Tuesday, December 7, 2010

Honoring Pearl Harbor Survivors on the 69th Anniversary

Dec. 7, 2010, marked the 69th anniversary of the attack on Pearl Harbor. I spent over a week working on publicity for our local survivors. Our Mission, Kan., event went well, with 200 people, including 60 middle school kids, attending.

I got to read my commemorative poem for #HonorFlight and introduce four survivors to tell their stories: Ed Russell and Jack Carson (both Army Air Corps) and Jess Dunnagan and Loyal George (both Navy). All the TV stations were there. Two other survivors also attended: Manfred Olson, 97, and Jim Baker (both Navy).

A story about my adopted Uncle Dorwin Lamkin (Navy) ran on the front page of The Star today: http://tinyurl.com/252aoxx. He was invited by the Dept. of the Navy to return to Pearl Harbor for commemorative ceremonies.

Also got him interviewed by a TV station in Honolulu: http://tinyurl.com/2a9ggg6. (Click on video screen on right side of page.) This report ran in Hawaii and on our NBC affiliate, KSHB-TV here.

This year at our event we had on display a metal relic from the USS Arizona, the ship that was bombed and sank at #PearlHarbor with a loss of 1,177 crewmen. Eventually the relic will be permanently encased in the Pearl Harbor Memorial Park in Mission, Kan.

On Dec. 8 there will be another Pearl Harbor event in Kansas City, with the addition of Pearl Harbor survivor, Wilbur Wright, 92, attending from Fairfax, Mo. I was his guardian on the Honor Flight in September 2009, and he insisted that I be there. So I have to go!

It is such a privilege to help these veterans get the recognition and appreciation they so deserve.

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