Punta Gorda remembers Pearl Harbor
SUN PHOTO BY AL HEMINGWAY
Pearl Harbor survivors Bill Raney, his wife Geraldine, John Seelie, Barbara Gideon, and her husband John are flanked by members of the Marine Corps League Detachment 756 Honor Guard late Friday at the City Marketplace site in Punta Gorda. The event, Pearl Harbor: Lest We Forget, was part of the citys 125th anniversary celebration, and was sponsored by the Military Heritage Museum and the Marine Corps League.
SUN PHOTO BY AL HEMINGWAY
Retired U.S. Army Sgt. Maj. Martin Jordan was the keynote speaker at the Pearl Harbor event Friday in Punta Gorda.
SUN PHOTO BY AL HEMINGWAY
Bagpiper Patrick Nehs played Amazing Grace during the ceremony.
SUN PHOTO BY AL HEMINGWAY
Bugler Bob Powers played taps to close Fridays Pearl Harbor commemoration event.
PUNTA GORDA — On the peaceful Sunday morning of Dec. 7, 1941, Englewood resident John Seelie of the 25th Infantry Division was going to Honolulu. But when the first flight of Japanese Zeroes swarmed down on Wheeler Field bombing hundreds of aircraft on the ground, he knew it was “a bad idea.”
By day’s end, that quiet Sunday morning 71 years ago would be anything but peaceful. Japan’s sneak attack at Pearl Harbor in the Hawaiian Islands would catapult America into World War II, and would forever change the world in which we live.
