Tuesday, December 7, 2010

Remember Pearl Harbor

I did remember Pearl Harbor today...but not because I was alive when it happened.
I attended an annual Pearl Harbor Remembrance Day ceremony. I've been to it many times, and it is always a moving tribute.

At the event I met a young man who had served in the Army National Guard in Afghanistan for 14 months. I thanked him for his service. He said it was the first time he had attended the event, and called it "amazing." He said he was happy to meet veterans from previous generations.
Sadly each year there are less World War II veterans in attendance than at the previous year's ceremony.

Many of the speakers talked about the debt of gratitude the American people owe to veterans for preserving the freedoms we all enjoy.

My mother has told me of her memories of that day in 1941...her family was having Sunday dinner when they heard the news that the Japanese had bombed Pearl Harbor in Hawaii.
She had many friends and acquaintances who left their quiet New Jersey town to go to war, and never returned. I can't imagine what that would be like and I hope I never have to find out.



2 comments:

Barb said...

I have some military friends who visited the Memorial in HI. They said it was more emotional for them than they ever could have imagined.

Linda said...

It was most definitely a day that shall live in infamy. Unprovoked attacks will do that - just like 9/11 though in that case innocent civilians were targeted rather than military personnel. I guess I will never understand the atrocities that men sometimes inflicts upon other men.