Pearl Harbor Feedback

Got some feedback from our Pearl Harbor posting:

Frances Sumner, Valerie Easterling’s mother, grew up in Hawaii. She wrote:

I was eleven months old when PH was attacked. My dad worked there as a machinist. He was called in during the attack and he and his brother dodged strafing by Japanese planes while going into the Navy Yard. Frances

I responded: Wow, that's interesting. Did your Dad talk to you much about that day and the aftermath?

Frances replied: Yes, my dad talked to me about it. I also have memories of scary things happening although I didn't understand what it was. Also, we have a veteran friend in Honolulu who was there as a welder. My dad was a machinist. Dad's good friend lives in Calif. They met when dad grabbed his brother and jumped over a barrier to escape the Japanese bullets. Dad landed right on top of him. My uncle wrote a history of the whole period that is kept at the University of Hawaii, I think it is. My cousin got copies somehow. I remember growing up in Honolulu during the war. We went back to Kauai afterwards.

If you're still in Honolulu, you can find Booth Road where I lived exiting off the Pali Road. We lived almost at the end of the road on the top of the mountain. My mother sat on the stairs crying while she watched the Japanese planes. Before she died I asked her about a memory I had of kissing her and trying to get her to stop crying. She was surprised that I remembered that. There's more but those were scary times. Frances

My brother, Lael, corrects and expands on (my version of) family history:

Enjoyed reading about Pearl Harbor where my first 2 ships were homeported and Sheila lived for 2 years. I was deployed to the South China Sea or the Mainland most of the time. Heather was born at the Tripler Army Hospital; the big pink hospital on the hill.

To add to and correct your reference to your personal connection to Pearl Harbor; Dad was principal of Montezuma Kansas schools on 7 December 1941. [I said NW Oklahoma.] Believe he had 5 teachers under his command. … Dad wrote a letter to his father stating his intention to enter the military despite his deferment status as a teacher. It was March 1942 that he went to Kansas City for a military physical. There he wrote a post card to Mom back in Oklahoma stating something like "..WE HAVE JOINED THE NAVY." I recall a conversation with Mom that led me to believe from her body language that she never liked the postcard. Anyway, you were gestating by March. … Seems like Dad and Mom made the decision to create you before Dad got himself killed in the war. I seemed to be the result of the postwar celebration [Lael was born in March, 1946.].

… You were born in Waukegan Illinois because the Navy makes good decisions sometimes. The program Dad signed up for was the Gene Tunney physical training course to make chief petty officers out of school teachers and coaches to train recruits. … One of the few personal details Dad shared with me was that the 90 day Gene Tunney training program was the toughest thing he had ever done. Gene Tunney was a champion boxer and was given the rank of Commander and tasked with the development and implementation of the program. A program that assigns people already trained in educating young people to continue what they did best in the Navy was a brilliant solution to the problem of building a navy rapidly.

Here are some Pearl Harbor pictures I found on the internet:

This one is of the Arizona engulfed in flames, going down.

And here's the USS Arizona Memorial with the ship's hull visible below.

Here's a story on the USS Oklahoma and a picture:

"On 3 March, 1943, the capsized USS Oklahoma (BB-37) was slowly but inexorably torqued to an angle of 30 degrees. Old streetcar motors were mounted to a dock on Ford Island, then connected to the special towers on the ship by a series of steel cables and pulleys. "Old Okie" as she was known to her crew, was raised, then stabilized, then raised again, in measured steps, until she was finally vertical, then pumped out and made seaworthy. She had rolled more than 90 degrees and was being raised primarily to get her out of the way. Built in 1912, she was too old to bother restoring, and worse, she had been on the bottom of the harbor so long that everything was corroded beyond repair, so she never saw action again. She was made watertight and soon after the War, the battle wagon went on her last voyage - being towed across the Pacific for salvage. She sank during the trip.

The USS Oklahoma Memorial was dedicated on Dec. 7, 2007, and commemorates the 429 sailors and Marines who died in the Peal Harbor attack.

Hawaii-1. Pearl Harbor

We decided some time in September to celebrate our 10th anniversary by a trip to Hawaii. Ten years ago we honeymooned in Kuaui. Decided this time to spend a week on Oahu. We were helped in this case by a package provided by an agency that specializes in travel packages for airline employees and their relatives -- thank you, Mandi.

This package was (standby) air fare and three nights in a Waikiki Beach hotel. We fleshed this out into an 8-day stay: one additional night in Honolulu upon arrival at an airport hotel, then three nights on the north shore, one night on the SE coast (called the windward coast), then ending with the three nights in Waikiki.

We booked a Nov 14 departure and at the time seat availability looked good, but it tightened as the time approached. On Thursday, the 12th, the word was 20 available seats, but 21 standbys listed. Looked for other options. Friday, THE 13TH, had much greater availability (because of trextadecophobia? I didn't look up spelling, but this should be close enough), so we moved our departure up a day. Added one more night at airport hotel, one more day with rental car, and we were set.

We flew on USAirways, ABQ-PHX-HNL, an alien experience, on FRIDAY THE 13TH, no less, for us Southwest Airlines partisans. Had to pay for checked baggage, had to pay for snacks and meals. But, hey, if people don't want to fly on FRIDAY THE 13TH, we're glad to have their seats. In fact, on the 6.5 hr. flight from PHX to HNL we had an aisle and a window seat, nobody in the middle seat! We gaily chatted the time away. You might notice that we walk around with our elbows tucked tightly against our sides from flying middle seats so often.

(Which reminds me: The previous week we flew on Thursday to Cleveland (Baldwin-Wallace U)to see granddaughter Kaci in a play, then to Nashville to help Mandi and Paul put on a garage sale -- they're moving to Denver - yippee! The play was "Wild Party," (which it certainly was. Very dramatic music and Kaci was great in one of the lead roles.)

At any rate, we got to Honolulu in late afternoon and, with help from the GPS in Susie's cell phone, found the hotel -- about two blocks from the rental car pick-up site. Had dinner at the Dixie Grill in Pearl City, a popular hangout for Navy personnel and their families that I found in guidebook, led there by GPS, and retired early to try to reset our internal clocks.

With our bonus day, we decided to see Pearl Harbor on Saturday, rather than wait until we returned to Honolulu at the end of our stay. Got there and picked up our tickets for the USS Arizona Memorial tour. We had about a two-hr. wait for that tour, so in the interim I did the USS Bowfin tour. The Bowfin is a submarine whose construction was authorized immediately after the Pearl Harbor attack and launched exactly one year later: Dec. 7, 1942. She became known as the Pearl Harbor Avenger. During the war the Bowfin destroyed 39 Japanese merchant ships and four Japanese navy ships.

Here's a picture of the Bowfin torpedo room. You carry headphones that provide good explanations of what you're seeing and reminiscences from crew members. It's rather cramped -- moreso than Tuzigoot. I wonder if they could put slideouts on submarines. I got behind a guy who constantly snapped pictures -- five pictures of a bunk room for cryin out loud!

That's me in the white shirt. Dive! Dive! Dive!

I have a personal connection to Pearl Harbor. Immediately after the attack my Dad, then a HS principal (I believe -- don't have my Dad's history available here) in NW Oklahoma, enlisted. I was born nine and a half months later, in a Navy hospital -- one of the first war babies. Thanks, Mom and Dad.

The USS Arizona tour is introduced by an excellent film about the attack. Lots of dramatic movie footage taken that day by local and Japanese cameras, including film just as the Arizona is hit. 1,177 sailors died as the ship quickly sank. Some 900 bodies are entombed inside her sunken hull. There were about 2400 deaths that Day of Infamy.

A boat takes you from the Visitor Center to the Arizona Memorial, which sits astride the sunken hull. You can see the ship outlines below and smokestacks protrude. A wall of the Memorial lists the fatalities.

There's an oil slick visible here from fuel still leaking from the Arizona's tanks.

In the last few months I've been to the World Trade Center and Pearl Harbor. May there be no more such days of infamy.

Also at Pearl Harbor is the USS Missouri -- the battleship upon which the Japanese surrender was signed. The Missouri was in dry dock for maintenance, so was closed to tours. Part of the same tour is the USS Oklahoma memorial. The Oklahoma was another battleship sunk that day in Pearl Harbor. I wanted to pay tribute there, but had to settle for buying a shirt.

Before we left home I had about decided to buy a 'netbook' computer, considerably smaller and lighter than the conventional laptop computer we have. Costco had a good deal on a basic netbook and I would probably (statistics means never having to say you're certain) have bought one there on Friday, but our sudden departure prevented that. Susie said maybe there's a Costco in Honolu, so I did look up a Honolulu Costco on the internet and printed a Mapquest map that indicated it was fairly close to our hotel.

After being at Pearl Harbor I was feeling the need to blog, so we went looking for Costco. Susie programmed the address into her phone and away we went in search of Costco. There was a big difference, though, between where Mapquest and Verizon said Costco was located. Verizon said across town on the east side of Honolulu. The airport is on the west side. Initially, I trusted Mapquest -- silly me. This meant I was dissing Susie's phone -- not wise. When Verizon said go eight miles east on H1, I said this can't be right and took the first exit I came across.

Turned out to be H3, a freeway that runs for 10 miles or more NE, with no exits, through some dramatic mountains, then a tunnel, until it emerges somewhere NE of Honolulu. Gorgeous drive, by the way. At this point I gave up and meekly followed Verizon's instructions to what I was reasonably sure would be somewhere other than Costco, at which point I would say, OK, let's go by the Mapquest map. Well, son of a gun, Verizon took us right into Costco on the far east side of Honolulu. And two days later, here I sit looking out at the ocean from our beachfront cottage on the North Shore of Oahu, blogging away.


I had found a Methodist Church (on my new toy computer) in Pearl City, so Sunday morning, en route to the North Shore, we stopped there. The church is shared by a Tongan Methodist congregation but one Sunday a month, they have a joint service -- luckily the one we happened upon. The Tongan choir did the special music -- 11 very strong and harmonious voices, in their native language -- really a thrill and very moving. A guest speaker from the National Alliance for Mental Illness-- the local chapter meets in the church and he was thanking the church for their support -- spoke eloquently about his son, who had been diagnosed as schizophrenic, and the effect that situation had had on his life. Changed his life and enabled him to see how God's love can work.


Then, wouldn't you know, they had a potluck lunch and a nice church lady invited us to stay. Sure, we said. The guidebooks say try to get away from the touristy places and eat where the locals do, so how better to do that than a church potluck. There was quite a mix of Tongan and Hawaiian and Methodist fare. Most unusual was some blackened little fish, smelt, someone thought, cooked whole. You eat them kind of like a french fry, except the head and backbone. Well, I ate one. It was OK. Susie declined. Another delicacy was purple sweet potatoes and she went for that.


We had a good visit with the minister. He had been at this church four years. His wife is a Presbyterian minister and she had been assigned a large church in Honolulu and he found this smaller Methodist church to pastor. They moved from the Denver area.


As we left, Susie said, Well you did it again. Found an out of the way spot that provided a nice experience, she meant, as opposed to: Got us lost again.


We headed on up to the North Shore. We'll be in touch.


Cheers,


Susie and Rob

OctoberFest

Dear Family and Friends. We had a busy October. Here, belatedly, are some pictorial highlights.

First weekend. Balloon Fiesta. Our guests: my sisters, Connie and Verla, and my nephew (Connie's son), Marcus and his wife, LeeAnn.

It never gets old.

Monday picnic in the mountains.

Grandson Tony Hinkle has enlisted in the Army. We went to his swearing-in ceremony in Albq. He leaves after Christmas for basic training in Fort Knox.

Third weekend plus: in Denver, for Jeff's birthday weekend and, coincidentally, the weekend he and family were moving. That gave Susie some quality time with Malia and me the chance to paint a couple of rooms.

Malia (almost 4 yrs. old) had two soccer games. She was generally close to the ball, but they wouldn't pass it to her. Next year they'll do passes.

She found this panda bear waiting for her in her new house.

From Denver we flew to North Carolina. We visited with niece Heather (brother, Lael's daughter) and her family: Joe, Lindsay, and Samantha.

Visited with Mike, Karen, and Jason (4th grade), who does golf and soccer.

You may have noticed that I don't seem to include the soccer ball in my pictures. The sport moves so fast, compared to the delayed click on my digital camera.

Home again: Backyard color.

Soon followed by: first snow of the season.

Posted from Hawaii, Nov. 15. We'll be in touch soon.

Cheers,

Susie and Rob

Vegas Weekend

Dear Family and Friends:

This past weekend we traveled (by car, not Tuzigoot) to Las Vegas, New Mexico, Susie's NM home town, to attend homecoming festivities at her alma mater, Highlands University. Here's a brief report and several pictures.

We left on Friday, which happened to be my birthday, and we celebrated that by stopping on the way in Santa Fe for fish tacos at my favorite Mexican seafood restaurant. I have sampled fish taco offerings far and wide, and these are still the best.

Homecoming started with a brunch Saturday morning for the class of '59. Around a dozen members of that class were there and they shared lots of fond, sometimes funny, memories of their Highlands days. One frequent memory was of Susie playing Ado Annie in Oklahoma!


Saturday afternoon was parade time. Fifty years ago the Highland U drum major was none other than the lovely and talented Susie Hughes:



Here's a portion of the class of '59 on parade in 2009. They actually sang the school fight song ("Cowboys the best in the west, ... ) occasionally, but I didn't get to hear it. Actually, they closed the brunch by bellowing out the fight song and if you're not careful, Susie will do it voluntarily should you happen to mention Highlands U in her presence.

Saturday night was football and unfortunately the home team had a tough night -- and have had several tough years. We and several of the class of '59 stayed until the end, though, and got to see quite a nice choreographed fireworks show.

Sunday morning we took a particularly scenic route home, going north and west from Las Vegas. This took us through some scenic ranch land and ancient villages, then over the Sangre de Cristo mountains, topping out at about 9500 ft. Here are a couple fall color pictures.

We were impressed by the early snow on the Truchas Peaks.

We had lunch at the Sipapu Ski Lodge cafe, then picked up the art show along the "High Road to Taos." One reason we took this route was that we had read that many of the arts and craft galleries along this road from Chimayo to Taos were having open houses this weekend. Among other things, this meant free snacks. We browsed and nibbled our way home. Susie found a knit head band; I found an old barn to snap.

All in all, a nice celebratory weekend.

Cheers,

Susie and Rob

Rainbow 8-24-09

Rainbow pictures on the morning of August 24, 2009: Cedar Crest, NM

Tinkertown Museum

Tuesday we went to the Tinkertown Museum, about five miles from our house on the road to Sandia Crest. This is a one-man project. The walls are made of bottles set in concrete. There's a maze of passageways and low ceilings and many displays of carved figures

The writing on one bottle behind Jason says, We did this while you were watching TV.

New York City Baseball - 2

Monday, 7/27, it was back downtown, this time down to lower Manhattan to Ground Zero. Walking from the subway station to the site of the World Trade Center took us by St. Paul's Chapel. I like to visit old churches, so I said, Let's go in. You may recall, I didn't, the role this church played in the aftermath of 9/11.

From the church website:

"For eight months, hundreds of volunteers worked 12 hour shifts around the clock, serving meals, making beds, counseling and praying with fire fighters, construction workers, police and others. Massage therapists, chiropractors, podiatrists and musicians also tended to their needs."

The church's exhibits bring that tragic time back quite vividly. Here's one banner that caught my attention.

"Oklahoma Loves You"

Here's a collection of police and fireman shoulder patches.

The chapel has been there a long time. George Washington worshiped there the day of his inaugural - here's a depiction of that event.


It was good to see all of the construction going on at Ground Zero.

I haven't kept up with the plans, but from the internet I found these pictures of the future.

The open area is the 9/11 Memorial site and a guide told us that it would be open and dedicated on 9/11, 2011. The site's center piece Freedom Tower will be 1776 ft. tall. I don't know its schedule. Right now they seem to be working on the underground transportation center to replace the subway terminal destroyed by the collapsing buildings.

Next we went back to midtown to ride on The Beast - a speedboat trip (up to 45 mph, they said) to the Statue of Liberty and back.

A crew member got this shot of your intrepid travelers.

We got lots of ill-focused and -framed shots of the shore from a bouncing boat. At the Statue, The Beast paused for a calm photo-op. As you probably read, the Lady Liberty is open again and you can climb the stairs to the top, but those tickets are sold out long in advance.



Going out, folks on the other side of the boat got sprayed royally. Coming back it was our turn. Jason really got a kick from that part of the ride.

Next we walked: Times Square, Broadway, Central Park, East Side, then finally Grand Central Station where we caught the train to the Mets game. Along the way we snacked, climbed rocks in the park, waited out another rainshower under construction scaffolding, people-watched, and gawked. Here's a shot of the Chrysler Building reflected in the glass building across the street.

The Mets' new field is CitiField. (I don't know if it is coincidence or planning that both NY teams moved into new fields the same year.) This had a more comfortable feeling to me -- red brick and dark green girders and seats -- than new Yankee Stadium.

Anyhow, we saw another good game. The Mets beat the Rockies on an eighth-inning grand slam home run by pinch-hitter, Fernando Tatis. Our seats were in left field, a few rows up from the fence, an area that was treated to four home runs and several long fly balls during the game.

(It was interesting: on the subway ride after the game we were sitting next to a chap from Tennessee who had also come to NYC for the baseball weekend. I believe he did two Yankee games and the Mets game.)

We all flew home the next morning with great memories and some musing about future years -- say Chicago/Milwaukee, or LA/Anaheim/San Diego, ...

Cheers,

Rob, Mike, Jeff, Jason