Military.com
The long wait for the USS Arizona Memorial to reopen to walk-on visits is ending soon, with a new anchoring system drilled firmly into the seafloor to keep a formerly wayward floating access dock in place, officials say.
“We have entered the final phase of the USS Arizona Memorial loading dock repair process and plan to issue a press release over the coming days to update our visitors on the current situation and when they can expect access to the memorial to be restored, ” Jay Blount, chief of interpretation and education at the Pearl Harbor National Memorial, said Tuesday. More
No comments? How about “good job and well done.”
Very good job; and, well done.
Am very certain my Dad and his Pacific Fleet buddies would also say the same, even though most are now looking from above.
I arrived at Pearl Harbor June 1974, initially assigned to sub crew barracks on Ford Island. On Dec 7, 2007 I recall thinking 33.5 years had passed since I first saw the Arizona, but the ship had been attacked, and sunk just 32.5 years before I arrived at Ford Island.
I only went on the memorial tour once during the four years I lived there. However, I sailed along the length of the Arizona many times at a respectful distance. Kind of a sobering experience viewing the great ship from bow to stern below the water’s surface, and thinking of the men still inside and the other events of the day of the attack.
Now even more time has passed for the ship and the visitor’s dock to corrode and deteriorate, and need repair. There are many other reminders, both large and small, of the Japanese attack on and around Ford Island.
When I was there many of the old buildings still in use retained damage to exterior walls from Japanese fire that were never fully repaired as small reminders of the attack. I wonder if they still exist today. When I was there the old hangars behind the barracks were just abandoned building, but have now been remodeled and turned into a museum.
Absolutely heartbreaking how those young men died… I could no more walk on their tomb than my Father’s grave….. kinda dusty up in here.