FBI Director Kash Patel’s visit to Hawaii last summer included a previously undisclosed outing: what military emails call a “VIP snorkel” around the USS Arizona at Pearl Harbor. The swim, which took place after Patel’s stop at the FBI’s Honolulu field office, drew scrutiny because the Arizona is a sunken military cemetery and because Patel’s travel and use of the FBI plane have already been questioned. Capt. Jodie Cornell confirmed the outing, while critics like Stacey Young and veterans such as Hack Albertson weighed in on the optics and appropriateness of the excursion.
When Patel touched down in Hawaii he officially toured the FBI’s Honolulu field office and met local law enforcement, a stop the bureau highlighted. What was left out of public notices was that several days later he joined what government emails describe as a “VIP snorkel” around the USS Arizona, the sunken battleship that entombs more than 900 sailors and Marines. The session was coordinated by military officials, according to the records obtained by reporters.
The Arizona is treated as hallowed ground and is accessible only by boat, with most snorkeling and diving strictly limited. Marine archaeologists and National Park Service crews make occasional dives for surveys and interments, but access is rare for anyone outside official memorial and preservation work. Still, the Navy and park service have, at times, quietly allowed select dignitaries and officials tied to the memorial to swim near the wreck.
Government emails show military staff handled logistics and personnel for the outing, though the National Park Service said it was not involved. Capt. Jodie Cornell confirmed the swim but said the Navy could not track down who initiated the session. Participants were briefed and told “not to touch/come into contact with” the ship, and were reminded of the Memorial’s status as a final resting place.
Patel’s Hawaii follow-up came on the return leg of a trip that took him to Australia and New Zealand, and flight logs show the Gulfstream G550 normally used by the FBI director stayed on the island for two nights before heading on to Las Vegas, Patel’s adopted hometown. The snorkeling happened a day after Patel had been in Wellington to open the FBI’s first standalone office in New Zealand, a stop that drew its own controversy after Patel gifted local officials inoperable 3D-printed replica pistols that crossed local gun laws. The sequence of stops has raised questions about the line between official business and personal time.
Critics urged tougher scrutiny. Stacey Young said, “It fits a pattern of Director Patel getting tangled up in unseemly distractions — this time at a site commemorating the second deadliest attack in U.S. history — instead of staying laser-focused on keeping Americans safe.” That criticism lands in the context of other controversies tied to Patel’s travel and conduct over the past year.
Veterans also objected. Hack Albertson, a Marine veteran trained to dive on the Arizona, said the outing was out of place: “It’s like having a bachelor party at a church. It’s hallowed ground,” he said. “It needs to be treated with the solemnity it deserves.” At the same time, some family groups were less upset and even curious about access; Deidre Kelley wrote that she had “not heard of anyone who would object to these visits as they are very rare and there aren’t any survivors of the Arizona left alive.”
There is precedent for select officials getting special access, with past snorkel or dive permissions extended to Navy admirals and secretaries of defense and interior, according to a former government diver. That diver and others said such excursions were meant to give officials a better understanding of the memorial and its operations, not for recreation. Former acting defense official Christopher Miller described a previous visit he took as an invitation for “special occasions and for special visitors, of which you’re one.” He called it “a very somber and meaningful event” and said, “It was a historical tour. It wasn’t a recreational thing.”
The FBI declined to answer questions about the specifics of Patel’s second Hawaii stop, saying regional commanders hosted him at Joint Base Pearl Harbor-Hickam “as they commonly do with US government officials on official travel.” The Navy described the outing as “not an anomaly,” yet could not say how often such tours happen or who arranged this particular swim. In Washington, some Republicans will likely press for clearer rules governing access and for transparency about what counts as official business when agency leaders travel.
Patel has defended other contested trips, calling one outing with the U.S. men’s hockey team “purposely planned” in connection with a cybercrime investigation, and he has faced public questioning about use of government resources. The emails that exposed the “VIP snorkel” add another episode to the record of his globe-spanning travel, and they keep the questions about optics and stewardship of official time and assets alive.
