Pearl Harbor, Hawaii.

It has been 80 years, and though I wasn’t yet born when the Japanese launched their opening salvo against the United States that brought us into the war in the Pacific, I still think of the sacrifices made by those fighting men and their families as we joined World War II.

I would like to say that we visited the USS Arizona Memorial recently to capture some images as a reminder of the lives lost those 80 years ago. To honor the memory, I’ve reworked the images I captured a few years ago using processing software that I didn’t have available when these jpeg images were first published.

Using Lightroom Classic and Luminar AI, I’ve reprocessed the photos into 2K HD and posted them on my Flickr site. I found some interesting facts about the memorial on the Internet that I will also share. The memorial, designed by the US Navy was designed to accommodate 200 people, and it’s accessed by boat as the resting place of those 900+ sailors sits in 36 feet (11 m) of water where she sank on that Sunday morning.

If you look carefully at this image, you’ll see a dark stripe in the water in front of the superstructure that is above water level. It’s oil that is still leaking from the ship, over 2 quarts a day. Both the Navy and the National Park Service have explored ways to reduce the leakage without dishonoring the resting place of the souls on board. The hull is continually monitored with a concern that the leaks might someday increase to an unacceptable level.

The ship sustained severe damage when an armor-piercing projectile from a Japanese plane ignited one of the powder magazines on the ship. The tons of explosives and weapons exploded immediately killing virtually everyone inside the ship and most of the people above deck.

On display is one of the ship’s anchors. The USS Arizona was commissioned in 1916 and was one of the ships that escorted President Woodrow Wilson to the Paris Peace Conference. After a short stint in Turkey in 1919, she was repositioned to the Pacific Fleet and remained there until December 7, 1941.

Unlike most of the other ships which were salvaged and rebuilt, the violence of the magazine explosion rendered the Arizona unrepairable. It became the final resting place for the 1,177 men who died on that fateful morning. Guns and other salvageable superstructure were removed and reused in rebuilding other ships, and the memorial built and dedicated in 1962 straddles the ship’s remains.

Survivors of the blast were ultimately allowed to rejoin their fellow sailors on board the ship in final rest on the USS Arizona and many veterans chose that option. Those who once served on the ship, but were assigned elsewhere at the time of the bombing, were allowed to have their ashes scattered in the water above the ship.

A complete history of the USS Arizona is available on Wikipedia here. Also, on the PearlHarbor.Org website here, you will find some other interesting facts about the ship and those who served on her.

You can click on any of the images above to get a closer look in 2K HD on my Flickr site. From there you can scroll through the images, or you can visit the album here and select the images you’d like to view. You will find a couple of extra images from our visit that day posted there as well.

John Steiner

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.

Honolulu, Hawai’i

This morning, my wife and I hiked in the Estrella Mountains, here in Arizona. When we hike, neither of us says very much. We have plenty of time to think about projects, upcoming trips, and the usual flotsam and jetsam that flows through one’s mind. As we were walking, I remembered that today is the 72^nd anniversary of the bombing of Pearl Harbor. I was reminded of the sacrifices that were made by those Americans who became the first victims of the War in the Pacific. I cannot tell the stories of the War in the Pacific with the accuracy and eloquence of my blogging friend, GPCox. If you are interested in the history of the US in the Pacific, you can find his blog at http://pacificparatrooper.wordpress.com/. I highly recommend you check out his blog posts.

The namesake of the state, the USS Arizona was one of the major casualties that terrible day. A few years back, we visited Pearl Harbor and the USS Arizona memorial. I have included a gallery of images from the USS Arizona Memorial at Pearl Harbor, Hawai’i. Regular readers may recall some of these images from late October when I submitted them in a photo challenge featuring images that are eerie. I have also added some additional images to fill out the portfolio.

On December 7, 1941, around 8 AM, a General Quarters alarm was sounded on the USS Arizona. Waves of Japanese aircraft were dropping tons of ordinance on targets in and around the naval base at Pearl Harbor, Hawai’i.  Somewhere around eight bombs struck the Arizona, but her death blow came when a bomb pierced the deck and fell through to the ordinance bay. The massive explosion sunk the Arizona where it docked and ultimately killed 1177 of the over 1400 men who were onboard the ship.

After the attack, the upper parts of the superstructure were removed and guns mounted on shore as a battery to defend the Hawaiian coastline. What remains of the ship barely rises above the surface. To this day, oil from the engine bay still slowly seeps to the surface of the water, spreading a silky rainbow pattern as the oil drifts with the currents. In 1962, a permanent memorial honoring the crew lost on that day of infamy was erected over the ship’s remains.

Old Glory waves in the breeze over the resting place of the servicemen of the USS Arizona.

This post is dedicated to those who have served, those who are serving, and those who will serve to preserve, protect and defend our country.

John Steiner

Honolulu, Hawai’i

This week’s photo challenge was clearly inspired by Halloween. Never one to do a photo challenge correctly, I opted to tweak the concept from the ghosts and goblins of All Hollow’s Eve and Dia de los Muertos to focus on a subject that is eerie in its own right; the tomb of those lost on the USS Arizona. I submit for your consideration a collection of images from the USS Arizona Memorial at Pearl Harbor, Hawai’i.

On December 7, 1941, around 8 AM, a General Quarters alarm was sounded on the USS Arizona. Waves of Japanese aircraft were dropping tons of ordinance on targets in and around the naval base at Pearl Harbor, Hawai’i.  Somewhere around eight bombs struck the Arizona, but her death blow came when a bomb pierced the deck and fell through to the ordinance bay. The massive explosion sunk the Arizona where it docked and ultimately killed 1177 of the over 1400 men who were onboard the ship.

After the attack, the upper parts of the superstructure were removed and guns mounted on shore as a battery to defend the Hawai’ian coastline. What remains of the ship barely rises above the surface. To this day, oil from the engine bay still slowly seeps to the surface of the water, spreading a silky rainbow pattern as the oil drifts with the currents. In 1962, a permanent memorial honoring the crew lost on that day of infamy was erected over the ship’s remains.

This post is dedicated to those who have served, those who are serving, and those who will serve to preserve, protect and defend our country.

John Steiner

http://dailypost.wordpress.com/2013/11/01/photo-challenge-eerie/