For veterans across the country, the anniversary of Pearl Harbor brings mixed emotions: a desire to remember, an obligation to reflect, and a plea for others to look to the future.
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“When they bombed Pearl Harbor I mean it was a bad thing because it was a sneak attack”, he said. “It’s been a long time ago”, he said.
“I enlisted”, he said.
In attendance at the ceremony were 95-year-old Clyde Stephenson from Appleton and 93-year-old King resident Chuck Davis, both survivors of the Pearl Harbor attack. “I know I was so scared when I got those casualties. It was approximately a mile away from the Arizona”, Guthrie said.
More than 2,400 Americans were killed, half the US fleet was lost, and all eight battleships were damaged or destroyed.
Shortly after the event that thrust the U.S. into World War II, Harriett enlisted as a nurse in the U.S. Navy. Some of them dead and some of them weren’t. “You had no school for two months because we had to dig wartime bomb shelters”, Nicholson said. In the crowd were a few Pearl Harbor survivors. Each has their own story, and each hopes the lessons learned from the tragedy resound with younger generations.
“I was down in the magazines sending up ammunition to the guns that were firing at the planes coming in and around, ” he said. He waved at me.
“I pulled one man out of the water off the West Virginia”.
“We had a motto: ‘Remember Pearl Harbor; keep America alert.’ They don’t remember Pearl Harbor, but they keep America alert thanks to men in the military”. Every year, season-ticket holders give up their Dallas Mavericks court side seats to honor wounded warriors for one game.
Which is why Governor Walker and others say Pearl Harbor – and the service and sacrifice of past and present military service members – must never be forgotten.
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On Monday, several ceremonies in West Virginia marked National Pearl Harbor Remembrance Day. Just like the shooting on the West coast.
