experience.
What an experience!!! We called Phu (Phil) who had driven us in the morning and he picked us up at the helicopter place, taking us back to the ship. We had some dinner, watched the sail-away and enjoyed the evening show – Patrick Roberts on the violin who came to the ship after performing with the artist Sting and recording one of 6 albums with him. An outstanding performance. What a day!!!
Roger & Anne Travels 