ASHTABULA — They shivered in the cold, honoring the men and women who died on the day President Franklin D. Roosevelt described as “a date which will live in infamy.”
Under cloudy skies, about 50 people gathered Monday afternoon at Veterans Park. Chaplain of the United War Veterans, the Rev. Robert Leonard, opened with a prayer, asking blessings for the men and women in the Armed Forces.
Lakeside High School students Taylor Atzemis and Matt Anderson sang the “Star-Spangled Banner.”
Leonard described the moment in U.S. history — 7:55 a.m. Dec. 7, 1941 — when the Japanese bombed Pearl Harbor on Oahu in Hawaii.
The various veterans groups then observed a moment of silence for their fallen comrades. The honor guards fired shots and played “Taps.”
Guest speaker Brad Strong, a U.S. Navy veteran, talked about having visited the Pearl Harbor Memorial in Hawaii.
“You don’t really sense it until you get on it,” he said. “It’s so serene … probably like it was that Sunday morning.”
For many years, Strong never felt or saw anything like it, he said.
“Not until Sept. 11, 2001, when he heard something hit one of the World Trade Towers,” he said.
After Strong spoke, the veterans saluted Marine Pvt. Henry Kalinowski of Ashtabula, who died aboard the USS Arizona during the Pearl Harbor attack. A gravestone honoring Kalinowski is in Veterans Park.
Atzemis and Anderson then sang “America the Beautiful,” and Leonard closed the ceremony in prayer, thanking God for “our brothers and sisters who died that fateful day.”
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