Some interesting facts that we learned from Duke were that the U.S. The visitor's center is undergoing a $58 million renovation, which is scheduled to be completed on December 7, 2010. We arrived at the Arizona Memorial Visitor's Center before 8 a.m., but after going to the ticket desk, Duke decided that we should end our tour there and got tickets for the 2 p.m. He now works full time for the family business and has convinced his parents that the company should expand into the Home of the Brave Brewing Company, which brews micro beers for the military.Ī special hello to Kim Getz, Sara's beautician who worked as a beautician for the government in Honolulu for three years and told us to take the best tour we could of Pearl Harbor but to remember that no matter what time we got there, the Japanese tourists would already be there (it seems as if history repeats itself). Duke majored in technical journalism at a college in Colorado and must have been an honor student in his history courses about World War II and the Hawaiian Islands. Duke's father is a surfer and named his son after Duke Kahanamoko, the famous Hawaiian surfer and Olympic gold medal winner, and The Duke, John Wayne, whom he met when he was filming a movie in Honolulu.ĭuke reminded Sara of her college students, not the ones who complain about their grades but the majority of the students who take their assignments seriously and do very well. Our tour guide was Duke, the 23-year-old son of the owners of the Home of the Brave tours, which they started in 1991 at the request of the government to develop a tour for veterans returning to Pearl Harbor for the 50th anniversary. (Not really, because we got into port before most people were up but the thought was in their hearts!) We had the first tour scheduled-the Pearl Harbor VIP Military Base Tour-and boarded our van at 7:15 a.m. A loud cheer went up from the passengers when we approached land after five days with rough seas.

Home of the brave brewing