Pearl Harbor Day: Leon Panetta commemorates 70th anniversary
USS SHAW exploding during the Japanese raid on Pearl Harbor.” December 7, 1941.
Defense Secretary Leon Panetta will commemorate the 70th anniversary of the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor Wednesday at a wreath-laying at the US Navy Memorial in Washington, DC.
In Hawaii, there will be a moment of silence at 7:55 a.m. (12:55 EST) in memoriam of the 2,390 Americans who died when Japan attacked Pearl Harbor on December 7, 1941.
About 3,000 guests are expected at the Pearl Harbor Visitor Center for a ceremony, including 120 survivors of the attack, NPR reported.
According to the Star Adviser in Hawaii:
The Pearl Harbor-based guided missile destroyer USS Chung-Hoon will render honors to the Arizona and blow its whistle at the start of a moment of silence at 7:55 a.m. — the same time 70 years ago the first Japanese planes began to attack.
According to Politico, speaking to survivors of the Pearl Harbor attack earlier, Panetta said:
“I know you take great pride, as I do, that your legacy lives on in today’s men and women in uniform, who have borne the burden of a decade of war and who are truly this nation’s next greatest generation. The 9/11 generation, like you, has stepped forward in your image of service and sacrifice, volunteering for military duty after another sudden and terrible attack on our shores."
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