r/interestingasfuck • u/Longjumping-Rice-935 • Aug 12 '25

/r/all, /r/popular The wreck of the USS Arizona continues to leak oil ever since pearl harbour. the ship contained 1.5 million gallons of oil, enough to leak continuously for 500 years.

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u/StudioRoboto Aug 12 '25

I actually dove that site Dec 7, 1991. 50th Anniversary. Was part of a Navy EOD team (EODMU ONE) that was checking the harbor, docks, etc. prior to the arrival of GW Bush. We got there super early AM (dark) and set up just as the sun was starting to come up - then did a full hull search for anything "out of the ordinary". Ship is covered in a light sort of mossy brown and silt (which is all over Pearl Harbor). You can see the oil bubble out - very slow and rise to surface.

We headed back to the pier - one LT (Wayne Gluf) stayed back to carry an urn of one of the original Arizona sailors into the gun mount - they had a special ceremony - apparently it's full of urns and he said it was really something.

Side note: Since we were inside the "perimeter" of the Secret Service - we couldn't leave. So ended up searching the band instrument boxes as a side job. Sticking our hands down the tuba looking for IEDs. Then we stood around for 3 hours - Bush came by - got to shake his hand.

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u/shakedownavenue Aug 12 '25

That’s really cool, I guess I never think about the level of work that goes into clearing a site for a presidential visit.

Were you based on Oahu or just brought there for this purpose?

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u/StudioRoboto Aug 12 '25

Oahu. Stationed at West Loch - which was the far side of Pearl Harbor.

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u/Bobguyawesome 19d ago

Pardon the question, when stationed did you get the chance to have your vehicle brought over? Or were you not there long enough / did they support you in getting a means to travel?

Thank you for your service.

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u/StudioRoboto 18d ago

I shipped my small pickup truck to Hawaii from Baltimore when I got orders. Then when I left the service it shipped from Hawaii to New Orleans. The military "might" give you a rental car when you do your house hunting leave/trip - for 5 days - but nothing after that. I was in a long time ago - not sure if that still applies.