This is pretty neat. My Dad, a retired career Army officer, served several times in Hawaii and as a child, I was taken to visit the USS Arizona memorial on Pearl Harbor and it always affected me.
What I did not know was that the survivors of the attack on the Arizona can opt to be interred aboard the ship, rejoining their entombed shipmates that died in the initial attack.
Here’s a short video that details the process. Being an Army brat from a deeply-rooted Army family it bereaves me to say this, but “Go Navy…Job Well Done!”.
Personally I think it’s very sad if some of the crew didn’t develop strong enough family ties after Pearl Harbor to make other arrangements. And I’ll bet a lot of visitors would be creeped out knowing they were walking over some relatively fresh corpses.
“Interment” there would be cool. “Internment” there would be cruel.
;)
That is pretty neat. Thanks for sharing. And it brings a tear to my eye.
I would think that rather than not ‘develop[ing] strong enough family ties’, these men choose to spend eternity with the shipmates who never had a chance to have their own families.
And it’s cremated remains (ashes) that are interred, not bodies, and they’re placed in a niche in one of the submerged gun turrets, so no one’s ‘walking over’ them. The Arizona Memorial is a National War Grave (as opposed to a National Cemetery).
Note too, that interment is only for those sailors who were assigned to the Arizona in December 1941; others who served on the ship previously are entitled to have their ashes scattered in the waters over the ship.
More information (and a list of those interred) can be found here.
Great short film – I visited the Arizona Memorial years ago, what a place for reflection and remembrance.
How does that go? That men in war do not fight and die for the flag or for freedom or for glory, they fight and die to keep faith with that brother by their side? So it’s reasonable they may want to join them in the end. And the families and friends they lived out their lives with now have a special gravesite for their departed.
And that said, I’ve gotta learn not to read the comments section on these sorts of YouTube clips. It’s getting derailed pretty ugly…
I’m sure you don’t understand poetry, either.
I was there less than a week ago thanks to all the recommendations from Dopers. The memorial and movie affected me a lot more than I thought it would. It is pretty intense being right there and standing over the U.S.S. Arizona with 1000+ people still inside it in shallow water. The fact that it is still leaking diesel fuel to this day is a very poignant reminder that this wasn’t ancient history. If you are ever in Oahu, make sure you see it if you haven’t but don’t expect to be in a good mood for the rest of the day.
