Ford Island Adventures and Hans the Door Gunner

Aloha!

Just taking advantage of a Sunday to do some blogging. Here's some of the pictures when we stayed at the Navy Lodge at Ford Island a few weeks ago.

Ford Island has quite a bit of history. For more information check this link:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ford_Island

Prior to 1998 when the bridge was built, you had to take a ferry to get to Ford Island. As a part of Navy Base Pearl Harbor, the island is restricted to military, their families, and their guests.

We stayed in the Navy Lodge, which was renovated and rebuilt in the late 1990s and re-opened. Prior to that it was single officer housing, from about 1930s to 1970s. During the Pearl Harbor attack, it was used as a medical triage facility for the wounded.

Ford Island is located essentially in the middle of Pearl Harbor's East Loch. The harbor has 3 water "fingers" or Lochs, and the East Loch is the largest and most famous. Here it is on Google Maps

http://maps.google.com/maps?f=q&source=s_q&hl=en&geocode=&q=ford+island&sll=21.36437,-157.971811&sspn=0.071779,0.132093&ie=UTF8&hq=&hnear=Ford+Island,+Honolulu,+Hawaii+96818&ll=21.363853,-157.962917&spn=0.143559,0.264187&z=13

There is an old runway (ceased use late 1990s) on Ford Island, along with a multitude of hangers and old buildings dating back to pre-1940s. Some have been remodeled inside while keeping the historic outside (you can clearly see bullet scars on some of the buildings from the Japanese attacks). Others are awaiting tear-down or remodel.

Above, the runway at Ford Island

There is also quite a bit of brand new Navy family housing on Ford Island. Also new is a memorial to the crew of the battleship USS Oklahoma, which was destroyed during the Japanese attacks, along with the new Pacific Aviation Museum (Airplanes! Free to military in uniform!)


And, one of Andy's favorites is the old control tower and base operations building on Ford Island. It might might look familiar to some, as it was in Michael Bay's 2001 Pearl Harbor movie (not a technically or historically accurate movie, but fun to watch)

Giant Banyan tree with 350Z for scale (350Z is 40 feet closer!)

Old Military Building on Ford Island with new housing in back left.

Finally, I had never even known that the battleship USS Utah is still sitting on the bottom of Pearl Harbor. It was moved several times during the salvage, and now rests right in front of historic officers housing on North Ford Island. Solemn indeed.

Taken on Dec 6th, the wreaths are for Pearl Harbor Day the next day

And, this shot below you might recognize as the USS Arizona National Park Memorial, taken from the shore at Ford Island

Finally, on a more upbeat note, I present a favorite picture that Sarah took. It was actually right after we dropped off the Murano in Covina California so it could be shipped to Hawaii. We had rented a car, and we were upgraded to a Toyota Sienna minivan to carry our 14 bags and two cat carriers. While running around town (at low speed) we folded down the seats and let the cats do their own thing. Hans the cat was fascinated with the left passenger window, and from there on he became the Door Gunner!

Mele Kalikimaka (Merry Christmas) from the Putnams!