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.

Pearl Harbor remembered

The horrific events of 68 years ago yesterday, when the Japanese bombed Pearl Harbor, will forever be singed into the memories of today's senior citizens who were living then. I've heard many recollections over the years, from people who remember exactly where they were that Sunday when they heard the news.

The Dec. 7, 1941 attack took the lives of 2,402 American military personnel stationed at Pearl Harbor.

I attended an annual remembrance ceremony Monday at Veterans Park in our city, one of the few held in Connecticut, organizers say. You can read the story here.

One Korean War-era veteran of the U.S. Marine Corps told me that Dec. 7, 1941 was to his generation (although he was just a child then) what Sept. 11, 2001 was to today's generation. He said that's because both were sneak attacks and both plunged our country into war.

Whatever your feelings about war, or the military, it's important for those of us who weren't alive in 1941 to help keep alive the memory of that fateful day and the subsequent sacrifices made by so many.

Pearl Harbor should never be forgotten

Is it just me or was there hardly any mention of the 67th anniversary of the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor?

Hello? Seems like everyone is holiday season-crazed and the day was more or less forgotten.
Lots of Americans mark Memorial Day and Veterans' Day, but Dec. 7 seems to merit less and less notice.

In our community there is a brief but moving program each year, because there are some people who refuse to forget.
And they are not only the veterans of all the conflicts since World War II . There were residents at the park next to City Hall who took time out of their busy schedules (it was held on Monday instead of the real anniversary Sunday) to remember those Americans who were killed and wounded on Dec. 7, 1941.

I covered the ceremony for the paper, and you can read about it here.