The USS Arizona dock was struck and damaged 26-MAY-2015.
https://news.usni.org/2015/05/28/navy-hospital-ship-collision-did-not-damage-uss-arizona-vesselEveryone hoped to have repairs complete and the memorial opened by 04-JUN-2015. Damage to the memorial was "minor". Most damage was to the dock and gangway to the memorial.
Time goes by and the memorial reopens but then on 06-MAY-18 they see a crack and it's closed again. It is supposed to be fixed early March 2019...but now the opening has been pushed back and it won't happen until late fall 2019.
https://www.nps.gov/valr/faqs.htmI was there week before last and a National Park Service employee told my wife and I that the government shutdown is the blame for the USS Arizona Memorial not being repaired. What kind of damn fools do these government people think we are?
5 weeks of shutdown is the reason this thing hasn't been fixed since 2015? I am still incensed. Enough that I have reached out to one of my US Senators for a congressional investigation on why the USS Arizona Memorial has not been repaired in a timely manner.
I would think this is a good, non-partisan issue, but I think I would be wrong. I don't think the Dimcrats give a damn unless they can get votes and they probably believe they will get more votes having people in place like the idiot NPS employee blaming it on Trump's 5 week shutdown. You know...that 5 weeks they got paid for anyway....versus the 4 years since the damage occurred on Obama's watch?
We had 5 WWII vets on the tour from 95-99 years old who wanted to visit that memorial and could not. That was likely their last ever opportunity. This is such an important memorial why is it that over 4 years after initial damage it still is not fixed?