The Vineyard was a frightening place for a young girl to be during World War II, but exciting too. Servicemen were walking the streets before their deployment to Europe. Navy and Army pilots conducting training exercises overhead occasionally came crashing into the ocean. And there were the constant rumors of enemy spies and submarines along the Island’s shores.
Fifty years after the sinking of the United States naval fleet at Pearl Harbor, a group of Island veterans and their supporters gathered Dec. 7 in Oak Bluffs for breakfast to remember the day and honor their countrymen who lost their lives in this and other battles of World War II.
Every parking spot at the Veterans of Foreign Wars Hall on Towanicut avenue was filled at 9 a.m.
The Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor, on Dec. 7, 1941, is a landmark in the life of this nation, by which we judge where we are and where we were. The moment the news came over the radio that Sunday afternoon, it caught a nation in one instant like some great group photograph.
Fifty years have passed, and now we look back to pay homage to those who offered their lives and energies to fight fascism and imperialism, and to re-examine a symbolic moment in history.
