Have You Seen My Roots?: Remembering Pearl Harbor

The names of those who died on the USS Arizona

The Arizona Memorial at Pearl Harbor

I lived in Hawaii for 3 years. I got married there (both my civil and church wedding) and I gave birth to my first son there. I still have family living on Oahu. I have beautiful memories of Hawaii and miss it terribly. When we think of Hawaii we think of tranquility and beauty. A tropical paradise. It was 70 years ago today, at 7:55am (Hawaii time) that its tranquility was shattered in, as Franklin Delano Roosevelt put it, "A date that will live in infamy."

The Arizona Memorial

Today I remember the victims, and survivors of Pearl Harbor. I cannot imagine what they went through. Many of the survivors had enormous guilt. "Why did I survive?" Many of them would later choose to be interred in the wreckage with their buddies that died on that infamous day, December 7th, 1941.

Oil still bubbles up from the wreckage of the USS Arizona

These are some of the pictures I have of Pearl Harbor. A place where many of my fellow Soldiers chose as the site of their reenlistments. A place of tranquility again, with a beautiful memorial in paradise to those who lost their lives. Remember them always.