Nation marks 70th anniversary of Pearl Harbor

[Caleb]

Nation marks 70th anniversary of Pearl Harbor
APBy AUDREY McAVOY | AP – 1 hr 5 mins ago

 

      Video: World War II Pearl Harbor Veterans Honored with TripWXYZ-Detroit  2:45 | 4298 views
    * A U.S. Navy sailor plays taps for Pearl Harbor survivor Lou Soucy, whose remains were being interned on the USS Utah, during a memorial ceremony on Ford Island in Honolulu, Hawaii, December 6,2011. REUTERS/Hugh Gentry (UNITED STATES - Tags: ANNIVERSARY CONFLICT)View Gallery

      A U.S. Navy sailor plays taps for Pearl Harbor survivor Lou Soucy, whose remains …

    * Sailors in a motor launch rush to rescue a survivor in the water alongside U.S. Navy battleship USS West Virginia after an attack by Japanese carrier based strike aircraft on the Hawaiian port of Pearl Harbor December 7, 1941. REUTERS/U.S. Navy Photograph/Newscom/HandoutView Gallery

      Sailors in a motor launch rush to rescue a survivor in the water alongside U.S. Navy …
    * Pearl Harbor survivors stand at attention during the National Anthem during the Pearl Harbor memorial ceremony, Wednesday, Dec. 7, 2011, in Pearl Harbor, Hawaii. Today marks the 70th anniversary of the surprise attack on Pearl Harbor Naval Base which pulled the US into a war with Japan. (AP Photo/Marco Garcia)

      Pearl Harbor survivors stand at attention during the National Anthem during the Pearl …

PEARL HARBOR, Hawaii (AP) — In wheelchairs and on walkers, the old veterans came Wednesday to remember the day 70 years ago when the Japanese bombed Pearl Harbor. But FDR's "date that will live in infamy" is becoming a more distant memory.

Fewer and fewer veterans who experienced the attack on Dec. 7, 1941, are alive to mark the anniversaries and most of them are in their 90s, many prevented by health problems from traveling to Hawaii. One survivors' group said it would disband because age and infirmity made it too difficult to carry on.

"People had other things that they wanted to do with the remainder of their lives," Pearl Harbor Survivors Association president William Muehleib said. "It was time."

The 2,390 Americans who died in the attacks are not forgotten. Besides Pearl Harbor, there are remembrances elsewhere

In Phoenix, the goal every year is to draw 1,177 people — the number who died on the USS Arizona — to march through the city, but organizers don't come close to that anymore.

Just 45 people showed up last year. On Wednesday, about 300 people gathered for a mile-long remembrance walk, carrying miniature U.S. flags and tags bearing the names of Pearl Harbor casualties.

"As time goes by, it might actually fade. This may be the last significant anniversary when we could thank a survivor. Get out there. Get your chance to thank them," event chairman Ben Ernyei said.

Those who made it to Pearl Harbor were treated to a hero's reception. The 5,000 spectators whistled, shouted and applauded loudly as the 120 or so survivors stood to be recognized, and others asked for autographs and took photos with them.

Muehleib said local chapters of his group will function as long as they have members and survivors can gather socially, but they will no longer have a formal, national organization. He also predicted survivors would attend future commemorations at Pearl Harbor.

The association — founded in 1958 — has 2,700 members, he said. There are an estimated 7,000 to 8,000 Pearl Harbor survivors.

President Barack Obama hailed the veterans in a statement proclaiming Wednesday as "National Pearl Harbor Remembrance Day."

"Their tenacity helped define the Greatest Generation and their valor fortified all who served during World War II," he said. "As a nation, we look to December 7, 1941, to draw strength from the example set by these patriots and to honor all who have sacrificed for our freedoms."

Sen. Daniel Inouye, D-Hawaii, witnessed the attacks as a young man in Honolulu and fought in World War II, losing his right arm in combat and earning the Medal of Honor.

"As we continue to lose members of the Greatest Generation, those who witnessed the attack, lived through the war and saw the world change, we must remember the events of December 7," he said in a speech on the Senate floor.

The nation has debated how to mark anniversaries and memorials before as events fade into history. New York City's mayor this year suggested it might be time to stop reading the names of nearly 3,000 Sept. 11 victims every year once that 10th anniversary passed.

Mal Middlesworth, a Marine who was on the USS San Francisco during the attack, said the survivors association formed to make sure younger generations heard about what they went through.

"They wanted young America to understand that freedom isn't free. Never has been and looks like it's never going to be," he said in the keynote address. "Remember, he who forgets history will live it again."

Carissa Westfall traveled to Hawaii to mark the anniversary as part of a college program that paired students and veterans traveling to important battle sites. The veteran she was with, Guy Piper, was brushing his teeth on Ford Island when he saw bombs falling from Japanese planes.

"Honestly, before this trip I never realized. I didn't know — I didn't think that there were guys my age and younger watching their friends die right next to them," said Westfall, a sophomore at the College of the Ozarks in Missouri.

Also this week, ash-scattering and interment ceremonies are being held for five survivors whose cremated remains are returning to Pearl Harbor after their deaths.

On Tuesday, an urn containing the ashes of Lee Soucy was placed on his battleship, the USS Utah. The ashes of Vernon Olsen, who was on the Arizona, were to be placed on his ship later Wednesday.

The U.S. lost 12 vessels that day, but the Arizona and the Utah are the only ones still sitting in the harbor.

The ashes of three other survivors will be scattered in the water in separate ceremonies this week.

USS Utah survivor Gilbert Meyer said he comes back each year to see his shipmates entombed in the battleship that rests not far from where it sank off Ford Island.

Meyer, 88, recalled his ship rolling over after being hit by a torpedo and seeing Japanese planes dropping bombs. When the planes began showering his ship with machine-gun fire, he knew it was time to move.

"That really got my attention, so I got in the water and swam ashore," he said.

In Phoenix, Kristy Henderson of Glendale, Ariz., whose two grandfathers served in World War II, did the walk with her mother and two children, ages 2 and 1.

She said the youngest are the most likely to forget Pearl Harbor.

"As time goes on," Henderson said, "I don't think it's brought up as much."
http://news.yahoo.com/nation-marks-70th-anniversary-pearl-harbor-010321602.html

[Caleb]

Pearl Harbor: Sailors Who Survived Attack 70 Years Ago Returned To Ships After Death

HONOLULU (Associated Press) -- Lee Soucy, who lived to be 90 after surviving the attack on Pearl Harbor, is finally back with his shipmates 70 years later.

Soucy passed away just last year. On Tuesday, seven decades after dozens of fellow sailors were killed when the USS Utah sank on Dec. 7, 1941, Navy divers took a small urn containing his ashes and put it in a porthole of the ship.

(Watch the ceremony at Pearl Harbor, Hawaii, marking the 70th anniversary since the attack.)

The ceremony is one of five memorials being held this week for servicemen who lived through the assault and want their remains placed in Pearl Harbor out of pride and affinity for those they left behind.

"They want to return and be with the shipmates that they lost during the attack," said Jim Taylor, a retired sailor who coordinates the ceremonies.

The memorials are happening the same week the country observes the 70th anniversary of the aerial bombing that killed 2,390 Americans and brought the United States into World War II. A larger ceremony to remember all those who perished will be held Wednesday just before 8 a.m. Hawaii time - the same moment the devastating attack began.

Most of the 12 ships that sank or were beached that day were removed from the harbor, their metal hulls salvaged for scrap. Just the Utah and the USS Arizona still lie in the dark blue waters. Only survivors of those vessels may return in death to their ships.

The cremated remains of Vernon Olsen, who served aboard the Arizona, will be interred on his ship during a sunset ceremony Wednesday. The ashes of three other survivors are being scattered in the harbor.

Soucy, the youngest of seven children, joined the Navy out of high school so he wouldn't burden his parents. In 1941, he was a pharmacist mate, trained to care for the sick and wounded.

He had just finished breakfast that Sunday morning when he saw planes dropping bombs on airplane hangars. He rushed to his battle station after feeling the Utah lurch, but soon heard the call to abandon ship as the vessel began sinking. He swam to shore, where he made a makeshift first aid center to help the wounded and dying. He worked straight through for two days.

The Utah lost nearly 60 men on Dec. 7, and about 50 are still entombed in the battleship. Today, the rusting hull of the Utah sits on its side next to Ford Island, not far from where it sank 70 years ago.

Soucy's daughter, Margaret, said her parents had initially planned to have their ashes interred together at their church in Plainview, Texas. But her father changed his mind after visiting Pearl Harbor for the 65th anniversary in 2006.

"He announced that he wanted to be interred on the Utah. And my mother looked a little hurt and perplexed. And I said, `Don't worry Daddy, I'll take that part of your ashes that was your mouth and I'll have those interred on the Utah. And you can then tell those that have preceded you, including those that were entombed, what's been going on in the world,'" Margaret Soucy recalled saying with a laugh.

"'And the rest of your remains we will put with mother in the church gardens at St. Mark's.' And then my sister spoke up and said, `Yes, then mother can finally rest in peace,'" she said.

The family had long kidded Soucy for being talkative _they called him "Mighty Mouth" - so Margaret Soucy said her father laughed and agreed. "He just thought that was hilarious," she said.

"So that is what we are doing. We're taking only a portion of his ashes. It's going to be a small urn," she said.

Soucy's three children, several grandchildren and great-grandchildren - 11 family members altogether - attended the sunset ceremony on Tuesday. His wife died earlier this year.

Amid overcast skies, a Navy diver took the urn, protected by a mesh bag, and held it above water while swimming toward the Utah. The diver, who was accompanied by three supporting divers, went underwater to the porthole once reaching the ship.

An urn carrying the ashes of Vernon Olsen, who was among the 334 on the Arizona to survive the attack, will be interred in a gun turret on the ship Wednesday. Most of the battleship's 1,177 sailors and Marines who died on Dec. 7 are still entombed on the ship.

Five months after Pearl Harbor Olsen was on the USS Lexington aircraft carrier when it sank during the Battle of the Coral Sea.

"I used to tell him he had nine lives. He was really lucky," said his widow, Jo Ann Olsen.

He passed away in April at the age of 91 after a bout of pneumonia.

Pearl Harbor interment and ash scattering ceremonies began in the late 1980s, and started growing in number as more survivors heard about them.

Taylor has helped 265 survivors return to Pearl Harbor. The vast majority have had their ashes scattered. He's arranged for the remains of about 20 Arizona survivors to be placed in the Arizona and about a dozen to be put in the Utah.

"These guys are heroes, OK. Fact is, in my opinion, anybody that's ever served in the military and wore the uniform are heroes. That's why you and I can breathe today in a free country. So I just appreciate what they did," he said.

[Caleb]

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2011/12/08/waco-native-who-survived-_n_1137342.html

http://www.nytimes.com/2011/12/07/us/fewer-veterans-to-remember-pearl-harbor-day.html

http://www.washingtonpost.com/local/pearl-harbor-on-the-nations-front-pages/2011/12/06/gIQAmTXmaO_gallery.html

http://www.bostonglobe.com/metro/2011/12/07/pearl-harbor-survivor-nearly-last-his-group-plans-low-key-rememberance/muj5kANlT53eM9OxIpOp1J/story.html