Remembering Pearl Harbor, 78 years later

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President Franklin D. Roosevelt memorably described Dec. 7, 1941, as “a date which will live in infamy.” It was the day that Japanese pilots swooped in without warning and destroyed Pearl Harbor, Hawaii, killing 2,403. Seventy-eight years later, veterans from Oyster Bay, Bayville and Locust Valley gathered at Theodore Roosevelt Park on Dec. 7 to mark the date of the attack.

Reginald Butt, a past commander of Quentin Roosevelt Post 4 of the American Legion, who is also a past district commander, led his fellow veterans in a salute to the dead. Then the veterans moved to the dock and tossed flowers into the bay.

Pearl Harbor, Butt noted, was among only a handful of attacks on U.S. soil by foreign nations, which underscores the importance of remembering Dec. 7. At the time, nearly 130 years had passed since the U.S. was last attacked, during the War of 1812, and many Americans had come to believe that a direct attack on the nation was impossible.

“We have to be always remembering and respecting those people that paid the supreme sacrifice,” Butt said,” because if we don’t, you’re not going to get volunteers to go do it again.”

Pearl Harbor looms large in the minds of veterans across the North Shore. “It holds a great weight in the history of the country,” said Sea Cliff’s Phil Como, commander of James. F. Brengel American Legion Post 456. “It was an attack on our homeland, and it was a direct precipitation of a war where half a million Americans died. On that basis alone, we’re all compelled to remember.”

Fred Nielsen, from Glen Cove, a member of Glenwood Landing American Legion Post 336, said that the training and discipline of American naval personnel were on full display during the attacks. Sailors were forced into action on what began as a routine Sunday morning, and many thousands were saved owing to the American military response on the ground.

“They were not overwhelmed,” Nielsen said. “They showed their courage even in a surprise attack — that’s tough to do. The thing that’s a constant through it all is these very young sailors responded with so much courage because of their training. When you’re scared to death, you do what you’re trained to do.”

Pearl Harbor “instilled a lot of pride in people to join the military, the same with 9/11,” said Richard DeJesu, commander of AMVETS Post 21 in Oyster Bay. “Those were the biggest surges of people joining the military.”

Veterans from across the North Shore agreed that the attack greatly influenced the way the American military operated afterward. Nielsen said the military began to think proactively, about how to prevent further attacks.

“We were caught off guard, to say the very least,” said Mitch Furman, vice commander of the Oyster Bay-Syosset VFW. “Our military since has taken the stance of, ‘Stay ready so you don’t have to get ready.’

“Each generation tends to forget a little more as the years go by,” Furman continued, “and I think it’s important for those of us that remember it to pass that remembrance on to the next generations as well. These types of ceremonies, in part, do that.”