USS Arizona
If you’ve ever been there this will be of interest.
“The USS Arizona Memorial is closed to visitors Wednesday morning after a tug boat collided with the memorial’s dock, making it “not safe for people to land there,” a spokeswoman said.
A tug boat maneuvering the USNS Mercy hospital ship collided with the memorial’s mooring dock, said spokeswoman Abby Wines.”
The USS Arizona is a remarkable place. Just maybe more so for Sailors.
“Arizona was the most heavily damaged of all the vessels in Battleship Row, suffering three near-misses and four direct-hits from 800-kg bombs dropped by high-altitude Kates. The last bomb to strike her penetrated her deck starboard of turret two and detonated within a 14-inch powder magazine. The resulting massive explosion broke the ship in two forward of turret one, collapsed her forecastle decks, and created such a cavity that her forward turrets and conning tower fell thirty feet into her hull. “
We visited there several times, The Wife and I. The ship was still leaking oil in the late 70’s when we lived on Oahu.
I actually visited it once on the way to the Tonkin Gulf if memory serves.
There are names at the memorial, and you can look down, if the light is right, you can imagine those minutes our shipmates went through.
Category: Geezer Alert!
The USNS Mercy is a good ship (I know first hand), the fleet tug is a work-horse and the USS Arizona will continue to weep its oil, as I have seen it do before, many times … and will again in the future.
The Memorial dock will require some repair.
Shortly thereafter, visitors will return.
Out!
Yep, one of the most solemn places on Earth. Not just for Navy vets, but for any American patriot, and many of our friends.
Amen brother.
I have to agree with you… not just for Navy vets. The Arizona is among the most solemn retreats to pay our respect, reflect and honor the fallen.
I have visited there often, especially during my two hardship tours on Oahu.
In 1989 I had the honor and privilege to raise Old Glory and reenlist on the memorial — as many military members from all branches have done over the years. That flag along with a USS Arizona presentation certificate, and aerial photo of the ship in its watery tomb is proudly displayed in my office.
Trivia question: Which entertainer performed a benefit concert at Pearl Harbor Naval Base arena to support creation of the memorial?
Old 1SG, your trivia question was way easy. Didn’t even have to Google it.
It was “The King” of Rock & Roll and it took place on 25 Mar 61.
Thanks for the memory.
My mom and dad were young teens during WWII. Much later, after we had grown and left home, they visited Hawaii and this memorial. My mom said “It was the saddest thing I have ever seen.”
There is no need to plug that oil leak.
I have been by the Arizona many times on liberty launches, but there was no memorial on her then….would like to see the memorial…
Sorry to hear about that, I’ll wait until I read more facts about the incident before I say anything else about it. I’ve been to that memorial, it’s a very solemn place. I visited there in November, and the Japanese tourists outnumbered the Americans there on that day I visited. They had flower leighs which they unfastened, and the family members took turns, first the Father dropped some of the flowers into the water, then the Mother, then each of the kids got their turn, it was like they were taking part in a ritual. I visited the USS Missouri as well and saw the nicely polished brass plaque under glass on the deck where GEN MacArthur accepted the Japanese surrender aboard her in Tokyo bay.
Tiny nitpick: It is Lei. [grin]
Duly noted, lesson learned.
Manned the rails when we sailed into Pearl on the Kittyhawk. One of the few times I didn’t mind getting out the dress uniform and having everything up to and touching.
One of the most solemn moments I have ever experienced.
Solemn doesn’t begin to cover it.
And FWIW, the tugs are there as an ASSIST. The ultimate responsibility lies with the CO of the ship being guided. Might not be right, might not be fair, but that’s how it goes.
I’m not a ship’s captain nor a tugboat operator but I’ve been to Ford Island a couple of dozen times, most recently last summer. The channel there is not massive but it’s not that tight and if you are in close to the dock, that’s pretty messed up.
http://www.military.com/daily-news/2015/05/27/witness-us-navy-ship-struck-uss-arizona-memorial-in-hawaii.html#.VWaF7Sb5YUs.facebook
It sounds like somebody’s ass is gonna be grass!
I visited the Memorial with my parents when I was 17. One of the most solemn and humbling experiences of my life. I saw the names on the wall, saw the fuel leaking from her tanks, and I had to hold back tears. I still don’t know exactly how I felt about the 50 or so Japanese tourists who were there, but they were respectful at least. When my parents went for the first time a few years earlier, my Dad had been ready to restart the war thanks to another group of jap tourists who were treating it like it was fucking Disneyland. Dad managed not to toss anybody over the rail (when I asked why not, he told me it’d be just as disrespectful to the Memorial to start a fight there), but he did let a couple of them know that they could go fuck themselves.
One of these days, I plan on taking my wife and kid (actually, it’s now KIDS, plural!) back there. We’ll also visit the Missouri and the Bowfin, who paid the Japs back for the Arizona (the USS Bowfin SS-287 was launched on 12/7/1942 and was nicknamed “The Pearl Harbor Avenger”). And anytime anybody talks shit about Hiroshima and Nagasaki, I’ll just think back to all those names of those Sailors and Marines etched in that marble wall.
When I was a very young teenager, 13 or so, my dad bought me a scale model of the USS Missouri – “Mighty Mo.” In the box with the model was a paper that told the story of the Missouri, and how she was at that moment awaiting the sad fate of being scrapped. The organization who published that paper asked for any donation that anyone could send, to help pay for her care and upkeep and the funds to turn her into a museum ship. I was touched by the story, and out of my allowance, I sent $5 — a lot of money back then! — as a donation. It’s always brought a smile to my face that somewhere on the Missouri, there’s a bolt or something that I paid for, those many years ago. 😉
You can be more proud than you think – – if you were 13 before the ’80s or so, the Missouri was refitted, went on active duty, and served in several actions before she was eventually decommissioned (my kid’s godmother worked on the final decommissioning.) You didn’t contribute a bolt to a museum – you contributed a bolt to one of the greatest warships of all time.
Yep. It was about ’75 or ’76.
Thought as much but didn’t want me teeth slapped out if I was wrong!!
Heh. No worries. Getting the chance to visit her is on my bucket list. We’ve always seemed to go in different directions, but I hope to have the chance to see her one day.
The first model ship I ever built was a small-scale Arizona in her 1941 configuration. It looked like crap, but I was 9 years old at the time.
I recently got back into model ships. Just finished a 1/525 of the Yorktown (CV-5) and started a 1/250 kit of the old Olympia. Got 1/350 kits of the San Francisco (1942 config) and an old Wickes-class DD waiting on the shelf.
On a related note, I recently heard that the Navy was asked for help in drydocking and overhauling the Olympia and the Texas. I was absolutely disgusted to read that the DoD (on orders from the Glorious Leader’s admin) replied: “We recommend and support any effort to tow both ships out to sea and scuttle them as artificial reefs.”
I wish I was kidding. Hell, if we’re gonna do that, we might as well turn the Declaration of Independence into wallpaper and use the Grand Canyon as a landfill. They really don’t respect anything about this nation, do they?
This may cheer you up a bit. There are plans to preserve the Olympia:
http://articles.philly.com/2014-04-04/news/48838979_1_jesse-lebovics-olympia-independence-seaport-museum
Unfortunaely, the USS Texas has not faired so well:
http://www.houstonchronicle.com/news/houston-texas/houston/article/USS-Texas-repairs-underway-but-that-won-t-be-4549044.php
I know that not every ship can be kept, and even ships like the United States are in desperate need of funds and repairs, but you would think our most valuable national treasures would capture the interest of our government. Unfortunately, if any of these ships are restored, it will probably be private funds that achieve that, with little or no support from the government.
They got around the drydocking issue by setting up a cofferdam around the USS Alabama, and there’s plans and funding to do the same with the North Carolina. You’d think that would be a good low-cost solution for the Texas, given her location.
I’m a PACFLT Sailor and was stationed at Pearl twice.
I’m sure many of you know that a lot, if not all, of the surviving crew has their remains placed on the ship once they pass from this mortal coil.
Also, more than a few have heard that there’s a bit of a legend about the oil leaking from Arizona.
Many say that it’s the ship crying for its crew and that once the last one is interred on the ship, that the oily tears will stop.
Since they have to repair that dock now anyway, they should plug that leaking oil while they’re at it.
I mean, look at all the environmental damage caused by leaking man-made chemicals into our lovely sea-bed in Hawaii. To allow such catastrophic and purposeful damaging of a native environment is ridiculous. Has the EPA been notified? I mean, it’s the Presidents home state! Can’t he ask the EPA for a ruling on it? Why would they let this leak for so long, yet jump all over a farmer because he dropped a gas can in Wyoming? Do they realize how many snail, mussels, fish, sea birds, plankton, manatee, porpoises, baby seals, frogs, owls, vultures and eskimos are affected by ugly oil continuing to flow unabated from a shipwreck? Where can I make my claim for damages?
WHEN WILL IT EVER END?
Mr Wolf,
In regards to the USS Arizona’s leaking oil, STFU and STFD.
Out!
Uhm, B? That looks like sarcasm from here. 😉
The Glorious Leader is just enough of a douche that he might try it. I read somewhere that the EPA has tried in the past to force some kind of cleanup/removal (which would badly damage the remains), but the Navy, Marines, National Park Service, and the native Hawaiian medicine men all told them, “If you’re gonna try it, you better come armed.”
That fuel is a literal drop in the ocean compared to the environmental damage they don’t want to admit is caused by organic farming and “green energy.” Therefore, leave it the hell alone.
That was the entire point of the posting- given what they try to generate from a media perspective, can you imagine anything that would bring more wrath?
HOWEVER once all the WWII guys are gone, don’t expect it to survive challenge for long. I mean, they’re slowly trying to pull crosses off of memorials, one by one.
The oil leaking from the ship is referred to as the ‘tears of the Arizona.’
I had to look up the stats, but there are still 500,000 gallons of fuel/oil still on the Arizona. She leaks approximately 9 quarts of oil into the harbor every day. Environmental agencies continue to assess her condition, and there is concern that there might eventually be a ‘catastrophic’ eruption of oil into the harbor, which would have an environmental impact, and disrupt activities in the harbor. There is great reluctance to attempt to do anything about the oil on the ship, because of her status as a war grave. It is thought that eventually the ship will deteriorate to the point that the leaking oil will have to be addressed, but no plans are in place yet on how to do that.
I re-enlisted on the “deck” of the Memorial one early morning in 1992. It was a reverent, peaceful and quiet occasion. We still have the small flag that we raised momentarily up the flagpole.
And yes, the Arizona was still leaking oil then. You could see the sheen on the water. It added to the solemnity.
RIP brothers-in-arms. See you later, eventually.
I served aboard the SSBN 610 back in the 70s. We ‘off crewed’ on Ford Island. Getting to the office required riding the launch or the ferry both of which passed close to the USS Arizona Memorial. Once on Ford Island there were brass memorial plates on the dock we’d walk along memorializing other ships and their crews that were lost during the attack on Pearl Harbor.
Humbling, to say the least. Over thirty years later the memorial and the plates still haunt me.