TINKER AIR FORCE BASE, Okla. -- Seventy-five years to the day when 19-year-old Ivan Stewart was blown to the ground and briefly knocked out from the hot blast of a Japanese warplane’s bomb, he said remembering the lives lost at Pearl Harbor is still painful to recall.
“It just tears my heart out to think back, to think I’m still here and think what went on in those days,” the Navy veteran said. “It tears me up, really, to think about what we went through.”
On Dec. 7, more than 300 Sailors, Airmen, Marines, Coast Guard members, Soldiers, firefighters, police and everyday Oklahomans gathered to pay tribute to Mr. Stewart, other World War II veterans and to all who served or are serving the nation.
The Pearl Harbor Remembrance Day Ceremony took place beside one of the recovered 19,860-pound anchors of the USS Oklahoma, one of the battleships sunk during the infamous 1941 surprise attack on the U.S. Territory of Hawaii. The anchor is part of a memorial near NW 13th Street and Broadway Avenue in Oklahoma City.
VFW Post 9969 and other veteran groups hosted the hour-long remembrance and wreath laying. Members of the Fleet Reserve Association USS Oklahoma (BB-37) Memorial Branch 268 hosted an earlier ceremony near the Capitol honoring the battleship’s 429 Sailors and Marines who died 75 years ago during the attack.
More than 50 Sailors from Strategic Communications Wing ONE at Tinker AFB attended the two commemorations.
Mr. Stewart, 95, said the morning attack began with “absolute confusion.” The Imperial Japanese Navy launched more than 350 warplanes from six undetected aircraft carriers in a two-hour assault that killed more than 2,400 Americans.
“I remember seeing that plane flying over, and the bomb dropping and knocking me down,” the six-year Navy veteran said.
The Oklahoma City resident said he joined other Sailors in rescuing men from waters aflame with burning fuel oil. Eight U.S. battleships, three cruisers and three destroyers were either sunk, capsized or heavily damaged. The Japanese destroyed more than 170 aircraft and damaged another 128, according to the U.S. Naval Institute.
“War is horrible. Chaotic,” Mr. Stewart said. “I think of the men I was there with, that we pulled out of the water. There were ones I got a hold of their arms and their skin came off and they fell back in the water. I’ve often wondered, did I let them drown? I wonder what happened to those guys.”
Survivor Clarence “Bud” Gilbert also attended the ceremony. He was a second-class aircraft mechanic on Ford Island in the middle of the harbor. He was part of a team of men who tied bed sheets together to pull up survivors in the water over the seawall. Later, he was a Japanese POW for a year and a half.
Susan Frederici, Navy veteran and secretary of the local FRA Branch 268, spoke at the first event near the Capitol, which included a two-bell ceremony to honor those lost.
“This tribute reminds us of the reverence we owe our departed shipmates and to all who guard the honor of our country,” Ms. Frederici said. “Let it be a reminder of the faith they confided in us. Let us gathered here not forget our obligations.”
Capt. Ed McCabe, commander of Strategic Communications Wing ONE and Task Force 124, attended both ceremonies.
“It’s an incredible opportunity to come out here, talk to some of our veterans and pay homage to those who paid the ultimate price,” the commander said. “They’re the greatest generation and we’re losing so many of them.”
The Fleet Reserve Association is a congressionally chartered, nonprofit organization representing the interests of current and former enlisted members of the Sea Service community, including the Navy, Marine Corps and Coast Guard. For more information about FRA, go to www.fra.org.