A day with Brian O'Kelley

Who in the world is Brian O'Kelley (I know you are asking yourself that very question).

In 1999 when I went to work for the US Navy out in Silverdale, Washington, my office was in the center of the Submarine Sailor barracks (yes nice people - that is a LOT of young men and 1 very nice 25 year old woman). Across the hall from my office was another office where a number of nice sailors worked. There were 3 Chief's in there (in particular) that were very nice to me and always looked out for me. Chief Brian O'Kelley was one of those very nice sailors.

So, after getting myself sufficiently hooked on Facebook, Mr. O'Kelley became my friend! :) It had been almost 8 years since we had talked to one another. After some deductive reasoning, I found out he was working in Japan for a little while, and was trying to get down to Okinawa. YIPPPEEE (you know how I feel about visitors). SO, LONG story short (i.e. a ship, a helicopter and a plane), he made it.

Now, there is another caveat to this story. 2 parts. 1. Kelly's (his lovely wife) Grandfather had been killed in the Battle of Okinawa, so he wanted to find his name on the Memorial here on island. and 2. He lived here as a boy when his father was stationed here. So, his first memories are of Oki. Crazy huh?

Brian (or Mr. Chief O'Kelley as the girls call him) arrived Sunday afternoon. In complete Kelly hospitality style we dined at my favorite establishment (yes, of course Daisy's). Got him checked in to his hotel and made plans to reconvene the next morning.

I picked him up and with our mutual admiration of caffeinated beverages, we made our way down to the southernmost part of the island where Peace Prayer Park (or Memorial Park) was located. I took the most photos of Peace Prayer Park - it really is gorgeous and serene. It was put in place to honor the fallen from the Battle of Okinawa (both American and Japanese).
Here are some highlights:

We really weren't sure what this was, but our thought took us to thinking it was similar to a "Tomb of the Unknown Soldier" Not sure about that though...

There is a HUGE museum on property and this was the main entrance area (and the main entrance to the memorial part of the park).

Those are some old rusty torpedo's and other warheads.

The museum from the back

This is the area with all of the names on it. A photo truly doesn't do it justice, but there were SO many more Japanese names in comparison to American or other "allies", it was quite powerful.

Here is Brian finding Kelly's grandfather's name on the stonework

A closeup

After the main memorial area we went up to this big pinnacle thing (we had no idea what was inside...) until this...

Yes, a very large Buddha made of lacquer.

and

around back was a butterfly garden...

they liked me...

a lot...

this really has no major significance, but it was on the side of the road on our drive back and made me smile. My mom loves this movie.

And here are Brian and I the morning he left.

And, not that you asked, but I do need to tell you the rest of the story. After we zipped up from the Memorial, we hit Coco's Curry (yum) and onto base. We hunted for Brian's old house (from deductive information from his siblings, we had a house number). AND.... (drum roll). WE FOUND IT! He was so excited. And, the other funny thing was that it was right across the street from a friend of mine. SO, he took lots of photos and told lots of stories. We found some other places of importance to him - Habu Canyon, Zukeran Elementary School, Kubasaki High School and even drove up (after we got the girls) to Ishikawa to try and find the beach they swam at as kids.

All in all, it was a wonderful day and a half. A great visit, with a fine person and a great American. I am glad I got to be a part of it.