Ford Island

PHSOSA Welcome “Coffee”

August 22, 2021 No Comments

PHSOSA (Pearl Harbor Submarine Officer Spouses Association) is a group of women who meet regularly to build friendships with other submarine related spouses. This was their kick off event, and we were to meet at the Banyan tree (This is THE banyan tree, apparently. (there are actually many banyan trees in Hawaii)). It’s on Ford Island where the USS Missouri and museums are. There is also base housing. You can see the enormity of the tree behind the cute welcome setup.

From the tree we walked to the admiral’s house. Apparently there is a lot of unique history that goes with the house. There was a farewell party at the house the night before the Pearl Harbor attack, and lots of people were still in their pajamas the next morning when the attack started. They used it as an early triage location on the day of the attack, and the rumor is it’s still haunted in the basement. They repurpose the basement into a haunted house in October.

Being the Admiral’s house, I am sure you can imagine it is the best of the best. It has this huge wrap around Lanai with a great view of the harbor. We had treats laid out for us, including Biscotti, mochi, lemon bars, and baklava. Funny enough, though, no coffee… but we did get starbucks gift cards.

Because of COVID, they were limiting numbers, and rotated us through this event in groups of about ten. They had tables set up in the “Garden” where we sat with our group while we ate and heard about some resources we have access to to help us be submarine spouses.

I took “group” pictures of the different sets of groups, and the idea is they’ll stitch them all together somehow… Why am I wearing my sunglasses??? Ugh!

They also had the dolphin store represented there. The submarine spirit animal is the Dolphin, and when a submariner gets qualified to do his job he gets pinned with dolphins. This store is located on base and hosts a ton of fun submarine related items.

All in all, I was a little underwhelmed by the event. I ended up sitting with a lot of post-serve CO (captain) wives who all seemed to know each other and had their own chatter and inside relations, they’ve all known each other for a while. It would’ve been nice to hang with a more relatable crowd. However, I did meet another subwife and had pictures of her husband’s boat coming in and out, so I was able to send them to her. I told her I wasn’t sure if she was as excited as I was to have those pictures but I’d definitely offer them anyway… and she said no I’m definitely still excited to have them! ALSO. Come to find out, her sister lives in STURBRIDGE, MA. Because obviously!! So I told her to tell her sister to say hi to my mom the next time she’s at Micknucks. Can’t get away, even in Hawaii.

I’m a little off-put by the group, if I’m being honest. Turns out their meetings are only during the week… I feel like that is very unwelcoming and unsupportive of spouses who have work (me, my friend, my other friend, my other friend…). I did have to pay dues to be apart of this group, so I’ll stick it out and attend what I can, but so far I’m preferring my KOSC crew on this side. I only happened to be able to attend this one because I’m in-between project work and watching training videos. …Which I definitely listened to on the car ride over and back…

We’ll see, trying to keep an open mind with everything.

Later that day, I went back over to that side of the island and brought my new CO’s wife dinner. I made BBQ chicken, and also brought a chicken pot pie for her to freeze, she’s juggling a two month old and two other kids while her husband is gone! It was a great chance to talk, she is one impressive woman. She graduated with her graduate degree in nursing and is becoming a nurse practitioner. She just had a baby two months ago, her third. Her husband is the captain of a submarine… and she’s planning on returning to work in January. She is in rare air as a captain’s wife that works. I enjoyed her company and her rambunctious, but well behaved all things considered, kids. I’m glad we were able to connect.

Trying to keep myself busy over here! I have heard from Brian 4-5 times via email, which is VERY surprising. It’s nice, but can be really emotional too. His emails are of a brevity I’m not used to in my communication with him. A lot of it is his limited time, and a lot of it is he’s limited on what he can say. We also haven’t really ever communicated via email, so it could just be the way he emails.

If you haven’t watched this SNL skit about love letters during war, you should.

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Pearl Harbor Aviation Museum

August 2, 2021 No Comments

I am on a medicine that recommends limiting sun exposure (thanks UTI). We decided it might be a great afternoon to do something indoors. I joined the Pearl Harbor Aviation Museum as a member after my friend told us it’s a really great museum. We could probably get in for free, but the member rate was great and we get tickets to share with family or friends. I think that museums could use a lot of help right now.

The museum is inside one of the original hangars that existed during the attack on Pearl Harbor. You can see bullet holes in the sides. It’s on what is called Ford Island which is only accessible with a DOD ID unless you take the shuttle from the Pearl Harbor visitor center.

I enjoyed learning more about the attack by reading the panels, but it was sometimes hard to fully understand things (I get that they can only cover so much). So I look forward to going back for a guided tour at some point. I really liked the plaques that talk about the planes story. Some of them were sold off to be re-used and made their way back to the museum. Others, like this, weren’t original but were repainted to be close. The museum person told me that they painted the propellers black to “hide” more. They do the same to submarines. 😉

It’s obviously closely related to the battleships getting hit as well, so to the right you see a piece of the Arizona. In the back is a Japanese war plane.

Here are some other planes; you’ll have to visit to hear the story behind all of them!

I’m not really sure the point of the motorcycle; we didn’t spend the whole time here and decided we didn’t have to do it all in one day, but nonetheless it was a cool picture.

The whole attack lasted two hours; I can’t imagine that. There were fun stories about Japanese getting stranded on a remote island and a couple about submarines. Overall lots of sad and heroic stories to read about.

On the outside is the old radio tower. Apparently they are working on opening this up for tours soon too! Brian wanted me to take a picture of it because it’s what he calls a “Nav Aid” (navigation). Essentially, he uses this as a visual aid to steer the submarine into port (no, submarines aren’t self driving yet).

It used to also house the fire station, so yes here’s a close up of the old truck.

Looking forward to going back for a guided tour and to check out more. There is a whole additional hangar with more planes we didn’t get to. We’ve both been feeling worn out so wanted to make a quick excursion.

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July 2, 2021 No Comments

I think this is the last post that I need to do to “catch up”.

I’m sure you’ve heard of the Arizona Memorial . It’s a “floating” memorial located between the main Island of Oahu and Ford Island and on top of the sunken USS Arizona. Ford Island is home to very high ranking Navy officials, as well other fun things like the Pearl Harbor Aviation Museum and the Battleship Missouri Museum.

The only way to access Ford Island is if you have base access or travel via official museum bus via the Pearl Harbor Museum center. Brian and I had some time to kill between delivering a meal to his XO’s family who just had a baby and meeting with Ty and Megan in Honolulu, so I asked to explore Ford Island by car.

You can get a pretty neat view of the Arizona Memorial from Ford Island, especially with the mountains of Oahu in the background.

I didn’t realize the Arizona was as big, if not bigger, than the USS Missouri. It’s hard to imagine that huge of a ship sunken in water that close to shore.

To the left where you see cranes is actually the shipyard where Brian’s boat is currently.

We were just perusing, but we’ll definitely go back sometime for all the sites. Tickets are currently booking out a month in advance. I think they accomodate up to 1,000 people on a walk in basis? I don’t remember where I saw that. Also looking forward to visiting the USS Bowfin Museum (obviously). I’ve joined the Aviation Museum as a member and have heard really good things about it. I’m really loving that we can take our time to do things and wait until after tourist season. What I don’t love is it’s great weather almost every day and who wants to go to a museum in great weather? I think that there will be rainy days… so I’m told.

Brian is on duty tonight. I organized the entire master bath and cleaned the bedroom… A friend is coming over tonight to try pizza on the grill.