Arizona veterans organization to host Pearl Harbor Remembrance ceremony Tuesday
Dec 6, 2021, 8:00 PM | Updated: 9:52 pm
(Twitter photo/@dougducey)
(Twitter photo/@dougducey)
PHOENIX — An Arizona veterans organization on Tuesday will honor the 80th anniversary of the deadly attacks at Pearl Harbor with a remembrance ceremony at the Wesley Bolin Memorial Plaza in downtown Phoenix.
Prior to the event, which is open to the public and hosted by the Arizona Department of Veterans’ Services, H5 Helicopters will land at 10:05 a.m. after escorting special guests U.S. Air Force Maj. Fannie Griffin McClendon, who was part of the famed “Six-Triple-Eight Central Postal Directory Battalion,” and Erlinda Gallegos Avila, an original Rosie the Riveter.
The 108th Army Band from the Arizona Army National Guard performs a musical preshow at 10:30 a.m. and will provide the musical backdrop of the official program that begins at 10:55 a.m., coinciding with the local time when the Japanese military launched a surprise attack that killed 2,403 U.S. personnel, including 68 civilians.
The United States entered World War II three days after the attack.
A flyover by four World War II combat biplanes led by the Stearman Group starts the official program, which will include remarks from Gov. Doug Ducey and Navy Cmdr. Kevin Kahl.
Veterans service organizations and patriotic groups from around the state will also lay memorial wreaths at the USS Arizona anchor in remembrance of the attack, according to a press release from the Arizona Department of Veterans’ Services.
The Pearl Harbor Survivors Association began the observance in 1958, with the ceremony now being sponsored by the Arizona Department of Veterans’ Services and planned by the Pearl Harbor Day Committee.
