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Ship strikes Pearl Harbor memorial, tours suspended indefinitely

According to a report on military.com, a news website for the Armed Forces, a Navy hospital ship crashed into the USS Arizona memorial in Hawaii on Wednesday. A...
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According to a report on military.com, a news website for the Armed Forces, a Navy hospital ship crashed into the USS Arizona memorial in Hawaii on Wednesday.

A photo and report was given to the website by the wife of a sailor who reports “It went right over the dock. “You could hear the metal crunching. My husband said you could see mud and water being kicked up. It backed up to within feet of hitting the white memorial building.”

One of the Navy’s hospital ships was being guided via tug boat in Pearl Harbor Wednesday morning. A Navy official says “It looks like one of the tugs that was pushing her as she left the harbor might have hit the visitor landing to the Arizona.”

Later, a spokesperson for Navy Region Hawaii said the dock sustained significant damage and was separated from the memorial structure. There appears to be no damage to the vessel itself. There were no injuries in the mishap.

Visitors to the USS Arizona Memorial are now being taken by Navy white boats to Battleship Row in Pearl Harbor, where there is a chance to view from a distance.

In a statement, the National Park Service says “Due to safety concerns, visitors are not being allowed to disembark at the USS Arizona Memorial. The National Park Service anticipates that it will be several days until visitor access to the USS Arizona Memorial can be safely resumed.”

The USS Arizona Memorial is the final resting place of most of the ship’s 1,177 crewmen who were killed during the Japanese surprise attack on Pearl Harbor on Dec. 7, 1941. The 184-foot-long memorial structure spans the mid-portion of the sunken battleship, according to the service.

Ship strikes Pearl Harbor memorial, tours suspended indefinitely

 

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