12.7.2022 - 81st Pearl Harbor Remembrance Ceremony

good morning everyone Welcome to our Pearl Harbor recognition ceremony my name is Chris Nardi I'm speaking today on behalf of Megan Rathbun our executive director who unfortunately could not make it today she sends her regrets before we begin our program I'd like to take a moment to honor our veterans active duty service people blue star and gold star families and our First Responders who may be attending today

I also want to recognize members of the board who may be here and our president Emeritus Carl suaco I also would like to thank Battleship Cove staff and volunteers for their hard work here at Battleship Cove without them we wouldn't be able to do much here in terms of preservation ceremonies Etc at this time I'd like to introduce our distinguished guests who are joining us today for this special and solemn occasion

first and foremost up front here we have Freeman Johnson who is a Pearl Harbor Survivor served on board the light Cruiser USS St Louis which was moored at South East Locke at the time of the attack and that that particular vessel is a lake Cruiser got underway believe it or not within two hours and in the meantime shot down three enemy planes um we'll speak more about Freeman later in the ceremony

additional guests include from the naval war College Colonel Craig Watson to my left we have father Racine here from the Fall River fire department chaplains core also we have in our audience Somerset Veterans Services representative Michaela Brito from the State Department of Veterans Services is Evan and Evan I need help pronouncing your last name thank you sir if there's anyone I've forgotten I apologize

and with that we're going to move on to our the rest of our program here I'd like to introduce first of all I neglected to let's have a round of applause for Freeman Johnson here Freeman is now 102 years old last year at age 101 he went to Pearl Harbor to participate in that ceremony there foreign

like to now start the program with the national anthem

foreign

Father Michael Racine would you please deliver the invocation it's always an honor to to be here on this 81st anniversary of Pearl Harbor we remember this tragic and sad day in American history a day that will live in infamy says President Roosevelt Heavenly Father We Gather this day as we remember the shock of an infinite unprovoked attack but we also remember the courage of this great nation

that always stands for its cherished values on this anniversary of Pearl Harbor Day we continue to honor the brave Americans who have given their lives and those who stood in our defense we Echo the words of Saint John there is no greater love than to lay down one's life for a friend those victims those Heroes lived and died these words as we look back we also look forward and ask for your grace and guidance for

continued peace in our country and safety for those who continue to serve in our branches of the military guide and protect them and bring them home safely as we commend to you almighty God those who have lost their lives in this very beautiful season of Hope joy peace and Light we remember the words of the prophet Isaiah Nation shall not lift again shall not lift up sword against Nation

neither should they train for war anymore guide and direct us in all that we do and may we bring your honor and Glory by bringing joy and peace and Good Will to it all that we meet in our community our nation in our world amen amen thank you Father our guest speaker as Colonel once in I'm going to read a brief bio before he comes to the podium

Carla wants is a military professor at the maritime Advanced warfighting school and senior service representative to the commandant of the Marine Corps a career military officer joint qualified officer and certified strategic operational planner he is a combat veteran with nearly 30 years of service seven overseas deployments and more than a decade of command experience he is a graduate graduate of Marine Corps

command and staff college and school of advanced warfighting and was a Marine Corps fellow in the Yale University International Security studies program he most recently served as commanding officer of Marine Corps of tactics and operations group welcome Colonel Watson thank you distinguished guests ladies and gentlemen good afternoon thank you for affording me the opportunity to be here with you today on this

the 81st anniversary of the attack on Pearl Harbor today is a very special day for a few reasons most importantly we have an opportunity to remember all those that were present during the attack at Pearl Harbor on December December 7 1941.

to include Mr Freeman Johnson who was serving aboard the USS St Louis that morning sir it is truly an honor to be with you here today and on behalf of everyone at the naval war college and everyone on active duty today we thank you and salute you for your service it's also special because well take a look around at where we're at as a sailor or Marine any day that you

can spend aboard a U.S Navy warship is a great day especially at 35 000 ton Battleship with such a distinguished history as the USS Massachusetts growing up on the North Shore my father a retired Marine would bring me here to show me the ship when I was a young boy he served as a 40 millimeter gun mount Captain aboard the USS Iowa during the Korean War and it always meant a lot to

him to be back aboard ship and around the type of guns that he knew so much about when I asked him once if the 16-inch guns hurt his ears when they fired he said no not really but pointed up to the 5-inch 38s that would fire over his head and said but those are the reason I can't hear a damn thing your mother says later on in life it dawned on me that he

often just wanted to use that as an excuse when he didn't want to do something my mother was asking him to do I think most everyone here today is familiar with the sequence of events that took place that Sunday morning the sudden and deliberate attack as President Roosevelt described it caught the United States and its military forces off guard crippled a sizable portion of the U.S Pacific Fleet

and thrust the nation into a state of War some of the numbers from that day reflect the extent of the devastation many of you already aware of those but for those that aren't I'll share a few 19 ships were ultimately damaged or destroyed to include eight battleships three Cruisers and three Destroyers additionally over 188 aircraft were destroyed in another 159 damage Beyond repair at airfields throughout Oahu

there were close to 3 500 casualties that day more than 2400 of those killed in action this included 2008 sailors 208 soldiers 218 soldiers 109 Marines and 68 civilians nearly half of all of those that were killed were aboard the USS Arizona 1102 of them still aboard the ship today in its final resting place although December 7 1941 will forever remain a date which will live in infamy

for Americans the attack also galvanized our nation bringing Americans together in a way that has happened very few times in our nation's history the courageous acts of those that bore the brunt of the attack that morning had a long-standing and positive impact on countless Americans both then and now my father would often describe what life was like in his hometown of Gloucester Massachusetts in the days and years

following the attack how the community came together in a way that he had never seen people streaming to the local recruiting stations some veterans of World War one too old to serve but trying to find a way to skirt the regulations While others from the local high school look for ways to convince recruiters that they were old enough to serve by the end of the war 22 percent of that City's

population would serve in uniform all inspired by the events that took place on 7 December about 800 miles to the West in a small town in Greenfield Ohio my mother would soon receive letters from her uncle a pharmacist mate aboard the hospital ship USS Solace moored at Pearl Harbor on December 7th where he described what some of some of what had taken place that morning and the selfless actions of so many soldiers

Sailors Airmen and marines that he witnessed his stories and the stories of others serving there are what inspired my mother my her sister and many others in the area to go and enlist in the Navy some of you may find it surprising that the attack on Pearl Harbor is one of the main reasons that I decided to join the Marine Corps despite the fact that I was born 26 years after the attack

one of the very first movies that I watched at a young age was Torah Tora Tora which I'm sure many if not all of you in this audience have seen probably once or twice in your lifetime I remember sitting in the living room probably no older than seven or eight years old at the time watching the movie with my parents and siblings I was confused as to why Pilots kept

trying to take off on an Airfield that was being bombed and strafed and wondered why Sailors and Marines continued to man their stations aboard ships that were on fire and sinking when I asked my father why did they didn't run and seek safety he looked at me and said they're trying to protect people that's what they do I didn't fully understand what he meant at the time but I soon realized this was

my first exposure to the very core values of Honor courage and commitment that we expect of our soldiers Sailors Airmen and Marines today the more I studied events that took place on December 7th the more I began to realize the true meaning of the word selflessness and sacrifice and the more I learned of the many courageous acts that took place that morning I learned about chief petty officer John

Flynn who despite sustaining over 21 separate wounds continued to fire his machine gun at enemy planes attacking the Naval Air Station at Kaneohe Bay I learned about chaplain Lieutenant JG Alicia Schmidt who gave his own life while pushing 12 other men to safety through a porthole on the USS Oklahoma before the ship capsized I learned about master technical Sergeant Emile Peters and private

William Turner Marine stationed at Ava field who raced through enemy fire to man a machine gun in the back of a damaged dive bomber firing the gun until Peters was badly injured and Turner mortally wounded I learned about Army second Lieutenant Phil Rasmussen a pilot assigned to the 46th Pursuit squadron at Wheeler Field who upon seeing the the field under attack raced to his p-36 wearing only his pajamas

managed to get airborne and shot down at least one enemy plane before Crash Landing with over 500 bullet holes in his in his aircraft and I learned about civilian George Walters a dockyard crane operator that swung a large crane back and forth near the USS Pennsylvania in an attempt to deter low-flying aircraft from attacking a ship at Sea as it sat in Dry Dock these are just a few examples of the

many selfless and heroic acts that took place on the morning of December 7th that inspired so many others myself included to serve their country I could have spent time this morning or this afternoon discussing many of the lessons learned that day that are regularly emphasized at our professional military institutions such as the need to always remain Vigilant and prepared and to never underestimate an adversary

or wish away their capabilities it is especially important today as we find ourselves once again facing threats by potential adversaries in both Europe and in the asia-pacific region but that's a discussion for another time I've always felt that today should focus squarely on remembering those that fought back heroically against incredible odds especially those that made the ultimate sacrifice

they include Captain Mervin bennion captain of the USS West Virginia First Sergeant John devaney a member of the USS Arizona's Marine Corps attachment Lieutenant William Schick a B-17 crew member with the Army Air Force's 38th reconnaissance Squadron and fall River's own Charles Braga a yeoman second class serving on the USS Pennsylvania all who gave their lives on that day in closing I'd like to share with you

one more personal Story related to Pearl Harbor my first Duty station is a brand new second lieutenant in 1993 was at Kaneohe Bay Hawaii upon arriving in the island I donned my service Charlie uniform traveled to the Arizona Memorial laid Flowers by the names engraved on the memorial wall and rendered a salute to the 1102 Marines and sailors resting beneath me next year prior to taking this uniform

off for the final time I plan to do the exact same thing I can think of no better way to start and end a career than to do so in front of the very Heroes that inspired me and countless others to follow in their footsteps may God bless them all and may their courageous service and self-sacrifice never be forgotten thank you thank you Colonel at this time I'd like to ask the colonel and Freeman to

retrieve the wreath from the support side of the battleship and bring it up here to the podium

thank you Colonel and Freeman and I'd like to invite father vaccine back up to the podium to deliver the benediction foreign I say this every year it's one of the most powerful prayers that we pray for the gift of peace the Prayer of Saint Francis Lord make me an instrument of your peace where there is hatred let me sow love where there is injury pardoned where there is doubt faith where there is despair hope

where there is Darkness light where there is sadness Joy or Divine Master grant that I may not so much seek to be consoled as to console to be understood is to understand to be loved is to love for it is in giving that we receive it is imparding that we are pardoned and it is in dying that we are born to eternal life amen thank you everyone that concludes today's ceremony thank you all for

attending and please feel free to stay around the ships are open today