USS ARIZONA Memorial, Pearl Harbor, National Memorial Cemetery, Hanauma Bay

Hawaii's Hanauma Bay Nature Preserve in Oahu

USS ARIZONA MEMORIAL:
Presiding over the final resting place of the USS Arizona, the USS Arizona Memorial is located just off Ford Island on Pearl Harbor’s "Battleship Row." The 184-foot-long gleaming white structure was built to honor the 2,390 people who died December 7, 1941 during Japan’s infamous attack on Pearl Harbor, including 1,177 heroes still entombed in the Arizona.

The original memorial was a flagpole attached to the broken main mast of the ship with a commemorative plaque. This tribute was ordered erected in 1950 by Admiral Arthur Radford, then-Commander in Chief of the Pacific Fleet. In 1958, President Dwight D. Eisenhower approved the design for the present structure, which was completed in 1961 and dedicated a year later. There are three main sections of the memorial: the entry and assembly room; a central area designed for ceremonies and general observation; and the shrine room, where the names of those killed on the Arizona are engraved on a marble wall.

The Arizona Memorial is one Hawaii’s most popular attractions, welcoming more than 1.4 million visitors in 2002. Operated by the National Parks Service, the park is open daily from 7:30 a.m. to 5:00 p.m. except Thanksgiving, Christmas and New Year's Day. Admission is free and tickets for the shuttle are given out on a first-come, first-serve basis.

When planning your trip to the Arizona Memorial, be sure to leave enough time to visit Pearl Harbor’s other attractions, including the USS Bowfin Submarine Museum & Park, spotlighting the famed "Pearl Harbor Avenger" that was launched on December 7, 1942. You’ll also want to visit the Battleship Missouri Memorial. It was on board the deck of the Missouri (also known as the "Mighty MO") that General Douglas MacArthur and Fleet Admiral Chester Nimitz, along with other U.S. and allied officers, accepted the unconditional surrender of the Japanese at the end of World War II.

HANAUMA BAY:
Located on the southeast coast of Oahu (about 10 miles east of Waikiki), Hanauma Bay Nature Preserve is one of Hawaii’s most popular natural attractions. Some 3,000 people visit this beautiful preserve each day for swimming, snorkeling, sunbathing and picnicking.

Hanauma Bay is renowned as one of Hawaii’s favorite beaches for snorkeling. Swimmers are often greeted by a rainbow of reef inhabitants, including tangs, parrotfish, butterfly fish, moorish idols, surgeonfish and more.

NATIONAL MEMORIAL CEMETERY OF THE PACIFIC:
Formed some 75,000-100,000 years ago during a period of secondary volcanic activity, Puowaina Crater in Honolulu is today the setting for the National Memorial Cemetery of the Pacific, also known as "Punchbowl." Among America’s national cemeteries, this is often considered to be the most beautiful and poignant.

The 112-acre cemetery serves as the final resting place for more than 44,200 U.S. war veterans and family members. These include men and women who perished in World War II, the Korean War and the Vietnam War.

In the early 1940s, the U.S. Congress appropriated funds to establish a small cemetery in Honolulu. In 1943, the governor of Hawaii offered Punchbowl for this purpose. The cemetery finally opened to the public in 1949, with services honoring five war dead, including an unknown serviceman, two Marines, an Army lieutenant and one civilian. The civilian was famed war correspondent Ernie Pyle, who was killed by a Japanese sniper on an island off the northern coast of Okinawa on April 18, 1945.

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