We then drove over to the Pearl Harbor entrance channel. I was hoping to see some ships going in or out of the harbor but today wasn't the day I guess. But we still got some pictures.
Then, after lunch and a short nap, we drove up to the Punchbowl national memorial cemetery. The punchbowl is located inside of a dormant volcano crater and is home to the national pacific military monument.
We ran into a man who recognized grandpa's naval amphibious forces insignia on his hat. The man was a retired navy Sea-bee. Him and grandpa chatted for a while and shared stories, it was pretty neat to sit back and watch.
As we passed by the murals of the different Pacific island campaigns, grandpa showed me the different beaches on each island he dropped troops off on. We spent about an hour looking at all the different mural maps.
After dinner a local skating group was putting on their holiday program. Part of the program included a tribute the past & present military members. Grandpa and I got dressed up in our uniforms and participated.
Over lunch, he told me a pretty funny story. Apparently, one of his buddies aboard ship found a monkey on one of the small islands they visited. He brought the monkey back on board ship and kept him in his quarters. He said the monkey would sit on the guys shoulder and if anyone got too close to the guy, the monkey would slap them.
He also told me about a time he was standing watch on the bridge and steering the ship. I guess the seas were pretty rough and they took a wave which knocked the boat sideways. A couple minutes later the ships cook stormed onto the bridge covered in banana cream pies demanding to know who the hell was steering the ship. I guess the wave tipped over a shelf which contained freshly made cream pies and dumped the pies all over the chef. The Captain told him to suck it up and go back to work.
Anyway, it was a full day and we're probably going to take it easy tomorrow.
More tomorrow...
Greg
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