FBI Director Kash Patel visited Hawaii last summer, and the FBI clarified that the trip was not a vacation. The agency stressed that during his visit he visited the FBI field office in Honolulu and held discussions with local law enforcement officials, as reported by the AP.
Omitted from FBI press releases was an exclusive excursion Patel took days later, when he took part in what government officials described as a “VIP snorkel” around the USS Arizona on a military-coordinated trip. The sunken battleship buried more than 900 sailors and marines at Pearl Harbor, PTI reported.
The swim, revealed in government emails obtained by the Associated Press, came amid criticism of Patel’s use of an FBI plane and his global travel, which obscured professional responsibilities with leisure activities. The FBI did not disclose the snorkeling or that Patel returned to Hawaii for two days after his initial stopover on the island.
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“It fits a pattern of Director Patel getting caught up in inappropriate distractions — this time at a site commemorating the second-deadliest attack in U.S. history — instead of laser-focused on keeping Americans safe,” said Stacey Young, who founded the Justice Connection, a network of former federal prosecutors and agents who advocate for the Justice Department’s independence.
With few exceptions, snorkeling and diving around the USS Arizona is prohibited. The battleship, now a military cemetery accessible only by boat, has been one of the most sacred sites in the country since it was bombed and sunk by Japan in 1941.
According to a Daily Mail report, Marine Corps veteran Hack Albertson criticized Patel’s snorkeling activity, calling it desecration and angrily likening allowing political figures to swim over the resting place of war heroes to a “teenage party at church.”
Marine archaeologists and crews from the National Park Service occasionally dive at the memorial to examine the condition of the wreck. Additional dives were made to bury the remains of the Arizona survivors who wanted to rest eternally with their former companions.
Since then, at least the Obama administration, the Navy and the Park Service have quietly allowed a handful of dignitaries, including military and government officials responsible for managing the memorial, to swim at the site. The Navy and Park Service declined to provide details on who may take such trips.
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Former FBI directors have officially visited Pearl Harbor, but no one has gone snorkeling at the memorial since at least 1993, according to those familiar with their activities and a former government diver who spoke to the AP on condition of anonymity for fear of retribution. The diver said it was unusual for the director or anyone not associated with the memorial to have such an approach because swimming involves physical risks and presents safety, security and logistical issues.
Patel has faced scrutiny over his leadership in the past year, with his use of government resources emerging as a recurring story of his tenure. The issue flared up in February when a video surfaced of Patel partying in the locker room with members of the US men’s ice hockey team after winning the gold medal at the Milan Winter Olympics. Patel defended the trip as recently as this week as “deliberately planned” in connection with a cybercrime investigation involving Italian authorities.
Unanswered questions about the exclusive trip
Patel’s excursion was in August, when he spent two days in Hawaii after returning to the United States from official visits to Australia and New Zealand. On his way to those countries, he stopped in Hawaii to visit the local office in Honolulu.
The FBI said in a statement that top regional commanders hosted Patel at Joint Base Pearl Harbor-Hickam “as they routinely do with US government officials on official trips.” The visit to Pearl Harbor, the spokesman said, “was part of the director’s national security engagements last August with counterparts in New Zealand, Australia, our Honolulu field office and the War Department.
It was not clear how Patel’s snorkeling was arranged. A Navy spokeswoman, Capt. Jodie Cornell, confirmed the trip but said the service was unable to track down who initiated it, the AP reported.
Participants in Patel’s swim were told “not to touch/touch in any way” the sunken ship, Cornell said. She added that snorkelers were also briefed on the memorial’s “historical significance as the final resting place/grave for hundreds of service members.”
“VIP Snorkel”
The AP reported that government emails obtained by The Associated Press through a public records request indicate that military officials helped coordinate logistics and personnel support for the activity, dubbed “VIP snorkeling.”
The National Park Service, which manages the site in coordination with the Navy, told the AP it was not involved in Patel’s swim and declined to comment on the excursion. She also declined to answer questions about any other such trips, according to the report.
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A former government diver said invitations to snorkel were extended to senior officials, including navy admirals as well as defense and interior ministers. The diver also said the swims were meant to help officials better understand the monument and how it works, the AP reported.
The Navy declined to provide examples or numbers showing how often it organizes such trips. He describes Patel’s trip as “not an anomaly”.
Hack Albertson, a Marine Corps veteran, is part of a select group of Paralyzed Veterans of America trained to dive in Arizona each year to inspect the wreck. He said it was not appropriate for Patel and other political figures to snorkel or dive near the memorial.
“It’s like having a bachelor party in a church. It’s sacred ground,” he said. “He needs to be treated with the seriousness he deserves.
Some family members do not object to snorkeling
Some family members of Pearl Harbor survivors said they were not bothered by such official tours, although some expressed a wish that they would also be allowed to snorkel at the site. They said they were not allowed to, the AP reported.
“I have not heard of anyone objecting to these visits because they are very rare and there are no survivors left alive in Arizona,” Deidre Kelley, national president of the Sons and Daughters of Pearl Harbor Survivors, wrote in an email. “Their children may have some objections, but I haven’t heard any.
Patel visited Pearl Harbor several years ago during a trip he took to Hawaii while serving as chief of staff to Christopher Miller, then the acting secretary of defense, according to a former government diver.
Miller said he snorkeled over Arizona during an official visit to the base, but Patel was not present for the excursion. Miller said he was invited to go snorkeling by regional military officials and was told that such a tour was for “special occasions and for special visitors, which includes you.” He called it a “meaningful” experience.
“It was a very somber and meaningful event,” Miller said in an interview. “It was a historical tour. It wasn’t a recreational thing.”
The FBI would not discuss Patel’s return to Hawaii
Aside from snorkeling, it’s unclear what else Patel was doing during his second stop in Hawaii.
Flight tracking data for the Gulfstream G550 routinely used by the FBI director indicates the plane stayed on the island for two nights during the visit before continuing to Las Vegas, which is described as Patel’s adopted hometown. With a range of roughly 7,700 miles (12,391 kilometers), the jet would require refueling somewhere between New Zealand and Washington, DC
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The snorkeling reportedly took place a day after Kash Patel traveled to Wellington to open the country’s first stand-alone FBI office. The visit sparked scrutiny after reports he handed New Zealand police and intelligence officials malfunctioning 3D-printed replica firearms deemed illegal under local gun laws.
