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View Full Version : Dec. 7 observance shrinks with survivors



thedrifter
12-07-02, 09:18 AM
Posted on: Saturday, December 7, 2002

Last year's 60th anniversary of the Dec. 7, 1941, attack on Pearl Harbor was by turns solemn observance and multimedia extravaganza — a Disney-promoted, history-filled, veteran-packed event that for many aging warriors was a last hurrah.
A year later, the hoopla is gone, but the remembrance remains.

Mary Wagner Kreigh traveled to O'ahu from California, as she does every year, to remember her twin sister. USS Utah Chief Yeoman Albert Wagner had on board the ashes of his daughter Nancy Lynne, who died two days after birth, but wasn't able to retrieve them when the ship was hit.

This year's anniversary is being marked by individuals and pairs, rather than by groups of dozens or hundreds, as last year — a trend that is here to stay as more than 1,500 World War II veterans die every day.

USS Oklahoma survivor Paul Goodyear is here from Arizona to scout out a long-overdue memorial to the torpedoed battleship on Ford Island, and to visit graves formerly marked "Unknown" at Punchbowl that have been remarked to reflect service on the Oklahoma and other ships in "Battleship Row."

USS Arizona Memorial historian Daniel Martinez said he expects 1,500 to 2,000 visitors, and more than 50 Pearl Harbor survivors for today's 7:45 a.m. ceremony, "A Matter of Honor," on the lawn at the rear of the visitor center. A simultaneous ceremony is to be held on the memorial itself
"We'll have a fair amount of survivors. We're getting a lot of calls," Martinez said. "There are a number of them that have come into town."

John Finn, a Navy lieutenant who manned a 50-caliber machine gun at Kane'ohe Bay and is the only living Medal of Honor recipient from the Dec. 7 attacks, will be the speaker.

The invitation-only ceremony on the Arizona will include more than 30 wreath presentations, a 21-gun salute, echo taps and a speech by U.S. Sen. Dan Inouye, a World War II veteran and Medal of Honor winner. About 15 survivors will take part.

A moment of silence will be observed throughout Naval Station Pearl Harbor at 7:55 a.m. — the exact moment of the attacks 61 years ago. A blast from the cruiser USS Port Royal's ship whistle will signal the moment of silence, and Hawai'i Air National Guard F-15s will fly over in a "missing man" formation.

Last year, close to 3,000 visitors and several hundred veterans were on hand at the Arizona Memorial for the ceremony to remember the surprise attacks that ushered the United States into World War II.

Japanese carrier-based airplanes struck just before 8 a.m. Five of eight battleships were sunk or sinking, and the rest damaged. Other ships were knocked out, and most of the airplanes based in Hawai'i were destroyed.

The USS Arizona, which went down with 1,177 crew members on board, remains a touchstone for that loss. For the 60th, thousands of aging World War II veterans and their families made the trip to O'ahu and the Arizona to swap war stories.

A 2 p.m. ceremony today at National Memorial Cemetery of the Pacific also should see crowds far smaller than last year, when 4,000 attended the commemoration at the Punchbowl landmark. About 200 people are expected today.

Emory isn't surprised by the dwindling numbers.

"(The survivors) are all dying off," he said.

The Navy said the Pearl Harbor Survivors Association and USS Oklahoma family would take part in the Punchbowl recognition.

About eight Oklahoma survivors and their families — many from the state of Oklahoma — are expected to be at the ceremony, which also will recognize the replacement of 177 gravestones marked "Unknown" representing casualties from the attack.

As a result of grassroots efforts and a request by the late U.S. Rep. Patsy Mink, the Department of Veterans Affairs last month added the ships on which those sailors and Marines died.

Seventy headstones were changed last year to reflect the new information for unknowns from the USS Arizona, and the 177 replacement gravestones now bear ship names including California, Oklahoma, Utah, West Virginia, Pennsylvania, Nevada and Curtiss.

Goodyear, a 23-year-old signalman 3rd class on the Oklahoma on Dec. 7, 1941, said he is alive today because he had the 8 a.m.-to-noon watch. Shortly after he took over, the first of more than nine torpedoes hit the Oklahoma.

"I had just relieved the 4-to-8 watch and they went down to eat," said Goodyear, 84. "The kid that I relieved didn't make it — he's buried in one of those unknown graves out there (at Punchbowl)."

Six decades after 429 men died on the battleship, moored Dec. 7 where the Missouri is now, the USS Oklahoma Memorial Committee has been given the OK to locate a memorial on Ford Island, and Goodyear and other members of a site committee toured the island Thursday looking for a spot.

At a small ceremony at the Utah memorial yesterday on Ford Island, Dolores Higdon of Kapolei remembered her brother, electrician's mate 1st class Rudolph Martinez, who died on the battleship at the age of 21.

Last year, the names of the 58 men killed on the Utah, often called the "forgotten ship" because it is not accessible by the public, were read off as a bell was tolled.

Martinez of the Arizona said John Latko, a survivor from the battleship West Virginia, had come in from the Mainland and was at the memorial meeting visitors.

"He's autographing for the kids, and he's got lei for the kids," Martinez said Thursday.

The red, white and blue lei say, "I was young when I shook hands with U.S. Marine Corps Sgt. John J. Latko, a Pearl Harbor survivor from the USS West Virginia on Dec. 7, 1941. Freedom is not free. Keep America Alert."

Sempers,

Roger