Veterans remember Pearl Harbor

Three dozen vet­er­ans bowed their heads into the cold wind last Wednes­day to honor the casu­al­ties of the Pearl Har­bor attack.

“It’s hard to imag­ine it’s been 70 years,” said Amer­i­can Legion Post 118 com­man­der Tom Hauck.

On Dec. 7, 1941, 353 Japan­ese fighter planes bombed the U.S. naval base at Pearl Har­bor, killing 2,402 Amer­i­cans and wound­ing 1,282.

The attack broke the country’s neu­tral posi­tion on World War II and led to a for­mal dec­la­ra­tion of war the fol­low­ing day against the Empire of Japan and the Axis powers.

As a result, nearly 1,200 men and women from the Amherst area served in the mil­i­tary dur­ing World War II.

The names of 32 Amherst casu­al­ties are engraved on a bronze plaque in front of Post 118 on North Lake Street, where a wreath was placed last week.

“Taps” played on the breeze as vet­er­ans held a salute and let fire a rifle volley.

Posted by Jason Hawk on Dec 14 2011. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS Feed. Both comments and pings are currently closed.