Third day (cont.) - USS Missouri

More pictures from the USS Missouri.

The guns of the USS Missouri looking over the USS Arizona Memorial and downtown Honolulu.

The Captain's Quarters.

The movies "Tora, Tora, Tora," and "Pearl Harbor" would have you think this is a control tower but it is actually a dive tank for practicing scuba dives.

These two buildings survied the attack on December 7, 1941 and still stand to this day.

Third Day - USS Oklahoma

I have wanted to visit the USS Oklahoma Memorial since it opened a couple of years ago. It is located on Ford Island just outside the USS Missouri Battleship Museum.

On the list of sailors who were lost on the USS Oklahoma when she capsized, I found Francis E. Dick. This is my grandmother's maiden name so he could be a relative. I'll have to find out.

No one was going to sell her for scrap. She was a typical Oklahoma woman and too proud to end up like that. She rests peacefully at the bottom of the ocean.

Each post stands for a fallen sailor.

The U.S. Flag over the memorial.

Second Day (cont) - USS Arizona

The USS Arizona Memorial as viewed from the USS Bowfin Museum and Park.

It looks like a white chapel sitting on the harbor.

I didn't realize until we were there that the memorial is only accessible by boat.

The flags of the battleships destroyed during the attack on December 7, 1941.

Parts of the ship are still visible above water.

Part of the moor where she sat that day is also still visible.

Note the sunken ship just underneath the surface.

Oil continues to seep out at the rate of a quart a day. It's said that the oil drops are the tears of the sailors who died with her that day.

The room at the far end has a list of all the sailors lost in the attack.

The windows in this room look out onto Ford Island and Pearl Harbor, giving the sense of stained glass in a church.

A solemn yet beautiful memorial.

Second Day - Pearl Harbor

On Sunday, August 16, we visited Pearl Harbor. The area where you board the shuttle boat to the USS Arizona Memorial is the USS Bowfin Museum and Park.

The USS Bowfin is held in place by enormous anchors and chains.

Here you can walk among many items taken from ships or submarines to see what equipment or weaponry was used during WWII.

Frazier looks through a periscope that was part of a conning tower for the USS Parche (SS-384), a sister ship to the Bowfin.

The conning tower is an eight feet diameter cylinder located above the control room of a submarine’s pressure hull. The conning tower contained equipment for steering the submarine and firing torpedoes. It was the command center of a WWII submarine and the battle station for the commanding officer.

A submarine rocket or subroc. An underwater-to-air-to-underwater anti-submarine missile was in use from 1965 to 1990. It was designed to be fired from a submierged nuclear fast attack submarine.

A 40-mm quad gun assembly, used on destroyer escorts and all classes of larger ships, consisted of four recoil-operated, heavy machine guns, designed primarily for anti-aircraft fire. Each gun had a firing rate of 120 rounds/minute and fired a 2 lb projectile at a maximum horizontal range of approximately 33,000 feet and maximum ceiling range of 22,800 feet.

The inside of a kaiten or suicide submarine.

‘Kaiten’ means to make a radical reverse in the course of events. It was an enlarged torpedo with a small cockpit, a periscope and manual controls for steering, speed and depth. It had a pure oxygen-fed kerosene-burning 550 horsepower engine and a huge 3,000 lb explosive warhead which could be detonated on impact or by an electrical switch controlled by the pilot.
Kaiten were transported by submarine to ‘firing position’ which was 3.5 – 4.5 miles from the target. The only kaiten known to have sunk a U.S. Navy ship hit the fleet oiler USS Mississinewa at Uluthi on Nov. 20, 1944.

The propellor of the kaiten.

Submarine Rescue Chamber

These chambers were used by the U.S. Navy for over 50 years to rescue crews of submarines stranded on the ocean floor. It had two chambers inside; the upper held two operators and eight passengers; the lower helped survivors to pass from the submarine’s escape hatch into the rescue chamber.

The first and only operation use of the submarine rescue chamber was in 1939 when the USS Squalus accidentally flooded her aft compartment during a test dive. Divers from the rescue vessel USS Falcon attached a downhaul cable from the chamber and make several trips to the surface until 33 survivors were brought to safety.

First Day - Waikiki Beach

My first trip to Hawai'i! We arrived on Saturday, August 15, 2009. I arrived first since booking complications caused Frazier to wait until the next flight out of LAX to Honolulu. I had a few hours before I had to pick him up so I did a little exploring along Kalakaua Avenue in Waikiki.

This was the beach across the street from our hotel.

Beautiful landscaping along the sidewalks included waterfalls like this one.


Our first room had a city view. Although not ocean-view, the clouds perched on the mountains was breath-taking. It was a premium room but next to the elevators, which sounded like freight trains.

Soumets-toi a moi released by loveyoudivine Alterotica May 1!

loveyoudivine Alterotica released 'Soumets-toi á moi' on May 1, 2009, my FIFTH short story! It's a paranormal story of two lovers who find themselves between a beautiful treasure they found and the ghost of a pirate who wants it back!

Synopsis:

In New Orleans, Henry meets Cole in a spooky cemetery for a quick hook-up during Mardi Gras. During their encounter, Henry finds a beautiful crucifix in a pile of dirt. Suddenly, they are being followed by the ghost of a pirate, wanting his treasure returned. Unfortunately, there is nowhere to hide even among the thousands of people in town for the celebration. What must Henry and Cole do to escape the fate that the ghost has in mind for them?

Excerpt:

Henry nodded as he fished the strange object out of his pocket. Both men sucked in breaths. Even caked with dirt, it was stunning. Smaller than Henry’s palm, a golden crucifix, ornate and bejeweled, glittered in the low light. He took it into the bathroom and began washing off the grime. Most of the soil fell away at first but it soon became apparent that the precious item had been buried for a long time.

“Is it real?” Cole whispered over his shoulder as if speaking aloud would cause it to vanish into thin air.

“It’s real, all right,” Henry answered in the same low voice. “I think it’s solid gold. Feel how heavy it is.”

Cole felt the weight of the crucifix in his hand as Henry placed it delicately in his palm. “Wow,” he said, still afraid to raise his voice.

“Maybe we can find out something about it tomorrow,” Henry took it back and turned it in his fingers, scrutinizing the elaborate craftsmanship. “It doesn’t look anything like the crucifixes I’ve seen before.”

“Me, either,” Cole put in. “It looks kinda ancient.”

Henry wasn’t convinced it was more than a few decades old at most, but said nothing. He placed it carefully on the bureau. “We can find a museum in the morning and see if they can help us figure out how old or valuable it is.” Turning back to Cole, he smiled suggestively. “Now let’s pick up where we left off.”

Featured Author at Dark Diva Reviews

A. J. Llewellyn interviewed me for his blog, Dark Diva Reviews, on February 11. He asked me about my works and future projects. Check it out!

Thanks, A. J.!