A Memorable Moment

A friend of mine sent me an email this evening regarding an old Brownie Camera. It seems that the camera was 68 years old and still had film in it which when developed revealed pictures of the attack on Pearl Harbor from 1941. I was interested in both aspects of her email - the Navy history and the fact a Kodak Brownie camera could survive 68 years and still yield photos.

Her email did spark a memory regarding Pearl Harbor. Most of the time I spent in the Navy was in the Continental United States and during the first part of my career on 3 cruises to the Mediterranean. It wasn’t until my last tour when I was serving as the Command Master Chief of a Recruiting Detachment in Alameda did I make a trip to Hawaii.

I was there visiting the recruiters and made it a point to visit the U.S.S. Arizona. A commander I once worked for had an uncle entombed in the Arizona and I promised him I would pay my respects. I went with the local supervisor, a Chief Petty Officer, and we were both in our summer whites (quite a spiffy uniform)... at any rate, as we were getting off the launch after having visited the memorial a young Japanese girl, probably 10 or 12, asked if she could have her picture taken with us. We agreed and she gave her camera to her mother and stood between us and smiled... when they were finished they thanked us by bowing and said something in Japanese that we couldn’t understand, but the smiles told us they were appreciative.

As we started to leave we discovered a line, a very long line, of Japanese tourists who wanted their picture taken with 2 U. S. Sailors. We couldn’t say no to any of them and we stood there for what felt like 2 hours having our picture taken. We didn't leave until the last picture was taken. It was a moving and memorable moment...