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Approximately 2,390 military members and civilians were killed in the Dec. 7, 1941, attack on Pearl Harbor, which would forever change the nation, according to the National Park Service.
Still-living members of the generation that fought in World War II are honored and appreciated. Less so those who perished on Oahu — at least by name.
The park service and its nonprofit partner, Pacific Historic Parks, put up 2,390 small American flags at the USS Arizona Memorial visitor center Thursday with the names of the fallen — a visual memorial to individual sacrifice that will be up through Memorial Day weekend.
Because many of those who died are still entombed on the sunken USS Arizona or buried at Punchbowl cemetery or elsewhere, “there’s no way to quantify the loss of life,” said Jay Blount, the park service’s chief of interpretation and education.
By putting up 2,390 names on flags, the park service is “hoping to show people exactly what that sacrifice represents in sheer numbers,” he said.
One small section in the multitude of flags included the names Warren Hickok, Navy, USS Sicard; Ardrey V. Hasty, Army Air Force, Hickam Field; Louis G. Moslener Jr., Army Air Force, Hickam Field; and Leonard J. Kozelek, Navy, USS Enterprise.
The flag display was the idea of Navy veteran and park guide Alexander Warrick, who has been at the Arizona Memorial since September 2017.
“Our main focus here is Pearl Harbor and Dec. 7 — and Memorial Day is always kind of glossed over,” said Warrick, who had both front pockets stuffed with flags he was affixing to walkway railings at the memorial.
“Last year I was working on Memorial Day, and a gentleman came up to me and (said), ‘You have nothing scheduled. You didn’t do anything special.’ And I (said), ‘You are absolutely right, sir, we should do something special,’” Warrick recalled.
A committee was formed, and the flag idea with 2,390 names was born. Blount said Pacific Historic Parks paid for the flags and helped affix name stickers to each.
“It’s nice to know that people still care about what happened here,” Warrick said. “They want to learn about what happened here.”
On Thursday afternoon park staff, active-duty military members, Cub Scouts and even a “French Canadian couple who saw what we were doing and asked if they could help” zip-tied the flags to walkway railings on the back lawn of the visitor center, Blount said.
Navy Petty Officer 2nd Class Bonandre Galit, 24, from Union City, Calif., and two fellow sailors from Joint Base Pearl Harbor-Hickam were finishing putting up about 100 of the flags.
The word “was put out to us during one of our meetings” that volunteers were needed to honor fallen shipmates, Galit said. “I was like, ‘You know what, this is a good opportunity to pay it forward.’”
Seeing individual names and ships and bases “brings it closer to home — because these are regular people who answered the call of duty, and now I was almost in the same spot as they were, just different time frame and location,” Galit said.
More than 40 Oahu civilians who lost their lives are among the names attached to the fluttering American flags.
Edgar Lopez, cubmaster for Pack 121 out of Ewa Beach, brought about eight Cub Scouts out to help with the project “just to set the example and remember what happened here on Dec. 7, 1941.”
“Many of them come from military families, and it’s not just a way of life, it’s them understanding the ‘why’ we serve or have served,” said Lopez, who was in the Air Force for 27 years.
His son, Elias, 9, was asked how many flags he put out.
“Hmm, I don’t know. A lot,” he said. The boy said he knew about Pearl Harbor. “I read a book about that,” he said.
Warrick said military bands are scheduled to perform periodically through the weekend.
Blount said a lot of Americans don’t realize it, but on Memorial Day the American flag is flown at half-staff until noon, and then it is flown at full mast.
“A lot of people don’t realize the reason behind that is, up until noon, we are flying the flag at half-staff to honor those who have fallen in service to their country,” he said.
And then from noon until sunset it’s flown at full staff to honor living service members, he said.
A small ceremony at the visitor center will be held at noon. Following that, Blount said, visitors will be invited to take a flag with a name on it “as a way to inspire them to maybe think a little bit more about that individual and what his life represented — and maybe even do some research. Who knows?”
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