Desecrating a Tomb

 

by Pa Rock

Citizen Journalist

On Sunday morning, December 7th, 1941, at 8:00 a.m. local Hawaiian time, fighter planes from the Empire of Japan soared through the skies above Pearl Harbor, Hawaii, dropping their payloads of deadly bombs on the American ships lying in port.  It was a bloody and smoke-filled Sunday, and when the attack was  over, 21 American ships had been sunk or damaged. One of the ones which the Japanese sank was the USS Arizona which went down with 1,102 marines and sailors trapped aboard. Now the remains of those brave young Americans are forever entombed in that vessel, a permanent memorial to their lives and sacrifice.

Today Pearl Harbor is surrounded by Joint Base Pearl Harbor-Hickam (JBPHH), and a ferry from the base takes tourists out onto the harbor every fifteen minutes to visit the concrete memorial with sits above the sunken USS Arizona.    There are displays from the attack as well as a video presentation about it at the memorial, and it is a very somber experience.  I was a member of the 1:15 p.m. excursion to the memorial on January 21st, 2018.  (I know that because I saved the ticket for the ferry ride.)

The trip to the Pearl Harbor was a very somber and emotional experience, one which I will never forget.  Fortunately, it was not marred by any high-dollar, VIP tourists flopping around in snorkel gear in the waters surrounding the memorial as they ignorantly disturbed the peace and tranquility of the "at rest" remains of the earliest American casualties of World War II. 

In fact, the VIP snorkel tours were never mentioned the day I was there.  If they had been, I'm sure some of the older tourisis, such as those who had actually served in American wars, would have probably taken issue patent disrespect of the practice.

Normally the only people allowed in the waters above the massive sunken battleship are people with a reason for being there, park employees or marine archaeologists, for example, but apparently exceptions are sometimes made for visiting dignitaries, those folks who are better than us folks, and FBI Director Kash Patel qualifies as a VIP and got to grab his snorkel gear and go for a swim around the massive tomb while he was in Hawaii for a visit to the FBI Honolulu field office last summer.

News sources reveal that Patel's lady friend, a 27-year-old country singer, accompanied him on the taxpayer-funded trip aboard an FBI plane, but it remains unclear as to whether the traveling companion accompanied him on the snorkeling outing or not.  But if she remained on shore, she was safe because she travels with her own FBI security detail which at times includes SWAT personnel.

It feels so good knowing that the Trump administration is hard at work guarding against government waste, fraud, and abuse, and that they are so mindful of the very real and tragic human costs of war.

Party on, Kash!