Friday, December 07, 2007

Days of Infamy

December 7 ("a date which will live in infamy") has to move over to make room for new days of infamy. Click here for a Google search to see how the term is being used. Clearly 9/11 is in second place in the Day of Infamy pantheon. The day Gene Robinson was consecrated an Episcopal bishop is gaining ground. Clearly it's getting easier to make a day infamous than it used to be.

NOAA ship Oscar Elton Sette in Pearl Harbor Sept 2007
News reminders about the anniversary of the attack on Pearl Harbor reminded me that I had visited Ford Island in the middle of Pearl Harbor on our trip to Hawaii in September 2007. The NOAA ship (the Oscar Elton Sette) that Leslie traveled on was docked there. Her equipment needed to get on board. I went along as a schlepper.

Pearl Harbor panorama looking west from Ford Island Sept 2007
Here are two composite panorama shots. The top one is looking west into Pearl Harbor from the NOAA ship. Here is a page about the attacks that happened on this side of the island. (The Arizona was on the other side.)

Below is the lab in which Leslie worked. You can see NOAA diver Amy Hall with Leslie behind her. The two panorama pictures are the same size but the harbor is big and open while the lab is small and cramped.

Laboratory on the Oscar Elton Sette
Ford Island is usually off-limits to the public - not that there's much to see. Visitors are ferried out to the Arizona Memorial by boat. Here's the Memorial.

Arizona Memorial in Pearl Harbor
Here are some of the historic buildings on Ford Island. There is a plan to restore these buildings (they need it) and make them a Pacific center for NOAA. (Click here.)

Building on Ford Island Sept 2007
Building on Ford Island Sept 2007
Hanger door on Ford Island Sept 2007
Building on Ford Island Sept 2007
All the pictures get bigger when you click them - especially the panorama shots. Many of the pictures were taken from a moving truck.

Infamy Tags: . . . . . . . . .

1 comment :

David Ocker said...

Art Jarvinen sent me the following in an email. I'm posting it here with his permission /David

=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-

I never think about Pearl Harbor

except when I watch Hawaii Five-O, which is fairly often

because I have the first two seasons

but never mind that now

this week was a time to think though

I don't know who your heroes were

but the first week of December got

Frank, John Lennon, Lucky, and Karlheinz.

The latter two (no pun) on the same date. 12/5

In Europe it's 5/12

It's the same thing no matter how you say it

repetition

variation

closure