65 years after attack, Arizona memorial on last legs
Since 12-06-06
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Sent: Wednesday, December 06, 2006 8:35 AM
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Subject: 65 years after attack, memorial on last legs
http://www.qctimes.net/articles/2006/12/06/news/local/doc
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65
years after attack, memorial on last legs
By Scripps Howard
Wednesday, December 6, 2006
At Pearl Harbor, one of America’s most sacred spots, the complex standing vigil
over the site of the history-changing Japanese attack is on its very last
legs.When the 65th anniversary of the surprise 1941 siege arrives Thursday, it
will find the USS Arizona Memorial Museum and visitors’ center in Hawaii
deteriorating so fast that it could have as few as two years of life left.
Built on landfill near the final underwater resting place of the battleship
Arizona and the 1,177 souls who went down with it, the center has itself sunk as
much as 30 inches into the soil.
Engineers have jacked up the facility four times to no lasting success. As a
result, water seeping in from the harbor is threatening the concrete
underpinnings of the buildings.
“It’s a real problem,” said George Sullivan, board chairman of the Arizona
Memorial Museum Association.
It’s not the only one. Blessed with a tourist popularity beyond anyone’s
expectation, the site often can be swamped with 4,500 visitors a day during peak
periods — more than double the number it was designed to accommodate when it was
built in1980.
That means many of the 1.5 million visitors per year must wait two hours in line
to file through. On the busiest days, more than 1,500 people are turned away
entirely.
And, then there are the woes of the existing museum, where priceless historical
artifacts are at risk because the building’s open-air design doesn’t allow for
the atmospheric control necessary to protect them from the elements.
As a result, Sullivan said, plans for a new, larger facility are moving full
speed ahead, as a fundraising campaign edges closer to its $50 million
construction goal.
If they can get $28 million in cash, groundbreaking can occur by next year’s
66th anniversary of the attack, which took the lives of 2,390 U.S. military
service members and civilians, and launched America into the bruising war in the
Pacific.
The latest tallies show that collecting another $7 million will accomplish that
goal, Sullivan said.
So far, 114 major donors — companies and celebrities — have stepped up with
contributions of $10,000 or more. Among them have been defense contractors
Northrop Grumman and General Dynamics as well as Microsoft founder Bill Gates
and actor Tom Hanks.
Memorial boosters say the grassroots support has been heartwarming. A
fourth-grade class in Punta Gorda, Fla., for instance, has raised $7,000 so far
toward its $10,000 goal. Senior citizens on fixed incomes also have been
enthusiastic donors, said Donna Bebber, development director for the Pearl
Harbor Memorial Fund.
“This is something that belongs to the American people,” she said.
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Contributed,
YNCS Don Harribine, USN(ret)