Annual Pearl Harbor ceremony touched with sadness as number of survivors dwindles

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Ten years ago, there were 20 survivors at the ceremony. Saturday, there was one: Clayton Schenkelberg, 102

The USS Midway Museum hosted its annual Pearl Harbor ceremony Saturday, and how the story of the attack on the morning of Dec. 7, 1941, gets told is shifting as the number of survivors dwindles.

Ten years ago, there were about 20 survivors at the ceremony. Saturday, there was one: Clayton Schenkelberg. He’s 102, and in a wheelchair. When it came time for the wreath, his son rolled him to the edge of the flight deck, where his great-grandson did the tossing.“It will be sad when everybody’s gone,” said Pat Thompson, a San Diegan who was a 10-year-old girl living with her Navy radioman father at Pearl Harbor when the Japanese planes arrived 78 years ago.

Thousands of spouses and children were evacuated to the mainland, he said, while others stayed in Hawaii amid rumors that another invasion was coming, or that the water supply had been poisoned. There were air-raid practices at school, and black-out curtains at home. Even children were required to carry ID cards, complete with fingerprints.Advertisement

But the rain didn’t keep people from rising spontaneously to give Schenkelberg a standing ovation when he was introduced. He attended with his son, Patrick; two grandsons, Shaun and Todd; and his great-grandson, also named Patrick. The grandsons and great-grandson are retired or active-duty military, all Navy, and they were there in uniform. To follow in the footsteps of someone who was at Pearl Harbor, Shaun said, is “very humbling.

 

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Trump: “Pearl Harbor. What a terrible but great day. We lost a lotta pearls. But we secured and kept our harbor. Happy Pearl Harbor Day, America. You deserve this day off from work today, which is what some call “Sunday.” Maybe someday we can celebrate this holiday on a weekday.”

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