HomeMy WebLinkAboutPearl Harbor 51st Annive...
Pearl Harbor anniversary marked
in ceremonies across the nation
The Associated Press
The passage of 51 years hasn't dimmed Frederick
Bowen's recollection of what happened at Pearl Har-
bor.
Bowen, of Parker, Colo., was the only one on duty in.
his U.S. Anny Air Corps unit stationed at Wheeler
Field in Hawaii when he heard planes roar past.
"I thought it was the Navy buzzing us," Bowen
said. "They were always doing that. We'd buzz them
and they'd buzz us back."
On Monday, Bowen will join more than 700 others
at a dinner in Little Rock, Ark., sponsored by the Pearl
Harbor Survivors Association.
The banquet commemorates the 51st anniversary of
the Japanese attack on the U.S. naval station at Pearl
Harbor, an event that plunged the United States into
World War II.
TIus year's ceremonies are more low-key than the
weeklong 50th anniversary commemoration held last
year at Pearl Harbor that included President Bush.
In Hawaii, Retired Vice Adm. Samuel Gravely, the
Navy's first black admiral, is to speak at a ceremony
that will focus on the role that minorities played in the
U.S. military at the time of the attack.
"We've never examined the Pearl Harbor attack
through the eyes of ethnic minorities - and each one
has a different story to tell," said Blanca Stransky"
spokeswoman for the National Park Service that runs.
the USS Arizona Memorial.
The attack, which came without warning or a.
declaration of war, killed 2,403 Americans and wound-;
edl,178. .
Samuel Bishop, a mess attendant trained to set fuses
on the USS Bagley, was one of the few blacks on deck
during the attack, Stransky said. His ship was credited
with shooting down one of the Japanese planes, she
said.
Gravely, 70, wasn't at Pearl Harbor. He signed on'
with the Navy the following September, at age 20. In
1962 he became the first black to command a Navy
ship, the USS Falgout. .
"Certainly there were some rough moments, but I'd
do it all over again if I had the choice," said Gravely,
who retired from active service in 1980 and now lives
in Virginia with his wife, Alma.
For Elmer Boehm of Hot Springs, Ark., the an-.
niversary date continues to evoke vivid memories.
"We were hit by a bomb and one enemy dive,
bomber crashed into us," said Boehm, a messenger for,
the forward engineer aboard the USS Curtiss.
"I was bringing down life jackets and gas masks and.
running messages for the engine officer and doing
everything he wanted me to."