a spirit of remembrance

http://scottymoore.net/dec72012.html

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+1: I wear the Arizona Memorial shirt I acquired when I visited Pearl Harbor, whenever I fly. I'll be wearing it today as well.

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"Another day in paradise!"

+1 I'm wearing mine today also, though mine came by mail. I'll get there yet.

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In the 70's, courtesy of Uncle Sam, I have visited the Memorial several times.

Standing at Attention, with 3,600 of the Ship's Company, all in Class A's - ringing the Flight Deck, to render honors to port for the 1,177 of our fellow Sailors and Marines killed aboard her (more than 900 of whom are still entombed within her today), as we passed the Memorial is a very moving experience.. those guys are us !!

The day after the attack in '41, my late Father, all of 20, quit college and joined the Naval Flight Cadet program, he later served in the Pacific. I also had an uncle who was stationed at Pearl Harbor in Dec. of '41. He told stories of walking along the Seawall in the nights immediately after the attack and hearing the metallic clank of hammers hitting her hull... SOS signals coming from some of the men trapped inside her still alive. He said the banging, which rang out throughout the Harbor, continued through 3-4 nights. By the 5th night, it had stopped... underwater salvage technology wasn't yet at the point where they could be rescued... only some 30' below the surface.

One of the funniest moments of my life occurred during one of my Liberty's at Pearl... After 120 days at sea, my gib - Scotty McC. and I were staggering through the streets (I mean we were sh*t-faced) when we came upon a group of Japaneze tourists.

One often saw Japaneze tourists, usually men of my father's age, walking all around Pearl Harbor's points of interest, especially the Arizona. This attack was a source of pride for the Japaneze. Many of these tourists were actually involved in the attack and were reliving the excitement of their youth. Navy guys didn't like them, but tolerated them.

In our case, this was a group of 5 men, stereotypically all dressed in Hawaiian print shirts, bermuda shorts, mid-length black dress socks and business shoes, all with cameras hanging around their necks. They approached us and one of them asked Scotty " ??? ?@#?sz &^!one... ??" . Scotty replied: "Man... I can't understand what you're saying...". The man repeated: " ??? ?@#?sz &^!one... ??"

In one of those split-seconds of clarity one can sometimes have through a drunken stupor, the 2nd time the guy said it, I realized he was asking for directions to the Memorial... I said: "Scotty... this guy wants directions to the Arizona..."

Scotty scowls, looks at him and says: "You wanna know where the USS Arizona is..??"... "Ya...Ya" replies the tourist... Scotty flips him the 'finger' and says: "...It's right where YOU f*ckin' left it !!..."... I almost wet my pants !!

It may not have been the nicest thing to say, but those tourists made a bad choice... with 1 million people on the island of Oahu, to ask a couple of Navy Officers in Class A Whites for directions to the Arizona Memorial may not have been their smartest move...


Bravo Zulu Boys ... R.I.P. !!

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'11 FSR Am. Vtg. Ltd. Ed. CAR '57 Stratocaster (SN# LE02639)
'14 American Deluxe Ash Stratocaster
'12 Telebration Empress Telecaster
'99 Deluxe Nashville Telecaster
'12 FSR Telecaster HH
'10 Heritage H-535
'99 Martin DC-1E
'13 Lanikai Tenor Ukulele

ive been a couple of times..before and after 9/11....im a brit and still found it a moving experience................

Thanks for posting Jim. LM, gut-wrenching info about the doomed survivors of the attack trapped inside the ship but nice recovery with the very funny liberty story

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you can save the world with your guitar one love song at a time it's just better, more fun, easier with a fender solid body electric guitar or electric bass guitar.

Thanks... but to be honest, it's Scotty's story.. he's the one who did everything.

Scotty was the funniest man I ever knew... he had a piercing wit coupled to a hair trigger. He was as rude and insubordinate as any man in the Navy, but he was an excellent gib... guy-in-back.

Technically their title was RIO - Radar Intercept Officer. Their job was manning the radar while mine was driving and pickling off the ordinance. RIOs were usually washed-out flight school candidates and in the bravado of military aviators were considered unter-mench among pilots and so were not afforded the respect of their titles and were merely referred to as gibs. So critical was the interaction between pilot and gib that the Navy married us to one another... we were together from Jet School, shared the same rack (cabin), etc.

Another time, we were escorting a flight of 6 A4 single-engine attack planes from NAS Alameda in SF to Boeing Field for an avionics upgrade. As we were passing the OR/WA border, one of the A4s got a Fire indicator light - a BIG problem on a single-engine aircraft. There were no flames or smoke visible, so we decided to bring the flight in.

As flight lead, I radioed Boeing Tower requesting immediate emergency landing clearance. The Tower denied the request stating that they already had a declared emergency from a B-52 with an engine shutdown.

Scotty clicks on his mic and says: " Roger Tower... understand that one of his eight engines is out..."

After about a 10 second delay, Boeing Tower calls us: "Er...Roger Flight... Heavy sent around... emergency clearance granted...you are cleared to land..." !!

Unfortunately, after 4 years together, I was sent to NAS Patuxent River for Flight Test certification and Scotty was re-assigned to another crew. He was killed 2 mos. later during a launch when a cold-cat shot, combined with a turbine stall resulted in his aircraft slamming into the sea at approx. 150 mph.

There's rarely a day I don't think of Scotty, his jokes, and the times we spent together

cheers!

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'11 FSR Am. Vtg. Ltd. Ed. CAR '57 Stratocaster (SN# LE02639)
'14 American Deluxe Ash Stratocaster
'12 Telebration Empress Telecaster
'99 Deluxe Nashville Telecaster
'12 FSR Telecaster HH
'10 Heritage H-535
'99 Martin DC-1E
'13 Lanikai Tenor Ukulele

Well there's a tale which leaves one lost for words. We shall remember your friend as we do Chet Feather's brother, and give thanks to all of you for your service.

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"Another day in paradise!"