MARINE CORPS BASE CAMP PENDLETON, Calif. -- Sailors and Marines woke up to a storm of bombs ripping through the ships docked at Pearl Harbor on an early Sunday morning 67 years ago.
More than 2,400 service members lost their lives and 1,282 were wounded during the attack on our homeland at Peal Harbor, Hawaii, Dec. 7, 1941. Our country has mourned their loss ever since.
The surprise military strike by the Imperial Japanese Navy on Pearl Harbor sent the United States military into World War II.
The Japanese bombed Pearl Harbor as a plan to keep the U.S. Pacific fleet from influencing the war Japan was planning to engage in Southeast Asia against Great Britain, the Netherlands and the United States.
The attack accomplished only one of its intended missions and that was to destroy American fleet units. The fleet was nearly destroyed but the military and the citizens of the United States were inspired to move on and over come the incident by the acts of heroism from those who did not survive the attack.
The U.S. Navy lost four battleships and four others were damaged. The Japanese also sank or damaged three cruisers, three destroyers, one minelayer and destroyed 188 aircraft according to www.examiner.gov.
Among those who witnessed the attack was Navy veteran Frank Curre Jr., who was serving aboard the USS Tennessee. The young ammunition supplier watched his fellow sailors yield to their wounds as torpedoes and bombs sank the USS Arizona.
He is one of 500 sailors and Marines who observed the 67th anniversary of the incident during the Convention of the Pearl Harbor Survivors Associations in Fredericksburg, Texas, Sunday.
Curre said the younger generation should pay more attention to the history of Pearl Harbor because it reminds them of the sacrifices made by his generation.
He wants the young people of America to talk to their elders, he explained, to learn all experiences of war they have seen with their eyes and what they have experienced while growing up.
“We’re losing these stories, unless we keep these orally alive,” Curre said.
To make sure those who have sacrificed their lives will not be forgotten, President George W. Bush proclaimed Dec. 7 as National Pearl Harbor Remembrance Day on Dec. 1, 2006.
Bush said, “We pledge to always remember the character and sacrifice of the brave individuals at Pearl Harbor. Their selfless service helped deliver a great victory for the cause of freedom.”
We need to honor those who sacrificed their lives and served their country for all Americans to observe this memorial with appropriate ceremonies and activities, Bush said. He urges all federal agencies, organizations, groups and individuals to fly the colors of the United States at half mast Dec.7 in honor of those who have died as a result of the attack on Pearl Harbor.