Tag Archive for shipmates

Pearl Harbor Survivors Return After Death

Those who never served would never understand.

 

“A Date that will Live in Infamy”

Navy Region Hawaii Honor Guard seaman Nick Marrero, of Greenville, Texas, holds an urn with the ashes of Pearl Harbor survivor Lee Soucy during Soucy's internment ceremony.

Associated Press|by Audrey McAvoy

HONOLULU — Lee Soucy, who lived to be 90 after surviving the attack on Pearl Harbor, is finally back with his shipmates 70 years later.

Soucy passed away just last year. On Tuesday, seven decades after dozens of fellow Sailors were killed when the USS Utah sank on Dec. 7, 1941, Navy divers took a small urn containing his ashes and put it in a porthole of the ship.

The ceremony is one of five memorials being held this week for servicemen who lived through the assault and want their remains placed in Pearl Harbor out of pride and affinity for those they left behind.

“They want to return and be with the shipmates that they lost during the attack,” said Jim Taylor, a retired Sailor who coordinates the ceremonies.

The memorials are happening the same week the country observes the 70th anniversary of the aerial bombing that killed 2,390 Americans and brought the United States into World War II. A larger ceremony to remember all those who perished will be held Wednesday just before 8 a.m. Hawaii time — the same moment the devastating attack began.

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