Pro Bowl 2012

Pro Bowl 2012

My dad turned our nearly new Oldsmobile Vista Cruiser,  the first station wagon with glass panels in the roof,  off of Kamehameha Highway onto McGrew Loop. It was the fall of 1968 and after having sailed to Hawaii on the SS Lurline and living in an apartment in Waikiki for the summer, my two brothers, two sisters and my folks and I were entering McGrew Point Naval Officer Housing in Aiea, Hawaii. We pulled our loaded cruiser into the carport of our new home, a three bedroom single wall construction navy house built at the end of WW II.  We three boys had a small room, my sisters another and my folks the third. Our backyard ended at the very shore of Pearl Harbor. We always knew when an aircraft carrier or a cruiser had transited the harbor because the sound of the waves they generated could be heard smashing onto the rocks below our house. I spent the next two years living on McGrew Loop, going to catholic schools, surfing Waikiki and Barbers Point and riding my bike to the Navy Base at Pearl. We would spend our summer days on our bikes exploring Ford Island, the sub base and dry-docks, playing pin ball and eating tweny-five cent hamburgers at the Beemans Center enlisted mens club. 

In fact I was in Beemans Center goofing off on summer break the day Neal Armstrong landed on the moon. I remember a roar coming from the bar off the side of the cafe and as we peaked into the dark room we had never been able to enter, we saw sailors crowded around the bar toasting beer mugs together as they watched the TV above the bar showing the B&W image of Apollo 11 on the moon!

Another wonderful memory from that time was the filming of the movie "Tora Tora Tora". This epic movie about the attack on Pearl Harbor on December 7, 1941 was filmed on location on, in and above the actual location of the attack on Pearl Harbor. For months we lived with the roar of Japanese Zero fighters, Val and Kate bombers racing in formations of many dozens of planes as they dove from the sky dropping (Fake) bombs on the Navy ships anchored in the harbor as targets for the planes while the film crews captured every second of the action from different angles.

In the harbor loch waters directly behind our house less than a hundred yards away they had anchored a U.S. Navy Destroyer Escort. For days the ship was the target of the Japanese planes, swooping in directly over our house not more than a hundred feet above our roof top. They would dive in formation, dropping their plaster filled bombs into the water next to the ship and great fiery special effects explosions would blast skyward. 

I remember standing beside my Dad there in our yard watching the spectacle while he shot photos with his Minolta SRT 101 camera. That very camera would one day become my first 35mm camera.  Here is what it looked like in the harbor behind our house.

Some of the best memories of my life began during those two years of my dad's tour of duty at Pearl Harbor. 

Early last Sunday morning, January 29, 2012, I climbed into my plane and flew to Honolulu. I jumped on a bus at the airport and headed towards the Aloha Stadium and the 2012 Pro Bowl NFL football game. My good friend Tim  had called telling me he had an extra ticket and if I wanted to join him and his family at the game I could have it. The directions he gave me to the tailgate party before the game found me getting off the bus at the entrance to McGrew Point Naval Housing, the party was to be held in a small park just beside my old neighborhood on the shore of Pearl Harbor.

Here is the entrance to McGrew Point today. Much fancier than it was in 1968 I must say.

McGrew Point Naval Housing looking west toward the Waianae Mountains

Standing in the small park where we began the tailgate party I was nearly with a stones throw of our old home. In the above photo the large tree in the center was growing in our neighbors yard. Our house was just to the right of that tree. The target destroyer I mentioned was anchored on the left side of this photo and the Zero's flew right over the tops of those trees above our heads diving down onto it dropping their bombs! I was having a grand time stumbling down memory lane when Tim reminded me it was pre game party time.

We ate dogs, drank a few beers, threw the pigskin around and joined with other like minded Pro Bowl tailgaters and had a good time. Sometime latter we walked the fifteen minute trail to the Aloha Stadium and joined a couple of other parties in the parking lot before heading into the game.

I found myself running into old friends from the Big Island here for the game having a massive tailgate party in the stadium parking lot. They had four busloads of fellow partiers staked out under the shade trees drinking beer, BBQing burgers and getting ready for the game. A shout went up and as I looked in the sounds direction I saw that the NFL Cheerleading squad had arrived!

For the uninitiated or those from foreign lands like Rodger in Oz, the Pro Bowl game is a professional football game (Real football, not that poofter sport called soccer) between the two conferences making up the NFL, the AFC & NFC. The participants are all top players invited to be in the game wearing the uniform of there conference but also wearing the helmet of the pro team they play on. Nobody really gives a crap who wins or even who plays, it is just a big party held in Hawaii once a year with a football theme.

Tims seats were by far the finest ones I have ever sat in at an NFL football game, first row within peeing distance of the end zone. I could have quite literally leapt from my seat and tackled one of those scrawny football players as they touched down. I of course wisely chose not to do so in order not to embarrass them on national TV as well as not wanting to have to call my sister Susan in California to throw my bail and get me out of jail.

There was to be fly over of US Air Force F22 Raptors and as we awaited it I spotted the pilot on the ground who had to coordinate the aircrafts arrival over the center of the stadium at exactly the right instant. He looked focused and intent.  Who wouldn't be, you screw your end of the job and there stand fifty thousand people looking up at the sky for five minutes at nothing and as soon as they give up and sit down they hear the roar of the jets and see nothing and you are supreme goat number uno!

He, we and fifty thousand fans were not disappointed. The fly over was perfectly timed and enjoyed by all. As the national anthem was being sung I couldn't help but see the pride of several servicemen even if they were in civies.

Did I mention that there were professional cheerleaders there? Can't recall if I did or not, but for the sake of my male readers here are a couple of the many I shots I gathered of them.

The Pro Bowl is a unique game in that no one really cares who wins, not the fans nor the players. And since the Super Bowl is the following weekend and the players/teams who will be the world champs are going to be there and not here in Hawaii this weekend, there is very little incentive to play hard and risk getting injured and jeopardizing your future. Which leads to ample opportunity for a photographer to look about for interesting photos without the worry of missing a game winning play.

During one of these dull periods I spotted a Marine Master Gunnery Sargent down on the field who was obviously a significant part of the upcoming half time show talking on his phone and looking intently up into the seats. I quickly realized he was trying to find his family in the stands after talking to them on his phone.

The joy on his face when he finally made eye contact with his wife and kids was wonderful.

After his wife and kids had made their way down to the edge of the field and given him a kiss I leaned over the rail handed him my card and told him to send me an e-mail and I would be happy to send him some photos from the day. I got his e-mail this morning thanking me. Semper Fidelis Gunny.

The island of Oahu is still very much filled with military bases and personnel. As such the Pro Bowl game is quite the draw for folks from the various branches of the US military and their families . The stadium was full of them and the half time show was gloriously performed by them.

I moved up to the top of our level to try to get some overview shots of the show. Beside me as I stood there snapping photos was a man in a wheelchair and his wife beside him. He was trying very hard to see over the people standing up cheering the soldiers, sailors, airmen and marines as they took the field. Hearing his wife talk I gathered they had daughter down on the field and he wanted to very much to see her. "Is your daughter on the field?" I asked, "Yes sir" he said, "she's a Marine", I reached out to the folks standing in his way and asked if they could sit down for a second while he tried to catch a look at his daughter. I asked him and his wife if they had an e-mail address so I could send them some photos of the show and maybe see if I could get a shot of their daughter, the Marine. They did and I will be sending them photos tomorrow. Jeez! I'm turning into Mr Nice Guy Photo Fairy!

The game continued and everyone had a grand time.

It seemed that everyone at the game had on a jersey showing their faithfulness to a particular team. Well I wore my sons HPA t-shirt showing his number and name. Take that 49ers!

 Here you see my friends Tim, Judy and Aukai during the game. I have to thank them immensely for a grand old time. I hope that whoever couldn't make it this year allowing me to take advantage of his ticket, decides to vacation in Africa next year at this time so I can take his ticket one more time!

 After the game and the sunsetting on Pearl Harbor we recused ourselves to my friend of 35 plus years Jeff McConnell's yacht in Kewalo Basin. There more burgers were BBQ'd, more beer drank and many old stories and probable lies were told.

There is a scurrilous rumor being spread that I had more than my fair share of the available beer on Jeff's boat and suffered the consequences the following morning. This is just the petty jealousy of those whose abilities to enjoy beer are not unlike that of 14 year old mormon boys who have two bottles of beer and then begin to dance like retards and have the illusion that they are tougher, smarter, faster and better looking than most people. 

If you would like to see more photos of the day copy this link to your browser:

http://www.hawaiianimages.net/gallery/probowl2012/index.html

Laters...Brian

"Beer is proof that God loves us and wants us to be happy." 
~ Benjamin Franklin