Vets remember Pearl Harbor attack
Gathering in Hawaii marks 80th anniversary of day that lives in infamy
PEARL HARBOR, Hawaii — A few dozen survivors of Pearl Harbor and other veterans gathered Tuesday at the site of the bombing 80 years ago to remember those killed in the attack by Japan that launched the U.S. into World War II.
In the nation’s capital, President Joe Biden and first lady Jill Biden marked the anniversary with a somber visit to the World War II Memorial.
The USS Chung-Hoon, a guided missile destroyer, passed in front of the Pearl Harbor pier with its sailors “manning the rails,” or lining the ship’s edge, to honor the World War II veterans present.
David Russell, a 101-yearold from Albany, Ore., who survived the attack while on the USS Oklahoma, stood to salute the destroyer on behalf of the veterans.
Herb Elfring, 99, said he was glad to return to Pearl Harbor considering he almost didn’t live through the aerial assault.
“It was just plain good to get back and be able to participate in the remembrance of the day,” Elfring told reporters over the weekend.
Elfring was in the Army, assigned to the 251st Coast Artillery, part of the California National Guard on Dec. 7, 1941. He recalled Japanese planes flying overhead and bullets strafing his Army base at Camp Malakole, a few miles down the coast from Pearl Harbor.
Elfring, who lives in Jackson, Mich., said he has returned to Hawaii about 10 times to attend the annual memorial ceremony hosted by the Navy and the National Park Service.
About 30 survivors and 100 other veterans of the war joined him this year. Veterans stayed home last year because of the coronavirus pandemic and watched a livestream of the event. Most attendees this year wore masks.
They observed a moment of silence at 7:55 a.m., the minute the attack began decades ago.
Navy Secretary Carlos Del Toro recounted in his keynote address how Petty Officer 1st Class Joe George tossed a line to the USS Arizona that six men trapped by fire in the battleship’s control tower used to cross to his ship, the USS Vestal. Five of the six survived. Among them was Donald Stratton of Red Cloud, Neb., who died last year. Del Toro said he recently met with Stratton’s family.
“We sometimes talk about our victory in World War II as though it was inevitable. Only a matter of time. But there was nothing inevitable about one sailor’s decision to toss that line,” Del Toro said.
He said it took millions of individual acts of valor and courage at home and overseas to get the nation through the war.
The bombing killed more than 2,300 U.S. troops. Nearly half — or 1,177 — were Marines and sailors serving on the USS Arizona.
David Dilks, 95, traveled to Hawaii from Hatfield, Pa., with his son-in-law. Dilks enlisted out of high school in 1944, going from playing basketball one day to serving in the Navy the next.
Dilks said his battleship, the USS Massachusetts, bombarded targets like Iwo Jima, Okinawa and the Philippines during the war.
He recalls one day in March 1945 when he and his shipmates were watching the movie “Stage Door Canteen” on the ship’s fantail when a loud noise interrupted. They then saw a Japanese kamikaze plane crash into the USS Randolph aircraft carrier next to them.
“We never had a movie up topside after that,” he said.
Sitting at Pearl Harbor on the 80th anniversary of the attack, he said he’s thinking in particular about those who died.
“All of the sailors and soldiers who fought here — you should be proud of them. But more proud of those who didn’t make it,” he said.
BIDENS’ TRIBUTE
In Washington, Biden touched a wreath and saluted. The wreath contained a wild sunflower, the state flower of Kansas, in honor of former Sen. Bob Dole, a war veteran who was a driving force in getting the World War II memorial built on the National Mall and who died Sunday at age 98.
The first lady laid a bouquet of flowers at the base of the memorial below the New Jersey pillar and touched a wall, where she and the president spent a moment. The bouquet was in honor of her father, Donald Jacobs, who served as a Navy signalman in the war, the White House said.
The Bidens then paused at the Pacific arch on the southern side of the memorial plaza for one last moment of reflection.
In a White House proclamation issued last week to recognize National Pearl Harbor Remembrance Day, the president gave “thanks to the Greatest Generation, who guided our Nation through some of our darkest moments and laid the foundations of an international system that has transformed former adversaries into allies.”