JAY — Saturday afternoon’s Pearl Harbor Day remembrance ceremony at the Veterans of Foreign Wars Post No. 3335 rekindled many memories for World War II veteran Erlon Rose of Livermore Falls.

Rose, past state commander of the VFW, was one of four veterans who shared a collection of memories and thoughts about Dec. 7, 1941.

Such as seeing destroyers like the USS Pennsylvania lying on its side in the water and learning that the guns on the ship he served on, the USS Gendreau, came from the USS Arizona.

Rose entered the Navy the day after graduating from Livermore Falls High School in 1943 at the age of 18, he said.

“We did a lot on our ship,” he said. “We shot down six kamikaze planes.”

Palmer Hebert, commander of VFW Post 3335, opened the 40-minute ceremony with: “Today is a very special day for WWII veterans. It was the beginning of it all, where it all started.”

Hebert then asked Chaplain Don Lesuer to say a prayer.

Lesuer began by thanking “those brave men and women who gave their lives in defense of this country.”

Citing President Franklin D. Roosevelt, Lesuer said, “‘This was a terrible, terrible, horrible thing to do to a country whose arms are always open to the oppressed.

“‘Many people will remember this day as ‘a day in infamy,’ and it really was,” Lesuer said. “Thousands and thousands of our brave men and women lost their lives in ships and on land to a dastardly deed performed by a cowardly nation.”

Lesuer asked those attending to remember the brave men and women who were killed at Pearl Harbor and to pray for members of the military serving today.

Rose then took the podium.

“The waters of Pearl Harbor are quiet now, and today we remember that terrible Sunday morning, Dec. 7, 1941, when the quiet waters of Pearl Harbor were quickly dissipated by Japanese warplanes, sending America into World War II,” he said.

“Those who were serving in peacetime at Pearl Harbor on Dec. 6, 1941, became wartime heroes on Dec. 7, 1941. Many of them died in the first moments of the attack. Others died later of their wounds and many years since.”

They were not sent to war, Rose said, because they were peacetime soldiers and sailors.

“No amount of training could have prepared them for what was thrust upon them, and yet they held,” he said. “They regrouped and they fought back and they won.

“For America, WWII began at 7:55 a.m. on Sunday, Dec. 7, 1941, at Pearl Harbor,” Rose said. “In less than two hours, 2,403 service people were killed and hundreds more wounded and a large part of our fleet was badly damaged. … We’re here today to commemorate that day and the men and women who were there that day and survived. They survived the shock, horrors and chaos that only war can bring.”

Rose then read a timetable for actions that day. On the morning of Dec. 7, he said there were 90 U.S. ships anchored or moored in and around Pearl Harbor, including eight battleships: the Arizona, the California, the Maryland, the Nevada, the Oklahoma, the Pennsylvania, the Tennessee and the West Virginia.

He said the first wave of Japanese aircraft struck at 7:55 a.m., the second 45 minutes later, and by 9:45 a.m. when the attack ended, 21 ships of the Pacific Fleet were sunk or damaged.

Additionally, he said 188 aircraft were destroyed and another 159 damaged, and 2,403 Americans died and 1,178 were wounded.

“I don’t think anyone who has ever been on a ship knows the horrors of this when a ship is attacked or what it does to the survivors who form a bond that lasts a lifetime,” Rose said.

Hebert followed, also delineating the events, starting at 3:42 a.m. on Dec. 7, 1941, when the USS Condor spotted a Japanese submarine less than two miles off Pearl Harbor’s entrance.

Navy veteran John Dube of the New England Chapter of the Destroyer Escort Sailors Association then shared his biography, military service and read a few articles about Pearl Harbor Day.

Dube said he was in his mother’s womb when Roosevelt spoke on the radio, around which were gathered his parents and their seven children.

“I was still in her womb, and I heard the president of the United States say, ‘Now is the time for all good men to come to the aid of this country,'” Dube said. He was born on Dec. 13, 1941.

The ceremony ended with prayer from Lesuer.

Hebert said afterward that the ceremony means a lot to him, because his dad was a WWII veteran who served in the South Pacific. Additionally, a good percentage of the Jay VFW’s members served in the Navy during the second World War.

“This is all about the WWII veterans,” Hebert, a Persian Gulf and Cold War veteran, said. “They need to be honored. They don’t have much time left on this Earth. Most of them are in their late 80s and 90s. I try to honor them as much as I can because they deserve it.

“Pearl Harbor was one of the worst days of our lives,” he said. “I wish the commander-in-chiefs of today’s world would just sit down and play a game of Risk amongst themselves to decide the fate of the world and not send in human lives to sacrifice.”

tkarkos@sunjournal.com