Each year on December 7th, we remember this story, the lives lost in the tragic attacks on Pearl Harbor. Hall, who later went on to fight in the Battle of the Bulge, didn’t know where his ship was headed at the time – but it made its way to Pearl Harbor, Hawaii, where the USA fleet had been devastated just a few months before on December 7, 1941.
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“When they bombed Pearl Harbor I mean it was a bad thing because it was a sneak attack”, he said. At 110 years old, he’s the oldest living World War II veteran. Patriots Point held a memorial service Monday with the Mt. Pleasant Veterans of Foreign Wars on the USS Yorktown. “It was a bad day”. Veteran Chuck Lishman said the day still stands out in his mind.
Preservation of the Hoga “is a goal we think is worthy of doing”, said Hays, who left office at the end of 2012.
Monday’s ceremony at Fort Allen Park in Portland was fittingly held among the park’s remnants of the USS Portland, a World War II-era heavy cruiser that famously accepted the Japanese surrender of the Truk Island air and naval base on September 7, 1945.
Harris quoted the “sage advice” in the motto of the Pearl Harbor Survivors Association: “Keep America alert” because “eternal vigilance is the price of liberty”.
“Yes m’aam. That’s what we remember, the fallen guys”, Robinson said.
That attack was, until the 2011 terrorist attacks in NY and Washington D.C., the deadliest scene ever on American soil, as bomber pilots took more than 2,400 American lives.
Five servicemen from Tioga County were stationed at Pearl Harbor when the attack happened.
“Just unbelievable”, said WWII Veteran Philip Meeks.
There were many people from out of town who attend the service.
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Both he and Levingston say they are still serving the country by paying tribute to the victims. He missed one the first time, he said, but after a second try, a plane started smoking, and he believes it went down. It remains a gravesite for many of those killed.
