Posted on: Saturday, December 8, 2001
Punchbowl service links past to present
• A day for American heroes
• Survivors, fire crews come together
• Sept. 11 taught couple that 'life is precious'
• Families bring Pearl Harbor ashes back to stay
• Photo gallery: Honoring Pearl Harbor's heroes
• What are your thoughts on the 60th anniversary of the Pearl Harbor attack in the wake of the Sept. 11 events? Join our discussion.
By Will Hoover
Advertiser Staff Writer
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| James Coleman and his wife remember Dec. 7, 1941, during ceremonies at Punchbowl. Coleman was a platoon sergeant stationed at Fort Shafter during the Pearl Harbor attack.
Jeff Widener • The Honolulu Advertiser |
After a week of reflection, celebration and reverie, it got down to one thing yesterday for more than 3,000 people who came to National Memorial Cemetery of the Pacific, at Punchbowl.
Time to say thanks to those who survived and those who paid the ultimate price at Pearl Harbor on Dec. 7, 1941.
"It's an obligation for us as survivors to come here and honor the men who didn't make it that morning," said survivor Howard Snell, 78, of Houston.
Former Marine Marvin Stearns, 75, had come to say thanks to guys like Snell.
"I wasn't at Pearl Harbor," said Stearns. "But I fought in the Pacific in World War II. These guys are our heroes, though. We didn't have it rough at all compared to them."
Amazing sentiments for a man who lived through Iwo Jima and Okinawa and then survived the Korean War.
No sooner did busloads of survivors and their families begin to arrive at around 9 a.m. than the drizzle subsided, the clouds parted and the sun began to shine. Flags at half-staff fluttered.
Present were members of Congress, Medal of Honor recipients, representatives of numerous military associations, 325 family members of World Trade Center victims from New York, and at least one Hollywood actor, former Marine Hugh O'Brian. The military brass contingent reached all the way to Richard Myers, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, who was among the speakers.
Yesterday was a moment six decades in the making, began keynote speaker Robin Higgins, the U.S. undersecretary for memorial affairs. Like others, Higgins drew parallels between Pearl Harbor and the attacks on the World Trade Center and the Pentagon.
"Your lives were forever changed by an event so devastating that it would not be for another 60 years, Sept. 11, 2001, that America would again feel the tragic shock waves of an attack on our home soil," she said. "Perhaps the events of Sept. 11 resonated in your lives in ways that did not resonate among other younger Americans."
Higgins is familiar with such feelings herself. Her husband, Marine Col. William "Rich" Higgins, was murdered by terrorists in Lebanon in 1988.
Speaking directly to the survivors, Higgins concluded by saying, "I need not ask that God bless America; because of you, he already has."
A traditional laying of the wreath, 21-cannon salute and B-52 bomber flyover followed her address.
Watching quietly from the sideline, all alone, was Wetzel Sanders, 78, a bus driver from Midkiff, W.Va. Sanders arrived in Honolulu on Monday for the first time since he was shipped out to Guadalcanal in 1942. His wife of 54 years, Kathleen, is in poor health and could not make the trip with him.
Sanders was stationed with the 251st Coast Artillery Anti-Aircraft Regiment at Camp Malakole near 'Ewa Beach when the Japanese attacked. After unsuccessfully trying to shoot down a Zero with a Springfield rifle, he and his buddies drove a pickup to Pearl Harbor and set up anti-aircraft guns by the hospital. His company was credited with shooting down three enemy planes.
"I couldn't hardly recognize a thing when I returned to Pearl Harbor," said Sanders, who took a private trip to the USS Arizona Memorial on Wednesday. "I'm a pretty rugged guy. But I have to admit, I did get a little choked up at that sight."
