I was gone most of the day yesterday so I didn't get to spend very much time here. I am surprised no one posted any remarks on it being Dec 7th.

A few years back I took a trip to Maui. My wife and I decided to go on to Oahu for the day. It was incredibly moving to stand on the Memorial over the USS Arizona. See the oil slick on the water and smell the oil mixed with the sea air. Look at the wall of names of those that lost their lives and still remain onboard.
Our trip also took us to the National Memorial Cemetery of the Pacific (Also called the Punch Bowl because it is a sunken volcanic crater.) We finished the day on the USS Missouri which is just a short distance from the Arizona. It was a moving experience to stand on the "Victory Deck" were the peace treaty was signed.

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I've always wanted to go there. I bet it's really something to see for yourself.
Not many guys are still alive that went through that hell.

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Some of the men who greet the crowds coming into the museum for the AZ are survivors. I took a pictures of him with my wife. After she gave him a hug and a kiss.

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My inlaws went a few years ago, mimicked your experience. Would love to experience it someday also.

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I remember seeing the Arizona Memorial as a kid. Even as a kid, I was able to appreciate it. It was weird being in a building on top of a ship where hundreds of people were just doing their job then suddenly were dead. I still have some of those images in my head, the black and whites that were on the newspapers (reprinted).

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It is a must. Save your pennies now.

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I've never seen the Arizona memorial.

The ones that blow me away are, in no particular order:

1. The Vietnam Wall. I remember all the controversy when it was being built....boy did those *critics* get things wrong!
2. The Iwo Jima statue. Of the three, this is the only one that gets me patriotic. Must be the flag.
3. The Tomb of the Unknown. This one ....it just is. In our RFID chip world, it's harder and harder to have unknown casualties. But there's something extra knowing that there is someone dead there, known only to God.

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Good ones Wade. All of them.
I loved watch JAG and Harm would go to the wall every Christmas Eve. The night his father was shot down. It would give me chills.

We had a replica of the wall in our area. Local Nam Vet had it brought it. It was really special.

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One that got to me (other then the traveling Vietnam wall, which made me cry) was going into Abraham Lincoln's tomb. That was a real expierience.

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It is definitely a destination I would like to bring my daughters to.

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