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| - Patel participated in an authorized snorkel tour around the USS Arizona, a site that is off-limits to the general public. Emailed statements from spokespeople for the FBI and the Department of the Interior (the parent agency of the National Park Service, which oversees the Pearl Harbor National Memorial), as well as an X post from a Department of Defense spokesperson, confirmed the trip. High-ranking officials across multiple presidential administrations have reportedly been invited on similar tours in the past. However …
… We were unable to independently verify whether Patel's snorkeling trip was for personal recreation. Its exact purpose remains unclear as of this writing. An FBI spokesperson told Snopes that "the engagement" was part of an "official trip," but did not provide specifics on the reason for the snorkeling tour.
In May 2026, rumors circulated online about a purported snorkeling trip that FBI Director Kash Patel took around the USS Arizona, the sunken battleship that serves as a memorial and grave for more than 900 U.S. service members who were killed in Japan's Dec. 7, 1941, attack on Pearl Harbor. The ship's location is known as Pearl Harbor National Memorial.
Some social media posts suggested Patel's excursion was for leisure rather than official FBI business. For example, one Facebook post (archived) alleged Patel "used personal tour guides to snorkel over Pearl Harbor war graves." Another post by the self-described "pro-democracy" media outlet MeidasTouch labeled the excursion a "VIP snorkel" and claimed it was a "recreational trip" (archived), citing a report by The New York Times.
Several Snopes readers also emailed us to ask whether it was true Patel took such a trip, sharing an image circulating on Facebook that claims he "used his FBI Director title to get a secret 'VIP snorkel' around the tomb of 900 Americans," a site that is off-limits to the general public and families of fallen service members.
On May 14, 2026, a
The New York Times published a story on May 15 independently confirming the account, citing a Freedom of Information Act request and information provided by a former FBI official. The newspaper's report also suggested that the visit, which reportedly lasted about 30 minutes, may have been "recreational."
It is true that Patel participated in an authorized snorkel tour around the USS Arizona, a site that is off-limits to the general public. Emailed statements from spokespeople for the FBI and the Department of the Interior (the parent agency of the National Park Service, which oversees the Pearl Harbor National Memorial), as well as an X post from a Department of Defense spokesperson, confirmed the trip.
The Times and AP reports, as well as agency spokespeople, noted that high-ranking officials across multiple presidential administrations have been invited on similar tours in the past.
However, we were unable to independently verify whether Patel's snorkeling trip was for personal recreation. Its exact purpose remains unclear as of this writing. An FBI spokesperson told Snopes that "the engagement" was part of an "official trip," but did not provide specifics on the reason for the tour.
Because we could verify that the snorkeling tour occurred, but not its purpose, we have rated the claim as a mixture of true and undetermined information.
AP and New York Times reporting
The AP reported that Patel had taken a snorkeling tour of the memorial site that the FBI had not disclosed, even though the agency promoted his visit to its field office in Honolulu. It said that while the Navy and the National Park Service, which manages the memorial site, have "quietly" allowed such visits in the past, no FBI director had taken the tour "since at least 1993."
The New York Times reported that Navy SEALs escorted Patel and nine others on the tour, which took place
In Wellington, New Zealand, Patel reportedly swam in the sea during a tsunami advisory with the city's police commissioner, Richard Chambers, according to the Times.
Agency spokespeople confirm excursion
In an emailed statement, an FBI spokesperson confirmed Patel had taken the snorkeling tour but did not elaborate on the reasoning behind it:
The engagement was a part of the official trip the Director did back in August. The IndoPacom [Indo-Pacific Command] Commander graciously offered to host the Director and team at Joint Base Pearl Harbor-Hickam, as they commonly do with U.S. government officials on official trave l. This was part of the Director's public national security engagements last August with counterparts in New Zealand, Australia, our Honolulu Field Office, and the Department of War.
(The spokesperson was referring to the Department of Defense, using the name preferred by President Donald Trump's administration.)
In a follow-up email, we asked the FBI why it had not disclosed the tour at the time of Patel's visit to Hawaii in August 2025. We had not received a response by the time of publication.
Meanwhile, a spokesperson for the Department of the Interior told Snopes via email that the agency authorized the visit, as it had done in the past:
The Department of Interior, upon review, has authorized interagency partners for tours at the USS Arizona. Similar tours have happened throughout the course of multiple administrations — any suggestion otherwise is false.
We asked for a list of government officials who previously dived around the USS Arizona and will update this report if we hear back.
Defense spokesperson Sean Parnell also confirmed on X that the visit had taken place "at the invitation of Admiral [Samuel] Paparo, Commander of U.S. Indo-Pacific Command" (archived), adding that such tours had been offered to senior officials across multiple presidential administrations. He added that this was "not a new or one-off event."
The Navy directed our inquiries about Patel's excursion to the Pearl Harbor-Hickam Joint Base. As of this writing, we had not received a response.
Park rules and dignitary visits
The waters surrounding the USS Arizona are generally off-limits for snorkeling, as posts correctly stated. Pearl Harbor National Memorial rules state visitors are banned from bathing, swimming, scuba diving or snorkeling at the memorial. However, the AP report noted that certain people, such as archaeologists and National Park Service staff, have been allowed to dive on the site for research or maintenance purposes.
U.S. Ambassador to the United Nations Mike Waltz said on X he'd once been invited to swim over the USS Arizona while serving as a congressman representing Florida, calling the experience "one of the most solemn honors of my life" (archived):
For further reading, Snopes examined a claim that Patel gives customized bottles of bourbon to staff and civilians.
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