City Of West Haven: West Haven Observing Pearl Harbor Day On Dec. 7

West Haven CT

02 December, 2021

4:44 PM

Description

Press release from the City of West Haven: December 2, 2021 WEST HAVEN, Dec. 2, 2021 — The city and the West Haven Veterans Council will observe Pearl Harbor Remembrance Day on the Veterans Walk of Honor in Bradley Point Park at 10:30 a.m. Tuesday, Dec. 7. All veterans are invited to participate in the solemn service, which will commemorate the 80th anniversary of Japan's surprise attack on Pearl Harbor on Dec. 7, 1941. The public is also invited. The annual ceremony, held in front of the Walk of Honor's William A. Soderman Memorial, will commence with a flag-raising by the West Haven Fire Department Honor Guard. It will feature remarks by Mayor Nancy R. Rossi and Veterans Council President Dave Ricci. Louis P. Esposito Jr., Rossi's executive assistant, will serve as the master of ceremonies. Representing the Pearl Harbor Survivors Association, Florence Stoeber, the wife of the late Jack Stoeber, a Navy veteran of Pearl Harbor and Iwo Jima who was a regular at West Haven's Pearl Harbor rites for many years, will read the names of the 17 Connecticut servicemen who died in the Japanese bombing of the U.S. Navy base on the island of Oahu, Hawaii. A member of the honor guard will toll the department's chrome bell each instant a name is called. Stoeber, whose ashes were scattered in Pearl Harbor after he died Jan. 16, 2016, at age 97, was a .50-caliber machine-gunner aboard the destroyer tender USS Whitney in the Pacific theater of World War II. Connecticut's last known Pearl Harbor survivor died Aug. 17, 2020, at age 99. The Pearl Harbor tribute will include the Pledge of Allegiance led by Florence Stoeber's 8-year-old grandson, Matthew McCann, along with the national anthem sung by Nora E. Mullins and opening and closing prayers given by newly elected Councilman Victor M. Borras, D-8. It will also include a wreath-laying, followed by taps played by former West Shore Fire Department Lt. Kevin McKeon. This press release was produced by the City of West Haven. The views expressed here are the author's own.