Pearl Harbor – Pacific Aviation Museum

Hangar 79
The door’s glass windows still retain the bullet holes left by the Japanese attack.

When I was about to leave the hangar, I saw a volunteer, a veteran of WWII (possibly from Pearl Harbor) sitting at a desk beside the door. I am not an extroverted person and, moreover, I was in a hurry to catch the bus as I had tickets for USS Arizona Memorial, but later I regretted not asking him a few questions.
So I contacted the museum using the contact form on their site, mentioned the date and time I visited Hangar 79 and asked about the respective volunteer. Who was he and what he was doing on December 7th, 1941? No answer so far.

Mitsubishi A6M Zero
Wikipedia: “While stable on the ground despite its light weight, the aircraft was designed purely for the attack role, emphasizing long range, maneuverability, and firepower at the expense of protection of its pilot. Most had neither self-sealing tanks nor armor plating.”
They seemed not to care too much about the pilot’s life.
Mig Alley Korean War Exhibit
F-86 Sabres and MiG-15 in the photo, also an interesting reading: MiG Alley
“The US Air Force still claims a kill ratio of 10 to 1 in their favor. The modern Russian sources indicate a kill ratio of 3.4 to 1 in the Soviet favor. Some consider the “kill” totals over MiG Alley controversial. The Soviets claimed 1,106 United Nations planes of all types shot down by the VVS, including about 650 Sabres. (The USAF says it lost less than 200 aircraft in air combat).”

I trust USAF more than the Soviet sources and, after all, everyone saw ‘Top Gun’.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=V8rZWw9HE7o
More than 18 million views, wow!

Grumman F-14 Tomcat (the ones used in the ‘Top Gun’ movie)

Flight Simulator
I wasn’t very good at it. I did not understand what I had to do so I could not shoot down any enemy aircraft. You have to pay an extra fee for the simulator as it is not included in the admission fee, but fortunately I had a coupon downloaded from the museum’s site. It only lasted 10 minutes, but that was long enough for me. 
 
Control Tower
They need a few million more to finish the restoration and as I accidentally read the article “Billionaire philanthropist Rubenstein to give millions to help fix Washington Monument” I had nothing better to do than write to him (actually, to the company he co-founded) about the air control tower from Pearl Harbor.

Now I am thinking that the producers of the movie ‘Pearl Harbor’ (Budget: $140 million, Box office: $449,220,945) could have (they still can) provided the funds.

However, this movie deserves a video (the control tower can be seen too).
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9nsr-_DhFYQ

Update 12 February
Jerry Bruckheimer’s twitter on Feb 11:
Just watched Top Gun for the first time since it was released in 86. Saw it with Tom and Tony in 3D, it was awesome.
This post has a link to a video from ‘Top Gun’ and makes a reference to the movie ‘Pearl Harbor’ that was produced by Jerry Bruckheimer Films. That’s an interesting coincidence.

Update 01 March
The only comment is from Anne, Director of Marketing & Business Development at the Pacific Aviation Museum. Having her e-mail address I asked her some 2 weeks ago who was the veteran volunteer at Hangar 79 on the date I visited the museum.
She didn’t answer either.