On December 7th, I picked Adrien up at 6:45am and we drove to the other side of the island... where were we going?
Here:
December 7th, 2011 marked the 70th Anniversary of the attacks on Pearl Harbor (and other military installations across the island). We parked and walked 1/2mi, waited in line, made sure to grab our commemorative program guides, and began to wander around looking for a place to sit. Evidently the planning committee only set up enough chairs for 2/3 of the people that actually attended, while we didn't get a front row view to the speakers... sitting/standing on our little bench gave us prime views of the military officers/keynote speaker entering, the Navy ship paying tribute, the wreath laying portion of the ceremony, and the rifle detail. I wouldn't have changed a thing. I feel honored to have attended such a historic event, to remember the men and women who died that day... we must continue the legacy of these fallen heroes and survivors, especially since the youngest of the survivors is 87yrs old!
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| Entering the ceremony site was a long line of servicemen and women waiting for survivors to escort, eat time a survivor walked through everyone saluted. |
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| The USMC rifle detail waiting for their time in the ceremony. |
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| Former Marine & Pearl Harbor Survivor - Keynote Speaker (Mal Middlesworth) |
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| Color Guard Preparing to enter the ceremony... you can see a faint trace of the rainbow forming over the USS Arizona Memorial. |
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| "Missing Man Formation" |
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| "Manning the Rails" Paying tribute to those lost. |
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| Mal Middlesworth giving his speech. |
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| One wreath laid for each location/ship that was bombed that fateful morning. |
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| Rifle Detail just prior to shooting. |
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| Adrien & I under the "tree of life," very thankful we got to witness such an event! |
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