Locals remember anniversary for Pearl Harbor attack
(Photo by Douglass Huxley)
(Photo by Douglass Huxley)A group of veterans forming an Honor Guard performed a 21-gun salute and “Taps” was played Thursday at Point Park in Parkersburg in
(Photo by Douglass Huxley)April Binkney, secretary and treasurer of the Veterans Museum of the Mid-Ohio Valley, speaks to a crowd gathered Thursday at Point Park in Parkersburg to remember the Dec. 7, 1941, attack on Pearl Harbor.
(Photo by Douglass Huxley)
(Photo by Douglass Huxley)A group of veterans forming an Honor Guard performed a 21-gun salute and “Taps” was played Thursday at Point Park in Parkersburg in
(Photo by Douglass Huxley)April Binkney, secretary and treasurer of the Veterans Museum of the Mid-Ohio Valley, speaks to a crowd gathered Thursday at Point Park in Parkersburg to remember the Dec. 7, 1941, attack on Pearl Harbor.
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PARKERSBURG - "Yesterday, Dec. 7, 1941, a date which will live in infamy, the United States of America was suddenly and deliberately attacked by naval and air forces of the Empire of Japan," President Franklin D. Roosevelt told Congress after the attacks on Pearl Harbor. Those events were remembered Thursday by a group of local veterans and community members at Point Park in Parkersburg.
"(We've) got to teach history and remember all those who have served," said April Binkney, secretary and treasurer of the Veterans Museum of the Mid-Ohio Valley.
Phillip Johnston, commandant of the Wood County Marine Corps League Detachment 1087, said it was important for the younger generation to learn about that history.
"I was born in 1942 during World War II," Johnston said. "The young people today, I don't think, are getting those kinds of lessons."
Binkney told those in attendance how the attacks started at 7:55 a.m. and lasted one hour and 15 minutes. She then shared some information she recently heard on the radio about the USS Arizona, which sank in the attacks and is commemorated by a concrete memorial that spans the wreckage.
"They said that the USS Arizona is still leaking oil," Binkney said. "I believe she will cry until all her men are returned on that ship. It's very special that we celebrate this every year."
An honor guard consisting of local veterans gave a 21-gun salute and played "Taps" before representatives of the different military branches tossed wreaths into the river.
"They represent each branch of service and each service organization in the town," Johnston said.
Binkney said the wreath was chosen because it is a complete circle with no beginning or end.
"We all reach out into the circle of our community to help represent each other," she said. "So, that circle is symbolic of who we are as organizations and the different branches that we represent."
Binkney said they will continue the tradition of remembering the attacks of that day, which killed more than 2,300 servicemen.
""It's important that our country remembers," she said. "We had to become proactive as Amercicans, World War II changed our whole country."
Douglass Huxley can be reached at dhuxley@newsandsentinel.com