Posted on: Monday, March 28, 2005

USS Arizona evacuated

By Rod Ohira
Advertiser Staff Writer

Hundreds of people at the USS Arizona Memorial on a busy Easter Sunday were evacuated after a visitor presented what appeared to be an old munitions round to park officials.

Deputy Chief Ranger Jeff Woods of the National Park Service said the object resembled an old mortar round. The park was evacuated and closed at about 3 p.m., two hours earlier than usual.

The man was not identified. No one was arrested, and the object was found to be inert, Woods said.

"We're following up on it (today), but there's no reason to believe at this point that it was malicious," Woods said. "It was a case of us being safe."

According to Woods, the visitor tried to donate what he thought was an artifact to park officials. Rangers, however, followed standard procedure to ensure the safety of visitors by calling 911 and evacuating the site, Woods said.

Honolulu police, federal firefighters and Department of Defense officials responded.

Two boats carrying 150 visitors each were called back. Those visitors, along with about 500 others at the park, were evacuated as officials checked out the object.

One park official said the visitor brought the object to O'ahu from Maui. It reportedly was packed in his luggage.

The USS Arizona Memorial attracts between 4,000 and 6,000 people daily and 1.5 million visitors annually, Woods said.

"We rarely have problems like this, and I can't even recall the last night we had to evacuate the park," he said.

Reach Rod Ohira at 535-8181 or rohira@honoluluadvertiser.com.