December 7, 1941

In 08 my wife and I went to Hawaii for our 25th anniversary. We spent a whole day at Pearl, went to the Arizona, walked through the Missouri as well as the submarine that's there. Knowing full well what happened there made it a very moving, emotional experience.

I have respect for all who served and what they went through, but after walking through that sub my respect for any submariner, especially the ones in those WWII era subs, went up several notches. I am not claustrophobic but I don't think I could have done that.

I don't remember the number now, but a significant number of subs did not come back from going out on patrol during WWII.

After getting back home and going back to work people naturally ask about your vacation.
When trying to explain about visiting Pearl and what happened there to some of my younger coworkers made me all emotional again, but they seemed to know nothing about it, nor even about more recent events like Vietnam.

It is sad that that young people are not even aware of relatively recent history, let alone anything from the civil war or revolutionary war that Frankie mentioned.