Remembering Pearl Harbor
This Sunday is the 84th anniversary of "a date that will live in infamy".
This year brings an especially rare occurrence to the time of remembrance. December 7th falls on a Sunday approximately every 6 to 11 years. There is no exact repeating cycle for a specific date of our calendar such as December 7th. The pattern is affected by leap years, which shift the days of the week for dates. The most recent occurrence was in 2014.
The march of time takes its toll. It is thought that only 16 of these heroes remain. It is with great reverence and solemnity that I recognize that this is the final Sunday, December 7th for any survivor. The next one to fall on a Sunday will be in 2031, I believe.
You may recall that quote, "a date which will live in infamy" by President Franklin Delano Roosevelt from your school years. Perhaps you've heard the phrase but hadn't associated it with a historical event that shaped world events. Maybe you knew someone who actually heard the President's speech on the very day it broadcast to a shocked nation.
The events, tragic, desperate, and heroic, of 84 years ago still seem almost a recent memory to many. Because it is not about the sinking of two U.S. Navy battleships (the USS Arizona and the USS Utah) or numbers of destroyed American aircraft. It is because we honor those whose lives were given in service to the United States, and we remember the personal sacrifice of those who prosecuted that war to victorious conclusion.
Through the years I've been honored to know 3 men who survived Pearl Harbor. I know a handful of people whose fathers or grandfathers were with them in the fray that fated morning. You and I are indebted to each one of those young men, even if you don't realize the gravity of their indescribable sacrifices. Their blood and their lives built eight more decades of freedom for you and me on these shores.
So, this Sunday morning at 8 a.m. wherever you are, stand with me in reverent silence for these honorable and valiant men.
Pearl Harbor survivors, veterans, and visitors from the world over will already be gathered in unity to honor and remember the 2,403 service members and civilians who were killed at Pearl Harbor on December 7, 1941, and to remember the 1,178 members and civilians who were injured during the Japanese attack.
Let them not go down to dust but instead be enshrined in our memories with thankfulness and gratitude.
