December 7th

You can see the Arizona Memorial through the life preserver. (Artistic Erin took this shot).


The Chief! The one and only.


This was the U.S.S. Russell. All of the sailors stood at attention along the edge of the ship as it sailed pass. This was definitely a very emotional beginning to the ceremony.


This is when they asked the Survivors to stand up. There were actually quite a few who were able to make it to the ceremony. I think they said about 500 or so.

This guy just killed me. The whole morning was an exercise in trying not to cry.


The laid wreaths for all the ships hit during that morning. Each wreath was laid by a survivor from that ship.

After the ceremony. There were Hawaiian shirts and leis as far as the eye could see! Kind of a colorful contrast to the solemn occasion.

After the ceremony. This is a funny picture. This was standing in line for the bathroom! Obviously as nice as the ceremony was, someone forgot these are old dudes, most of whom need to go to the bathroom every 16.7 seconds. So ole Pop was waiting in line for the bathroom when Old Man Winter on the right (in the blue shirt) got a little agressive. I guess he really had to go and Pop was convinced he was going to try and cut him in line. Pop had to about throw down. He got up out of his wheelchair in order to assert his proper place in line. It was pretty hardcore for awhile but also nice to see the ole fightin' spirit. It was like, "Guys! Guys! We're all on the same side here! Fight the real enemy!"

Also, I wanted to say I was really, really impressed with how well my Grandpa and other Survivors were treated during their time in Hawaii. As you can see from the pics, Chief was never without his "Pearl Harbor Survivors" hat, and people really responded to it. We had people come up to him while we were stopped at traffic lights in order to shake his hand, and young soldiers followed him out of restaurants to talk to him. When we went to the Arizona Memorial, an entire family asked to have their picture taken with him. Obviously the old guy is a pretty gregarious fellow, but from what I saw, every Survivor was treared as well (and they were all wearing those damn hats). Everyone was really respectful to the Survivors and spent a lot of time listening to, basically, history being passed down by these guys. It was really gratifying to see that other people, even strangers, appreciate my Grandpa as much as I do. I know it also made the Survivors feel really good to know that everythis they did that day was not in vain and is remembered even today. Also, the people at Pearl Harbor Naval Shipyard did a very good job getting a LOT of people through security and onto the base in a timely fashion. It was almost military in precision. Haha.