West Haven Holding Virtual Pearl Harbor Day Ceremony

Hamden CT

02 December, 2020

5:31 PM

Description

Written by Michael P. Walsh WEST HAVEN, CT — Due to the coronavirus restrictions limiting large public gatherings, the city and the West Haven Veterans Council will observe Pearl Harbor Remembrance Day on Monday with a virtual ceremony broadcast on Facebook and YouTube starting at 1:55 p.m. The solemn service will commemorate the 79th anniversary of the surprise attack on Pearl Harbor launched by Japan on Dec. 7, 1941, at 7:55 a.m. Hawaii Standard Time and 1:55 p.m. in the Eastern time zone. The ceremony will feature remarks by Mayor Nancy R. Rossi, U.S. Sen. Richard Blumenthal, D-Conn., 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 18 Connecticut servicemen who died in the Japanese bombing of the U.S. Navy base on the island of Oahu, Hawaii. A member of the West Haven Fire Department 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 at age 99. The Pearl Harbor tribute will include the Pledge of Allegiance led by Veterans Council member Al Terr, the national anthem sung by West Haven High School senior Nora E. Mullins, and opening and closing prayers given by West Haven Vietnam Veterans chaplain Elliott Hastings. It will also include a wreath-laying, followed by taps played by former West Shore Fire Department Lt. Kevin McKeon. The virtual program will start airing at 1:55 p.m. Monday on the West Haven City Hall Facebook page here and the city's YouTube channel here.