You betcha!
I have LOTS of photographs, none of which are currently downloaded from camera to my daughter's laptop, which I'm using right now. We toured Pearl Harbor, the USS Arizona Memorial, and the Punchbowl National Cemetery today. I promised myself I wouldn't cry.
I was wrong.
They have a regular table set up, outside the bookstore on the shore, where survivors of the Pearl Harbor attack sign bio sheets, or if you prefer, autograph any souvenir books and photos you've purchased. I was fortunate enough to meet two of those brave gentlemen today, both crew members of the USS Arizona, who were ashore when the attack happened, and therefore survived. I have to admit my hand was shaking a little when I shook their hands.
Standing on the shore, looking at the Arizona Memorial - where the war began - and the USS Missouri anchored nearby - on which the war with Japan formally ended - was nearly overwhelming. I know Younger Daughter thinks I'm a sappy guy, but seeing all that just brought back all my Navy memories, and stories I heard from the old hands at the time ... it was just too much. There was an autographed picture of Gen. McArthur accepting the Japanese surrender on the Missouri, hanging on the bulkhead in the officers' wardroom on my destroyer. The keel of that destroyer was laid in November 1944, and it was launched in February 1945 - and did its shakedown cruise in the west Pacific, during the final battles of WWII. Today just brought all that full circle, and it got to me.
On the way back from the Punchbowl, we stopped in front of the Eolani Palace - the last Hawaiian king's home - to watch the TV crew filming a scene for the new Hawaii 5-0. Unfortunately (or not, depending on your point of view) the cast was not there, but the crew was setting up a scene. The cast's chairs were all lined up, and a bunch of off-duty Honolulu PD officers came along to be extras. (None of their service pistols had any magazines in them.)
We stayed out on the beach tonight until the sun went down, and got some great photos of that, too.
Have I mentioned I love this place? The temps have been in the mid-80s, and sunshine bright, every day. We're slowly charbroiling, with grins on our faces: me, wife, YD ... it's great!
More later, including photographs, but that may not be until we return to Anchorage, next week.
In case I don't get back online this week, Happy Veterans' Day to all the veterans out there. They put it well, at the Memorial today:
Mourn the dead. Remember the battle. Understand the tragedy. Honor the memory.
4 comments:
Sounds like you are having one heck of a time. Enjoy.
A few weeks ago I went down the road and visited a little baptist church. One of the members of the congregation had been at Pearl Harbor during the attack. I spent around an hour listening to him talk.
Later on that day I walked by an American flag flying in the air. I couldn't stop the tears that came to my eyes just watching the flag blow in the slight breeze.
There is something almost sacred to me in watching the Flag held high and blowing in the breeze. Something I don't quite have words to describe.
But luckily there is someone who can:
"Oh, say can you see by the dawn's early light
What so proudly we hailed at the twilight's last gleaming?
Whose broad stripes and bright stars thru the perilous fight,
O'er the ramparts we watched were so gallantly streaming?
And the rocket's red glare, the bombs bursting in air,
Gave proof through the night that our flag was still there.
Oh, say does that star-spangled banner yet wave
O'er the land of the free and the home of the brave?
On the shore, dimly seen through the mists of the deep,
Where the foe's haughty host in dread silence reposes,
What is that which the breeze, o'er the towering steep,
As it fitfully blows, half conceals, half discloses?
Now it catches the gleam of the morning's first beam,
In full glory reflected now shines in the stream:
'Tis the star-spangled banner! Oh long may it wave
O'er the land of the free and the home of the brave!
And where is that band who so vauntingly swore
That the havoc of war and the battle's confusion,
A home and a country should leave us no more!
Their blood has washed out their foul footsteps' pollution.
No refuge could save the hireling and slave
From the terror of flight, or the gloom of the grave:
And the star-spangled banner in triumph doth wave
O'er the land of the free and the home of the brave!
Oh! thus be it ever, when freemen shall stand
Between their loved home and the war's desolation!
Blest with victory and peace, may the heav'n rescued land
Praise the Power that hath made and preserved us a nation.
Then conquer we must, when our cause it is just,
And this be our motto: "In God is our trust."
And the star-spangled banner in triumph shall wave
O'er the land of the free and the home of the brave!"
Happy Veteran's Day.
Thank you for your service Rev. Paul.
Wow... what a heart rending place, in the middle of so much beauty. That must have been an amazing contrast. Lord bless those guys. :)
Hope the trip is awesome.
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