VFW Post holds ‘Pearl Harbor Day’ commemoration
The Pine Island VFW Post 4353 held its annual Dec. 7 Pearl Harbor Day commemoration service Sunday. World War II veteran Homer Dangler, 89, reminisced about Dec. 7, 1941.
Post Commander Keith Keefer welcomed the crowd of about 40 following the “National Anthem.”
“One thing I wanted to say that makes this Pearl Harbor Day unique is that Dec. 7, 1941, was on a Sunday and today, 73 years later, Dec. 7, 2014 is also on a Sunday,” Keefer said. “Homer Dangler was in high school on Pearl Harbor Day. Homer was only 16 and wasn’t old enough to join the military but when he turned 18 he joined the Navy.”
He then turned the floor over to the veteran.
“I never saw any action, I was one of the younger people,” Dangler said. “Last month, on Nov. 12, I was 89. Seventy-three years ago today I was with my father working in his Gulf gas station in northwest Ohio. When we heard on the radio that they had bombed Pearl Harbor, it was almost unbelievable. But they kept updating all day and all night and we knew it was true. I had just turned 16 and told my father I was going to join the Navy. He told me I couldn’t join without his permission so I had to wait two long years to join thinking the war would probably be over before I got a chance. All young people at that time wanted to get into it.”
Dangler joined the Navy when he turned 18 and went to boot camp at Great Lakes. He “got into a little trouble with the chief” and was assigned to mess hall bake shop which, he said, became the best thing to happen in his Navy career. Dangler became a baker.
“Once I finished boot camp, I was sent to Virginia,” Dangler said. “I got aboard a troop ship to Brazil. We had an air base there where the bombers came through, refueled, flew to Africa and then to England. We had to be in the service for the duration of the war plus six months and I was in for a total of 27 months. When I got out I went back home to Ohio.”
Dangler provided the following statistics:
n 16,112,566 Americans served in the armed services in World War II
n 291,577 battle deaths
n 670,346 wounded
“Today there are less than 1 million World War II veterans left,” Dangler said. “Officials predict the last of the World War II vets will be gone in 2034. It’s important to remember any war and important to remember Pearl Harbor where more that 2,400 men were lost. Thank you very much.”
“President Roosevelt said this day (Dec. 7, 1941) would live in infamy,” Keefer said. “There are fewer and fewer of us here, we don’t have a large crowd. It was brought to my attention the other day that young people were asked a question. They were asked which came first, Vietnam or World War II, and the younger people couldn’t answer it. There are fewer of us every year and eventually there won’t be anybody out here and the younger people won’t remember us.”
The day ended with a closing prayer.
The Honor Guard fired three volleys and “Taps” was played.