World War II veterans honored at Pearl Harbor Remembrance Day ceremony

Jack Stowe was 15 years old, working at a grocery store in Texas, when Japan bombed Pearl Harbor on Dec. 7, 1941.

He wanted to fight for his country and refused to let his young age stop him. He dropped out of high school, altered his birth date on some documents and joined the Navy. He spent the next three years in service, with stints on Florida Island at Halavo Seaplane Base.

On Saturday, Stowe, now 98, sat alongside nine of his fellow veterans at the National World War II Memorial as a sailor rang a Navy bell at 12:53 p.m. – exactly 83 years to the minute from the first attack on Pearl Harbor.

Dozens of people gathered to commemorate the 83rd anniversary of the attack on Pearl Harbor on Saturday. The event, organized by the Friends of the National World War II Memorial and the National Park Service, paid tribute to the 2,403 Americans killed in the attack and the more than 400,000 Americans killed during the war.

“Let us always honor their memory and strive to live lives worthy of their sacrifice,” Jane Droppa, chair of Friends of the National World War II Memorial, said during the ceremony.

Hundreds of Japanese fighter pilots surprise attacked Pearl Harbor, a U.S. naval base near Honolulu, catapulting the United States into the deadliest conflict in human history. Before the attack, the United States had remained neutral. The day after the assault, President Franklin D. Roosevelt asked Congress to declare war on Japan, joining the Allies in their fight.

Friends of the National World War II Memorial has been hosting an event to commemorate the attack for more than a decade, spokesperson Scott Warner said. The ceremony is meant not only to honor the lives lost at Pearl Harbor, but to remind the public of the sacrifices of an entire generation.

“We’re losing the ‘Greatest Generation’ every year,” Warner said. “There’s less than 100,000 WWII veterans alive today, so it’s important to keep their memory alive.”

In attendance Saturday were 10 World War II veterans, brought from Texas that morning by an Honor Flight – a program that offers veterans free trips to Washington, D.C., to visit the memorials that honor their service. They had each prepared a short biography detailing their military careers: one flew 140 combat missions, another invaded Iwo Jima, a third recalled the utter joy she witnessed when the war ended.

Among them was George Ruth, a 96-year-old Black man who served in the segregated 93rd Infantry Division during World War II, then went on to serve in the Coast Guard in the Korean and Vietnam wars.

“I’m most proud of my service to this country,” Ruth said. “This is truly etched into my soul.”

The U.S. Mint also released limited-edition coins in honor of the United States’ “Greatest Generation,” said April Stafford, a representative from the agency. More than 75,000 coins have been purchased so far, she said, but they will only be for sale until the end of the year.

As the ceremony concluded, the veterans laid wreaths at the memorial’s Freedom Wall – a wall inscribed with 4,048 gold stars, each one representing 100 U.S. military deaths. The U.S. Navy Ceremonial Band played taps and the event drew to the close.

Each of the veterans received a commemorative coin to take home. Branded on the coins was a statement: “We answered the call.”