[StBernard] Pearl Harbor Remembered in Chalmette Ceremony

[Westley Annis]

Pearl Harbor Remembered in Chalmette Ceremony 

December 7 , 2005

By: Steve Cannizaro


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64th anniversary of Pearl Harbor attack in 1941 remembered Wed. in ceremony
at Pearl Harbor Park in Chalmette

Carol Little of Arabi said her father, the late Joe Moity, would have been 
proud of the way St. Bernard Parish carried on the tradition Wednesday of 
remembering the 1941 attack on Pearl Harbor at the Chalmette park that he 
worked so hard to see built.

"He'd say it was so nice to have a ceremony today (despite the parish's 
post-hurricane problems) and that we should never forget what happened at 
Pearl Harbor,'' said Little, on hand for the ceremony with her husband, 
Jerry Little.

She also said she is proud that Pearl Harbor Park on Paris Road in 
Chalmette, conceptualized by her father in the 1980s and dedicated in 1992, 
is still the only such park in America dedicated to the memory of Pearl 
Harbor other than the one in Hawaii where the attack by the Japanese took 
place.

The attack, in which nearly 3,000 Americans died, was the event that brought

the United States into World War II.

On a cold and brisk day, the traditional ceremony sponsored by the Disabled 
Veterans of Louisiana, Chapter 4, in St. Bernard Parish, went on as usual in

Chalmette. A detachment of military personnel also attended the ceremony.

"Katrina isn't going to stop us,'' said Mike Hunnicutt, director of 
community development for St. Bernard Parish. "Every year we come here for 
this ceremony.''

Floyd Saucier of Arabi, a member of the Disabled Veterans of Louisiana, said

the ceremony remembers the sacrifice of the Americans who died at Pearly 
aror and in World War II "to preserve democracy for us.''

He said he was saddened that because of the post-Katrina problems it wasn't 
possible to have any members from the Pearl Harbor's Survivor's Association,

who usually attend.

The ceremony, including the singing of the Star Spangled Banner, took place 
in front of a mural depicting the bombing attack. The mural was done by 
local artists Donna Lind, Ed Estopinal and Claire Pescay.