About twenty years ago during a business trip I had the opportunity to visit the USS Arizona Memorial. To get there you go through the Pearl Harbor Attack Museum and then a US Navy power boat takes the visitors to "Battle Ship Row" and the new "bridge" of the ship.
A Park Ranger greeted all visitors and explained a bit of history and that fact that we were now in a National Memorial and a National Cemetery where the remains of the ship personal that perished during the December 7th 1941 attack, as well as any crew member that any service man that ever was a crewmember of the Arizona may elect to be buried. He went on to tell us how, decades after the attack, the Arizona continues to leak oil from its tanks and that those are the tears that the ship, still in active duty, sheds for her dead.
From the new Arizona bridge we could see the USS Missouri moored at "Battleship Row," both ships symbolizing the beginning and end of World War II for our great nation.
The Arizona Memorial is one of the most emotional places that I have ever visited and I spent a significant amount of time staring at each tear that raised from ship and popped as it surfaced. One specifically still haunts me as a presage for events that would affect my life in the near future.
In this 83rd anniversary of the Attack on Pearl Harbor let's remember and commemorate the ultimate sacrifice of so many of our fellow citizens and understand that even in face of grave adversity we are a resilient nation that can overcome any challenges, present and future.
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