United States Coast Guard Auxiliary 7th District Breeze - USCGAUX ...

28 U. Volume S. Coast LVIII Guard Auxiliary Issue 1 District Spring 7 2012 Breeze
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Background photo: U.S. Navy Archives
By Dorothy Riley. Photos by Brian Lichtenstein
FORT LAUDERDALE, Fla.—In the early morning
hours of December 7, 1941, 353 Japanese fighters,
bombers, and torpedo planes launched in two
waves from six aircraft carriers of the Japanese
Imperial Navy and attacked Pearl Harbor. This
event thrust the United States into World War II.
Pearl Harbor Day commemorates the sacrifices
of U.S. servicemen killed and wounded during
the attack on Pearl Harbor. As in previous years,
Broward Navy Days and the Naval Sea Cadets held
a Pearl Harbor Day ceremony hosted by Station Fort
Lauderdale. The 2011 ceremony was special in that
it was both the 70 th Anniversary of that infamous
event and the final year of the Pearl Harbor Survivors
Association. The number of survivors grows fewer
every year as its members succumb to age. All are
now well over eighty and most over ninety years old.
Two survivors, John Zurli and Abe Stein, attended
the ceremony at Station Fort Lauderdale. Also
in attendance were members of the Coast Guard
Station Fort Lauderdale and Division 3 Coast
Guard Auxiliary. Broward County Commissioner
Chip LaMarca was the keynote speaker.
The ceremony included several touching tributes
including the playing of Taps, participation by
a contingent of the Coast Guard Pipe Band, and
a wreath laying in honor of those who did not
survive that day. LT Paul Turner, Commanding
Officer, Station Ft. Lauderdale, United States Coast
Guard, and Commissioner LaMarca jointly tossed
the wreath into the waters of Port Everglades.
The memory of the attack on Pearl Harbor should
not be erased by time. In 1941, war raged on both the
European and Asian continents, and despite pleas for
military assistance from the Allied Forces, our nation
avoided direct involvement. While the Axis Powers,
Germany, Italy, and Japan invaded their neighbors,
the United States, officially neutral, provided supplies
to our European partners. All claims to neutrality
evaporated on December 7, 1941, with the attack
on Pearl Harbor. Days later, Hitler declared war
against our nation and we found ourselves engaged
in wars across both the Pacific and Atlantic Oceans.
In the attack on Pearl Harbor alone, all eight U.S.
Navy battleships in port were damaged, four of which
were sunk. The Japanese also sank or damaged three
cruisers, three destroyers, an anti-aircraft training ship,
and one minelayer. One hundred eighty-eight U.S.
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