FARMINGTON — During a Pearl Harbor Remembrance Day service Monday, Dec. 7, World War II veteran Henry Brimigion was presented with a Troop of Valor quilt made by Jayne Wilcox.
“It’s a lap quilt,” Wilcox said. “This is the fourth one I’ve made. This is the first time I have met the veteran. That’s kind of cool.”
“You are really special to me,” she told Brimigion before giving him a hug.
Gordon Webber, commander of James A. McKechnie Veterans of Foreign Wars Post 10881, thanked those who came.
“This is something I need to do,” he said. “If we forget that we’re one nation under God, then we will be a nation gone under. Ask not what your country can do for you, ask what you can do for your country,” Webber quoted respectively from Presidents Reagan and Kennedy.
Webber also read an account of Marine Private Giles McCoy, stationed on the naval cruiser USS Indianapolis at Hunters Point Naval Shipyard in San Francisco Bay in 1945. McCoy’s actions and those of the rest of the crew would lead directly to the final blows against the Japanese Empire.
A five foot square by 15 foot tall crate and a small, knee-high canister were brought aboard the Indianapolis but no one in the crew knew that the Manhattan Project was conducting what came to be known as the “Trinity Test” in New Mexico, Webber read and continued, The Indianapolis was 610 feet long with four massive 15 foot propellers. The ship’s armor was only three to four inches thick as opposed to the 13-inch plus thickness found on battleships.
The story went on, Heavy cruisers like the Indianapolis were meant to be used in tandem with a fleet. But on this mission, speed was of the essence and it sailed alone.
They made the 2,405 mile journey past Pearl Harbor in 74.5 hours, a record that still stands to this day, and arrived at the Army airbase on Tinian in just six days total, Webber read, adding, It took less than six hours for them to drop anchor, unload the mysterious crate and metal canister, pull up anchor and depart from the B-29 air strip.
In less than two weeks, one of those B-29s would drop the contents of that mysterious crate, the “Little Boy” atomic bomb on Hiroshima, and the war would end within the week, Webber finished the story.
Because the bridge sidewalk had not been plowed following the weekend storm, Webber dropped a wreath in the Sandy River in honor of Brimigion and all other WWII veterans. A prayer was given, taps played and then the group made its way back to the Park and Ride.
Afterwards Webber noted that several veterans who had planned to attend were unable to because they lacked power at their homes.
“I’m pleased we had as many as we did,” said Kitty Gee, widow of WWII Veteran John Gee who was part of the D-Day invasion of Normandy.
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