As is traditional, the Fountain Hills veterans service organizations will host a Pearl Harbor Remembrance Day ceremony. This marks the 80th anniversary of the attack that brought the US into WWII.

This year’s ceremony is to be held at 10 a.m. Tuesday, Dec. 7, at the Veterans Memorial at Fountain Park. VFW Post #7507 is hosting the event.

VFW Post #7507 Commander Don Hervey will offer welcoming remarks and deliver the keynote comments for the event.

John Weedo, Commander American Legion Post #58, Bob Frost, Commandant, Marine Corps League Det. 1439 and Al DeMange, AMVET Post 7 will also participate. Brian Minzey, Chaplain VFW Post #7507 will deliver the opening prayer and benediction for the ceremony. Sandi Thompson will lead music.

In a speech to the assembled Congress on Dec. 8, 1941, the day following the attack, President Franklin Delano Roosevelt told Americans, “Yesterday, December 7, 1941 – a date which will live in infamy – the United States of America was suddenly and deliberately attacked by naval and air forces of the Empire of Japan. The United States was at peace with that nation...” As the president requested, Congress declared that a state of war existed between the U.S. and the Japanese empire.

More than 3,400 Americans were killed or wounded in that one day alone. Many more Americans and allies were to die in the coming years before World War II ended. All who served are honored but especially those who served on Dec. 7, 1941.