My Attempt to Instill Some Patriotism (Veteran's Day)

Since becoming involved in Cub Scouts, I've gone to a few leadership training meetings. If you have a boy involved in the scouting program, citizenship is a big deal. I grew up in a foreign country mostly and have always been proud to be American. However, I don't think I fully appreciated what it meant to be American. Anyhow, through those meetings, I have felt motivated to teach my children what being an American means, and to help them appreciate our country's history and hopefully along the way, instill in the them a sense of patriotism (and pass of some achievements for Tyler's Bear Badge). I'm a multi-tasker, what can I say. I know this field trip would have fit better for Memorial Day, but I thought it was a good start in my patriotic endeavor. I took them to Pearl Harbor to visit the USS AZ Memorial. I have never been there until today. Before getting there, I explained to the children that we needed to show respect while we were there. Some of them had faces of "Hmmm, interesting" and others protested to even going. I decided that we were still going to go.

This is the anchor that was actually on the USS AZ ship. It is huge! Some of my kids thought I was kidding that that was a real anchor. Hard to believe huh.

We walked the grounds while we waited for our groups turn to take the tour. Behind them in the water is the USS Missouri. We will go back on another day to tour that.

Knowing that the whole tour would be 75 mins long, I made sure that we had a snack. It was a good day for ice-cream.

These are the tickets they gave you. On the back they have biographies of soldiers and civilians that were involved in the Pearl Harbor attack.

A dedicatory plaque on the grounds of the center.

Here's the facility you go to to wait to board the ship.

That's the boat we were waiting for to take us out to the memorial.

Finally it was our turn. Before boarding however, they take you into a theater to watch a 23 min clip about the attack with real footage. It was interesting.

We sat at the back, which was fun. Micah had fun watching the water behind us. Kara was a little nervous in the beginning.

Approaching the memorial.

I actually got scolded for taking this picture. I couldn't hear on the boat what they were saying about photography. Apparently, they didn't want pictures taken until you were inside. Oops.

This is the only visible part of the ship that you can see above the water.

More of the ship.

You can kind of see parts of the ship under the water.

In the memorial, they have this open area to view more of the ship. It is essentially a gravesite, so it was fairly quiet on the memorial.

The names of the soldiers who died aboard the ship. I think there are over 1000 (I think?).

The other side of the memorial, more of the ship.

I took this picture off the official website. This should give you a better appreciation for what we were seeing.

My two curious ones, trying to see the fish swimming around.

One last departing shot. It was a neat experience to see something so historical. I do have a respect for those serving our country and am very thankful for them. My brother-in-law was in Iraq for a year, and we're glad to have him back in one piece. I even have cousins that are in the mililtary. I think too, that my grandfather served in the Air Force around the time of WWII. (I'll check my facts later). After getting back and leaving the ship, Kara turned to me and said, "Mom, that was fun! I'm so glad you brought me. It was a good idea." Aaah. Score one for mom!