Phase One Opens On 65th Anniversary Of Pearl Harbor Attack

Last Thursday, December 7, the doors of Hangar 37 on Ford Island in the middle of Hawaii's Pearl Harbor opened to aviation enthusiasts there to visit the Pacific Aviation Museum for the first time.

In attendance for the celebration was WWII ace and USAF Brigadier General (Retired) Chuck Yeager and US Navy Captain (Retired) Wally Schirra, one of the original seven Mercury astronauts.

Ford Island was the focus of the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor on December 7, 1941. The bulk of the US Pacific naval fleet of the time was moored off its shores that Sunday morning. Among them was the USS Arizona, now a tomb for many of her 1,177 crewmen. She rests at the bottom of the harbor and is the site of a memorial visited by thousands every year.

Hangar 37 is a 42,000 square foot facility representing the first of four phases for the museum. It sports a collection of vintage aircraft including military aircraft from the WWII era. The focus of phase one is WWII military aviation in the Pacific.

Twelve-year-old Eric Jones of Kansas City, MO told the Honolulu Advertiser "It's amazing. I don't know how they got so many planes in here. I like it that they have some of the Japanese stuff. You don't see that too often."

Aviation nuts from around the world can see an authentic Japanese Zero, a US Navy F4F Wildcat and a B-25 Mitchell bomber of the type used on the Doolittle raid on Tokyo in retaliation for the Japanese surprise attack on Pearl Harbor.

A highlight of the opening celebration was a visit from 20 Japanese Zero pilots who posed for photos in front of the museum's Zero fighter.

Phases two through four will be housed in Hangars 79 and 54, and will tell the story of Pacific aviation in the Korean, Vietnam and Cold wars.

FMI: www.pacificaviationmuseum.org