We must never forget their sacrifice

It was 12 minutes before 8:00 am on a Sunday morning.  The attack achieved nearly total surprise.  353 Japanese aircraft attacked the United States Pacific Fleet at Pearl Harbor.  The Japanese government had intended to notify the U.S. government that the peace talks were over but the attack began before that message could be delivered in Washington, D.C.

When the attack was over, four battleships, the U.S.S. Arizona, California, Oklahoma and West Virginia were gone.  Sunk.  The Arizona was a total loss.  The California and West Virginia were raised and put back into service in 1944.   The Oklahoma was raised but determined to be too badly damaged to be returned to service and it was scrapped. 

2,403 were killed.  Another 1,178 were wounded.  The Arizona was turned into a memorial where 1,102 of the 1,177 men who died aboard her remain below the surface.  I've been to the Arizona Memorial several times.  It is always a moving experience.

Today the 75th anniversary of that fateful morning, December 7th, 1941 was commemorated.  A number of the survivors of the attack were there, although their numbers continue to shrink at an ever-increasing rate.  Considering that an 18 year-old sailor on that morning would now be 93 years old, that should not surprise anyone.

At some point in the future, the commemoration of this anniversary will be held with no living survivors in attendance.  The few who remain will be too ill or infirm to make the trip.  Eventually, all of them will have passed away.  That is when the danger of this date that FDR said "...will live in infamy" will be in danger of being forgotten.   Not right away.  It takes years, even decades before the events of history begin to fade from the forefront of our memories. 

July 4th of this year marked the 190th anniversary of the death of our 2nd and 3rd presidents on the very same day.  The last words of John Adams were "Thomas Jefferson still survives."  He did not know that Jefferson had actually died five hours earlier.  News did not travel quickly back then.

Now information travels instantaneously.  We are overloaded with information.  As we continue to be inundated in this way, we lose track of our history.  Undoubtedly there will always be some level of commemoration of Pearl Harbor Day, just as there is an annual remembrance of D-Day.  My question is, will the day come when the importance of this date is lost?

I don't have access to a complete list of those who perished on that December morning.  However, there are 16 names I'd like to share and remember. 

Captain Mervyn Bennion
Chief Aviation Ordnanceman John Finn
Ensign Francis Flaherty
Lt Commander Samuel Fuqua
Chief Boatswain Edwin Hill
Ensign Herbert Jones
Rear Admiral Isaac Kidd
Gunner Jackson Pharris
Chief Radioman Thomas Reeves
Chief Machinist Donald Ross
Machinist's Mate First Class Robert Scott
Chief Watertender Peter Tomich
Captain Franklin Van Valkenburgh
Seaman First Class James Ward
Commander Cassin Young

All 16 of these men were awarded the Medal of Honor for their bravery and gallantry on that day.  11 of the 16 received their award posthumously.  Admiral Kidd and Captain Van Valkenburgh stayed on the bridge of the Arizona, directing their response to the attack until a direct bomb hit killed both of them. 

We must never forget the sacrifices made by the men and women who were victims of the sneak attack on December 7th, 1941.
Meanwhile it is up to those of us who learned of the fairly