[StBernard] Pearl Harbor Memorial Ceremony held Tuesday in Chalmette

[Westley Annis]

Pearl Harbor Memorial Ceremony held Tuesday in Chalmette 

 

With sunny skies and gentle winds as a gracious backdrop, the Ed Jones
Chapter of the Pearl Harbor Survivors Association held its annual Memorial
Service on Tuesday, December 7 to commemorate the 69th Anniversary of the
Bombing of Pearl Harbor at Pearl Harbor Park in Chalmette.

 

Active Duty military, veterans, families and friends marked the anniversary
at Pearl Harbor Park in Chalmette - the only park in honor of Pearl Harbor
on the United States main land.

 

"Each year as we should, we honor those who served at Pearl Harbor and gave
their lives in the defense of our freedoms, and we celebrate those Pearl
Harbor survivors who remain with us," St. Bernard Parish President Craig P.
Taffaro, Jr. said at the ceremony. He said it is important that people
continue to "honor the sacrifices that others made which allow us to have so
much."

 

Debra Jones Posey, president of the Ed Jones Chapter of the Sons and
Daughters of the Pearl Harbor Survivors Association, whose father the late
Ed Jones was a Pearl Harbor veteran, reminded the crowd of Pearl Harbor's
casualty statistics and told them that 2,403 people on the U.S. side lost
their lives Dec. 7, 1941. And she said that even those who were newborns
when Pearl Harbor was attacked, are now senior citizens, making it more
critical than ever to memorialize this key event in our history. "Take the
chance to meet and talk with some of the few remaining Pearl Harbor
Survivors," she said at the end of the ceremony. 

 

The speakers recognized the veterans in the audience, including several who
were in the military at Pearl Harbor. John DiBetta, 88, served in the Navy
on the USS Detroit. Nolan Albarado, 93, served in the Army at Scofield
Barracks. James Cook, 87, served in the Navy and was on the USS Rigel at a
Pearl Harbor shipyard being overhauled. Robert Templet, 90, served in the
Navy and was a radioman on Ford Island within Oahu for Pearl Harbor.

 

President Taffaro thanked Wil Hinson and Elizabeth Ellison-Frost of
Chalmette Refining for replacing the tattered 20-foot by 30-foot flag so a
new one could be prominently flown for the anniversary.

 

In addition to the speeches, the event also included the presentation of
colors by the U.S. Color Guard and music by the U.S. Navy Band. Posey and
her sister, Mary Zook Fisher, presented a memorial wreath during the
ceremony. Their brother Ed Jones Jr. and nephew, 11-year-old Kaleb Rambeau,
mounted the wreath at the foot of the American flag after the ceremony
ended.

The park that lies on land adjacent to Paris Road is owned by St. Bernard
Parish. It is the result of work of deceased local veteran Joseph Moity, and
it was designed by former St. Bernard Parish Department of Community
Development Director Michael Hunnicutt. Hunnicutt has said the Moity, who
died in 2003, once told him that the serviceman who replaced him on the USS
Arizona shortly before the bombing reportedly went down with the ship. That
apparently is what motivated him in his quest to have a park to honor that
significant event in U.S. history.

 

For more information about the Pearl Harbor veterans, contact Shirley
Rambeau, Secretary of the Pearl Harbor Survivors Association and Louisiana
State Chairperson of the Sons and Daughters of Pearl Harbor Survivors
Association at srambeau at hotmail.com or 504-338-2500.

 

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