Troop 1131 Hawaii High Adventure 2006

Hawaii Journal #3

Since our last message, we have done several neat things on Oahu. We visited Pearl Harbor and learned all about the Japanese attack Dec 7, 1941. The Japanese planes flew down the central valley and first attacked the Army airfields at a place called Wheeler Army Air Field. Almost every day, we drive down this valley going to or from the Boy Scout Camp where we're staying. We learned that the American military leaders, and, in fact, almost all military analysts at the time, expected a naval bombardment using battleships. No one expected aircraft carriers to spearhead and attack from sea. Our airplanes on Oahu were parked close together, wing tip to wing tip, because the military leaders were concerned about sabotage from terrorists in Hawaii. So the Japanese invasion was a brilliant military move. Our battleships were also anchored close together in an area of the harbor called battleship row. We thought the Japanese could not damage our ships because they were in shallow water, and we thought they only had deep water torpedoes. We were wrong of course, the Japanese had developed shallow water torpedoes that they could deliver from airplanes.

After knocking out all but five US aircraft, the Japanese hit the ships in Pearl Harbor, the home of the American Pacific fleet. Those five US aircraft managed to take off and down 11 Japanese planes. Luckily, our aircraft carriers were not in port, so they escaped being damaged. More than 2,500 Americans died in the attack. Some died in the water trying to swim through burning oil slicks. An armor piercing bomb hit the battleship USS Arizona and her ammunition stores exploded sinking the ship and trapping 1177 men in 11 minutes! We visited the Arizona monument built over the sunken ship, graveyard for those brave men.

The most amazing thing we learned was that after the attack, a massive salvage and recovery operation was undertaken. Almost every ship was recovered and went on to fight the Japanese during the war. Three big battleships were not recovered: the Arizona, Utah and Oklahoma. They remain underwater in Pearl Harbor. Some of us also visited the USS Missouri, the battleship on whose deck the Japanese surrendered to General MacArthur.

Diamond Head is the rim of an extinct volcano near the city of Honolulu. We climbed to the top of Diamond Head; it's actually an easy hike, and lot's of people go there. An interesting part of the hike is near the top where a staircase leads up through a tunnel and an old Army gun turret emplacement to the top. There is even a circular steel staircase, and a small crawl space people go through to reach the very top. The views are extraordinary. The whole hike is less than a mile in each direction, there are switchbacks, and a few steep spots, but it's generally an easy walk. Diamond head is on the Windward side of the island, so it has very dry, hot dessert like conditions.

An interesting aspect of our trip is that the Boy Scout Camps we have stayed at are close to homes of some very famous people. On Maui, we could see a home that belongs to the actor, Tom Hanks. It was across a valley from us, and it was a large complex with tan colored walls and a green roof. Behind Tom's home, not visible to us, was a home that belongs to Clint Eastwood. On the slopes of Haleakala, Oprah Winfrey owns a home. On Oahu, the road that leads to Camp Pupukea has several mansions. One belongs to Adam Sandler, and another belongs to a family named Wallace who own movie theaters.

Did you know that we have superstitious people in our troop? On Maui, the camp ranger and his six year old son showed us a campsite. The little boy told Matt Abbott that the campsite was haunted, and that large rats roamed through it. Matt was terrified, and made me promise not put us there. The campsite had a pavilion with a small kitchen. On our site visit there was a three inch long cockroach in the sink. Needless to say, Matt really did not want to use this kitchen!

Phil