Pearl Harbor, Hawaii.

At 7:55 AM on Sunday, December 7, 1941, two waves of Japanese warplanes struck the U.S. Naval Base at Pearl Harbor Hawaii. All eight of the battleships stationed there that morning were damaged or destroyed. All but the USS Arizona and the USS Oklahoma eventually returned to active duty.

The final resting place of the 1,102 sailors and Marines who died when the ammunitions storage area was breached by a bomb are entombed in the ship, now a memorial to those who died on that infamous day. The memorial opened in 1962 and since the practice was authorised in 1982, many survivors of the USS Arizona who have since passed on have chosen to join their fallen shipmates by being interred there as well.

The large memorial is built over the sunken hull and two gun turrets of the USS Arizona. The superstructure and other armaments were recovered and reused in the war effort. A few years back, my wife, Lynn, and I took the short boat ride to the memorial. You can view a gallery of images and more about Pearl Harbor on that blog post here.