Virtual Pearl Harbor Day ceremony scheduled

WEST HAVEN — Pearl Harbor Remembrance Day will be observed with a virtual ceremony broadcast on the city Facebook page and YouTube starting at 1:55 p.m. on Dec. 7, according to city officials.

The virtual ceremony by the city and the West Haven Veterans Council is planned due to COVID-19 restrictions limiting large public gatherings, according to a city statement.

The “solemn service will commemorate the 79th anniversary of the surprise attack on Pearl Harbor” on Dec. 7, 1941, at 7:55 a.m. “Hawaii Standard Time and 1:55 p.m. in the Eastern time zone,” the city statement noted.

Mayor Nancy R. Rossi, U.S. Sen. Richard Blumenthal, D-Conn., and Veterans Council President Dave Ricci will speak at the event. Louis P. Esposito Jr., Rossi’s executive assistant, will serve as master of ceremonies, the statement said.

“Representing the Pearl Harbor Survivors Association, Florence Stoeber, the wife of the late Jack Stoeber, a Navy veteran of Pearl Harbor and Iwo Jima who was a regular at West Haven’s Pearl Harbor rites for many years, will read the names of the 18 Connecticut servicemen who died” in the bombing of the

U.S. Navy base in Hawaii, organizers said in the statement. “A member of the West Haven Fire Department Honor Guard will toll the department’s chrome bell each instant a name is called.”

The tribute will include the Pledge of Allegiance led by Veterans Council member Al Terr, the national anthem sung by West Haven High School senior Nora E. Mullins, and opening and closing prayers given by West Haven Vietnam Veterans chaplain Elliott Hastings, according to the statement.

It will include a wreath-laying, followed by taps played by former West Shore Fire Department Lt. Kevin McKeon, the statement said.