Honeymon - Day 4 - Pearl Habor, USS Arizona & Punchbowl

One of the main reasons I wanted to stay on Oahu for a portion of our honeymoon was so Mike would have the opportunity to visit Pearl Harbor and the USS Arizona Memorial. I was lucky enough to visit the memorial in 2004 when I was here, and knew Mike would appreciate the history and the chance to pay tribute to those who've sacrificed their lives for our freedoms.

We enjoyed ourselves at the memorial, and Mike really enjoyed learning about the attack on Pearl Harbor.

Every time I am able to participate in something like this, I feel such a strong sense of patriotism. I feel so proud to be an American and I am overwhelmed with a sense of pride and devotion. Over 1100 men were killed on the USS Arizona alone on December 7, 1941. What an incredible sacrifice for all of us...it is very humbling.

I have been to Arlington and I have been to the Sicily-Rome American Cemetery & Memorial in Nettuno, Italy...near Anzio (one of the American Cemeteries in Italy). It was an awesome sight and an incredible feeling to be witness to all those graves...filled with young Americans that died too young for a cause they believed in.

One of my favorite parts of the Sicily-Rome Cemetery was the white wooden crosses or Star of David that marked each grave. I smiled when I saw the Star of David marking graves of the Americans that died protecting one of our many freedoms from a man trying to take it away from the rest of the world.

When you visit the USS Arizona Memorial, it is broken onto to two portions; a video presentation and then taking a short boat ride to the monument/memorial. The volunteer that ran our video presentation was a witness to what happened the morning of December 7th, 1941. He lived near Wheeler Field...which was one of the bombing sites. He told us a friend of his died from stray machine gun fire from one of the Japanese bombers. He also told us that a Japanese plane went down near his home and that pilot, who was visibly injured, was still trying to aim his weapons at the people near by. Oh man did I have more questions for this guy!! But there was no time for questions...oh well.

When we left Pearl Harbor, we drove to Punchbowl...the National Cemetery of the Pacific. What an awesome resting place. It was named "Punchbowl" because the cemetery is on top of an extinct volcano, in a large crater...Puowaina Crater. The cemetery is at capacity, and there are no white crosses marking the graves...only flat headstones are allowed. After reading about this cemetery, I believe my Grandpa, "Tuffy" Rodgers, could have been laid to rest here, had his family not asked for his remains to be brought back to Blackfoot, Idaho.

The picture below is of a part of the Honolulu Memorial. This memorial was erected to honor the sacrifices and achievements of American Armed Forces in the Pacific during World War II, the Korean Conflict and the Vietnam Conflict. The impressive memorial sits high on the wall of Puowaina Crater overloking the graves area of the cemetery.

The memorial consists of a chapel, two map galleries, a monumental staircase leading from the crater floor to the court of honor, ten Courts of the Missing and a Dedicatory Stone centered at the base of the stairway. In the ten courts of the Missing, which flank the staircase, are recorded the names of 18, 094 World War II heroes MIA or lost or buried at sea in the Pacific, 8,195 in the Korean conflict and 2,489 in the Vietnam Conflict; a total of 28,78.

On the front of the tower which houses the chapel is a 30-foot female figure known as "Columbia", standing on the symbolized prow of a US Navy carrier with a laurel branch in her left hand. Engraved below the figure is the poignant sympathy expressed by President Abraham Lincoln to Mrs. Bixby, mother of five sons who died in battle.

After we finished with our American History tour, we did some shopping and just did nothing together for hours and hours...it was nice.