Area veterans say Monday’s observance of Pearl Harbor Remembrance Day offers the opportunity to reflect on the tragic loss of life.

But, it also is a cautionary tale to be prepared so history won’t be repeated.

Joe Cable, a World War II vet who served as a radio operator in the U.S. Army, said the day should serve as a warning to the armed forces.

“I always felt like that was kind of a symbolic thing about what can happen when to you when you’re not prepared to do battle,” Cable said.

Pearl Harbor Remembrance Day commemorates the surprise attack in 1941 by the Japanese that drew the United States into World War II.

Cable said at the time of the attack on Pearl Harbor, he was on maneuvers in Louisiana.

“They were using two-by-fours marked with 50 caliber to show as machine guns and anti-tank guns,” he said. “We were a terribly poorly-equipped army. It’s just symbolic of what can happen to you if you meet a potential enemy.”

Cable said he didn’t know if young people understand the importance of Pearl Harbor Remembrance Day, but he believes it should go on.

“There should be some kind of a remembrance to tell people what happens when you’re not prepared,” he said.

Cable said he and his wife put their American flag out on display to mark that day. He added that the number of lives lost at Pearl Harbor was huge.

“Oh, that was a terrible thing,” he said. “A human life is a human life.”

Edward Smith, 69, who served in the U.S. Air Force performing security duties, said the importance of Pearl Harbor Remembrance Day is so that something like it never happens again.

“It’s kind of sad,” he said. “Those kids never knew what hit them on those ships there. One minute they were eating their breakfast or doing detail on the ships, and the next minute they were upside down, drowning. A lot of them died that were never recovered.”

Smith said that is the reason the U.S.S. Arizona memorial was built on the site where the ship sank and more than 1,100 died.

“I don’t think the general public knows the importance of the remembrance day,” he said. “Most of those it was important to have probably passed on.”

Smith said if the remembrance day falls on a day when the local American Legion is open, all those there discuss it.

Dennis Adcock, 71, who served with the U.S. Army in Korea, said Pearl Harbor Remembrance Day is necessary to remember the “terrible tragedy” of the attack.

“It was a surprise attack that apparently took all of the leaders of the country by surprise,” he said. “It engaged us into the second World War, that we weren’t particularly involved in before.

“We need to remember all the people who were killed in that bombing. It was just a terrible thing.”

Adcock said he has his special way of educating people when the remembrance day comes around.

“I talk to as many people as will listen to me,” he said.

“I am commander of the American Legion Batfish 241 out there. I talk to as many people as I can about it, because I still do a lot of volunteer work for the American Legion.”



Reach Keith Purtell at 684-2925 or kpurtell@ muskogeephoenix.com.