Proud Granddaughter

I am a proud granddaughter of a WWII veteran.  I went to Pearl Harbor today and I was literally moved to tears with pride for all the servicemen and women that keep us safe, but especially for my grandpa.  My Grandpa served in the Navy on an ammunition ship in the Pacific.  He joined the military when he was just 17 towards the end of the war.  He was stationed in San Diego and then launched to the Pacific.  When the war ended, he came home on a train that was so crowded, he sat on his suitcase.  He arrived back at Ephraim in the middle of the night and went into his house.  His family wasn't expecting him, and his Mom was scared when she heard someone in her house. I'm sure she was overjoyed when she realized it was her son returning from war.

There are many things I don't understand about war - my generation has never seen a war where hundreds of thousands of people are killed in a short period of time.  Standing at the USS Arizona memorial today, I think I got a small sense of what war must have been like, and I think it was terrifying.  The memorial is out in the harbor above the sunken ship.  It's a beautiful white memorial with windows where you can see the ship. 

Against the back wall are the names of all the people who were killed.  There were over 1,000 Navy killed along with several marines.  As I stood looking at the wall, I thought about my Grandpa since he served in the Pacific Navy during the war.  He was too young to have been at Pearl Harbor, but I thought about if he had been old enough, he could have been stationed there and among the attacked.  I am so blessed that he was not there, but it did create a somber feeling for people that did have loved ones who were killed at Pearl Harbor.   

Many people bring lei's and lay them at the base of the wall.  There was an older man at the memorial with his wife and he was clearly a veteran.  They laid their lei's down, and he also removed a flower from his lapel and put it there as well.  He then turned, clicked his heels, and saluted the wall.  It was truly beautiful. 

The Arizona is a national cemetery since the military was not able to recover most of the bodies from the ship.  Even survivors can choose to be buried there among their fallen comrades "on eternal patrol."  It was truly a very humbling and somber feeling being at the Arizona memorial.

After the Arizona, we went to see the USS Missouri.  This ship was actually not at Pearl Harbor during the attack, but was used at the end of WWII and was the sight of the Japanese surrender.

The ship served up until the Persian Gulf War before it was ultimately retired to Pearl Harbor for tours.  It was fun to walk around the ship and see what life was/is like for our sailors in the Navy.  Battleships are huge, they house up to 1,600 sailors.  My grandpa was on a battleship similar to the Missouri.  As I was walking towards it, I thought about what he must have felt like boarding the ship for the first time.  It must have been very exciting and new for a rancher from Ephraim, Utah. 

The guns on the ship are HUGE!  I don't remember many of the statistics they told us about them, but I just remember that they take a lot of gun-powder and they can shoot accurately up to 23 miles away.  CRAZY!

The conditions on the ship are quite primitive.  The bunks are all small and close together.  The sailors don't have a lot of space and store their things in lockers or compartments under their mattresses. 

The craziest thing is that the ship is in the condition it was as of the Persian Gulf War - the bunks would have been even more primitive during WWII, and air conditioning wasn't added until the Reagan presidency.  I'm sure it got VERY hot on the Pacific Ocean during WWII. 

After the Missouri, we went to see the USS Bowfin, which is a submarine that was used during WWII. 

Being on a submarine was a pretty cool experience, I really had no concept of what submarines were like before hopping on board. 

Overall, today was an amazing day and one that I'm not likely to forget anytime soon.  I can't wait to someday come back with Eric. I am so proud to be the granddaughter of a veteran who loved his country so much he would have given his life if called upon.  I hope that I can someday be the kind of hero to my children and grandchildren that my Grandpa still is to me.