by I missed posting on Pearl Harbor Remembrance Day last year for which I sincerely apologize. I have tried to recognize the day every year since I started this blog in 2010. Part of it is due to the history and part of it is due to family history. It may be a myth but my Mom’s brother, my Uncle John, supposedly skipped college along with a number of his friends on December 8th, 1941 to enlist in the US Navy. He was a freshman at Manhattan College’s Staten Island Division which was adjacent to St. Peter’s High School where he had graduated.
My Uncle John passed away in 2008 at the age of 83. He did serve in the Navy as an Electronics Technician, first at Floyd Bennett Field in Brooklyn and later on the USS Bennington. His interest in electronics in the Navy lead to a 35 year career with IBM as a service engineer.
While 2,000 survivors attended the 50th anniversary in 1991, today only 12 survivors of Pearl Harbor remain. Unfortunately, none will be able to attend ceremonies in Hawaii. As all are centenarians, travel at their age is hard.
Lest we forget this day in US history, I will do my best to remember it every year featuring stories and posters on the attack. As you can see in the poster below, the attack was used to help unite the nation and its workers in the post-attack rebuilding.
