Pearl Harbor Memorial Service

The 75th anniversary of the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor and six other military bases on the Hawaiian island of Oahu will be commemorated on Wednesday, Dec. 7 with a memorial service aboard the historic USS Yorktown. The free program will begin at 11 a.m. A pre-ceremony video will play before it starts.

The service, organized together with Veterans of Foreign Wars (VFW) Post 10624, will include a wreath laying, tolling of a bell and a traditional gun salute in memory of each of the 25 known South Carolina men who were killed during the attack. Captain Scott D. Heller, the commanding officer of SPAWAR Systems Center (SSC) Atlantic, and Larry Grant, an adjunct professor in the Department of History at The Citadel will be the featured speakers.

Patriots Point Naval & Maritime Museum and VFW Post 10624 are both actively searching for survivors of the attacks on Dec. 7, 1941 who are able to attend the memorial service. Those who served that infamous day are asked to contact Chris Hauff at 843-881-5984 if they would like to participate.

Museum admission and parking will be waived from 10 to 11 a.m. for the memorial service. Throughout the day, museum curators will have unique artifacts from ships involved in the Pearl Harbor attack on display. The exhibit will include shrapnel from a bomb that hit the USS West Virginia.

The Japanese used more than 353 aircraft during the hour-and-15-minute attack on Pearl Harbor. More than 2,403 U.S. personnel, including 68 civilians were killed. In total, more than 300 U.S. aircraft and 19 Navy ships were destroyed or damaged, including eight battleships.

Following the service aboard the USS Yorktown, Patriots Point Naval & Maritime Museum will show the live stream of the National Pearl Harbor Remembrance Day Commemoration taking place in Hawaii at Joint Base Pearl Harbor-Hickam. The video will play in the museum’s Smokey Stover Theater starting at 12:45 p.m. EST.