Pearl Harbor observances in Oak Harbor and Camano Island will be held Friday, two days before the anniversary of the Dec. 7, 1941, attack.
The public is invited to attend both ceremonies in memory of Japan’s surprise attack on American military bases in Hawaii, an act that ushered the United States into World War II.
Pearl Harbor Survivors’ Association, North Cascades Chapter 5; Whidbey Island Naval Air Station and Explosive Ordnance Disposal Mobile Unit 11 will hold a ceremony at 10 a.m. Friday at the Crescent Harbor Marina on the Navy’s Seaplane Base.
At 3 p.m., the survivors’ association with the Freedom Park Association will hold a second ceremony at Freedom Park on Camano Island.
The park is on North Camano Island Drive, about 31⁄2 miles west of the Mark W. Clark Bridge. The park, dedicated to the memory of Pearl Harbor, is adjacent to the Camano Island Fire Department at 525 E. North Camano Dr.
At the Seaplane Base, which is part of NAS Whidbey, speakers will include Jim Stansell, survivors’ association president; Cmdr. Joseph DiGuardo, commanding officer of the explosive ordnance unit; and Capt. Theodore Lucas, bomb-disposal unit’s Group One commander.
To remember the 2,403 U.S. Navy, Marine Corps, Army and civilian men and women who died 67 years ago, survivors of the attack will place a wreath in Crescent Harbor.
At Camano, Anacortes resident Cecil Calavan, who survived the attack on the USS Utah, will tell his story.
