team successes

TriWest Commits to USS Arizona Memorial Restoration

Drops of crude oil still bubble from the hull of the USS Arizona. Resting at the bottom of Pearl Harbor with her crew of 1,100, the battleship is a silent reminder of sacrifice.

Visitors, some 5,000 thousand a day, come to the USS Arizona Memorial atop the once proud battleship, America's first significant capital loss of World War II. At anchor nearby is the USS Missouri. Upon her decks, the Japanese surrendered, ending the world's most devastating conflict.

Weathered by sea and sun, time and heavy foot traffic, an effort to restore the USS Arizona Memorial, one of the nation's most significant monuments, is underway.

Today, TriWest Healthcare Alliance jump starts that effort. President and CEO Dave McIntyre will announce $500,000 in initial support and $500,000 in matching funds as part of the five-year project for the memorial's restoration at a meeting with Arizona Gov. Janet Napolitano.

"Our owners have allowed us to develop a robust program of giving back to a variety of causes — most of which are directly aligned with our customers, both to meet their needs and to recognize their significant sacrifices and contributions. It is generous of our owners to allow us to give back some of what would otherwise go to them as profit, and it is behavior which they model so well for us in their own businesses and communities," McIntyre said.

"We are privileged to count service personnel and their families, and those who have gone before them, from both the states of Arizona and Hawaii as our customers. Not only does the memorial remind us of the sacrifices our men and women in uniform made in defending our freedom some 65 years ago, but it also reminds us of the sacrifices that service personnel are making today in places like Iraq and Afghanistan. In that sense, it stands as a living memorial and it is a privilege to contribute toward such a worthy cause," McIntyre said.

Visiting the memorial is like being in church. Chattering tourists fall silent as they stare through the cutouts in the floor at the Arizona's rusting remains — a relic that transports visitors back in time.

'Day of Infamy'

"Pearl Harbor attacked! This is no drill!"

Those words shocked Americans, whose mood on that tranquil Sunday, December 7th afternoon a half a world away turned from self to country and to anger and fear.

Americans tuned to the anxious voices of radio news reporters for real time accounts of the attack as the first wave of Japanese planes let their bombs and torpedoes loose over "Battleship Row" where the USS Arizona berthed.

She was hit by several bombs. One penetrated her forecastle and detonated her forward ammunition magazines. The resulting massive explosion wrecked the ship's forward hull, collapsing her forward superstructure causing her to sink with her crew.

On shore, sailor John Finn stood in an open area single-handedly manning a machine gun aiming at the attacking planes. He was wounded numerous times but stayed at the trigger. He would receive the Congressional Medal of Honor for his heroism that day.

A nation, knocked to its knees in crushing defeat at the outset of the Pacific war, began the long road back the next day when President Franklin Roosevelt delivered to Congress the most important speech the nation had ever heard."

Yesterday, December 7, 1941 — a date which will live in infamy — the United States of America was suddenly and deliberately attacked by naval and air forces of the Empire of Japan," he began.

The president ended with a vow. "Hostilities exist. There is no blinking at the fact that our people, our territory and our interests are in grave danger. With confidence in our armed forces - with the unbounded determination of our people — we will gain the inevitable triumph — so help us God." Read the speech.

Without warning, peaceful Hawaii had changed forever and a nation began reinventing itself.

The world can never again think of this island paradise without thinking of the morning all those years ago that hostile wings dotted its azure sky and the whine of foreign engines and the ear-piercing blast of murderous explosions shattered the calm tropical morning.

Aboard the Memorial

In 1950, the USS Arizona began to be used as a site for memorial ceremonies and in the early 1960s the memorial structure was constructed over the Arizona's amidships as a permanent shrine to those Americans who lost their lives in the attack on Pearl Harbor and in the great Pacific War that began there.

Today, the USS Arizona Memorial is much more than it was intended. It is itself a piece of history.

"The memorial is of tremendous importance to Hawaii," said Karl Kiyokawa, TriWest Market Vice President for Hawaii. "It teaches people never to forget, but at the same time helps people to heal and understand that Japan is now one of our global allies."

The USS Arizona Memorial starts at the visitor center, which has a modest museum and an auditorium. A short movie presentation depicting the event leading to the attack is shown every half hour and includes motion picture footage of the actual attack.

"It's a very informational and emotionally moving movie," Kiyokawa said.

A five-minute ferry trip takes visitors into the harbor to the memorial itself.

"Once you are on the memorial, the feeling is surreal," Kiyokawa said. "The memorial is open-aired with several large cut-out areas in the floor where you can gaze into the ocean to see the Arizona laying on the bottom of Pearl Harbor. As one moves to the back of the memorial, the noise level of people talking gets lower and lower."

On the back wall of the memorial is a marble plaque listing the names of the 1,100 sailors and marines who perished that day and who are entombed just below their feet."

No one is talking in this area of the memorial," Kiyokawa said. "Only the sounds of the breeze and the lapping of the waves beneath the memorial can be heard. It is very emotional. You can usually see flower leis and flower petals floating on the water's surface, paying tribute to the brave Americans of the USS Arizona.."

Read a first-hand account from a survivor of the USS Arizona.