If you are going on Pearl Harbor Tours, make sure that you book your tickets before or reach early to the Visitor Center to receive your tickets. However, you can get in touch with us and we will look after everything. This will allow you to bypass the ticket line and secures your seat on the shuttle boat to the USS Arizona Memorial. Because of this, visiting ground zero of the Battle of Pearl Harbor has a great effect on people; those who visit tend to leave changed for the better. The bombing of Pearl Harbor was the single most significant factor causing the United States to enter World War II and effectively change the course of history forever.
To date, more than 30 Arizona crewmen who survived Pearl Harbor have chosen the ship as their final resting place. Since 1982, the U.S. Navy has allowed survivors of USS Arizona to be interred in the ship’s wreckage upon their deaths.
The next day, much of it fed the explosion and subsequent fires that destroyed the ship following its attack by Japanese bombers. Following the assault, the unit was unanimously declared the winner of that year’s contest, and the award was permanently renamed the USS Arizona Band Trophy. The night before the attack, NBU 22 had attended the latest round of the annual Battle of Music” competition between military bands from U.S. ships based at Pearl Harbor.
Among the 1,177 crewmen killed were all 21 members of the Arizona’s band, known as U.S. Navy Band Unit (NBU). Most of its members were up on deck preparing to play music for the daily flag raising ceremony when the attack began. USS Arizona’s entire band was lost in the attack. Though family members often served on the same ship before World War II, U.S. officials attempted to discourage the practice after Pearl Harbor.
Just as the date has lived on, so has the site of the horrific attack on the United States that prompted the United States to join in World War II. To understand the importance of this must-see destination on Oahu and the tour provided there, it is important to understand the history surrounding it. According to The Associated Press , the remains of the crewmen who died on the USS Oklahoma were buried in Hawaii cemeteries after the attack and then disinterred in 1947.
In total, 2,341 sailors, soldiers and Marines were killed in the attack on Pearl Harbor, and the Defense POW/MIA Accounting Agency is still working to identify many of them. The memorial was constructed above the site where the USS Arizona sank, along with the remains of more than 900 of those who perished. “As Memorial Day approaches, across the nation the National Park Service strives to honor our fallen veterans as well as those who continue to serve,” the statement says.