Sounds of Silence Mark Attack on Pearl Harbor

A moment of silence, the roar of jets and the sound of taps Wednesday marked the 47th anniversary of the surprise Japanese attack that hurled the United States into World War II.

The National Park Service, which administers the USS Arizona Memorial, said 3,000 people attended ceremonies marking the anniversary of the Dec. 7, 1941, attack that killed more than 2,400 people. It was estimated that 5,000 others would attend programs and lectures throughout the day at the memorial and visitor center.

Visitors on Wednesday were given a single flower and the name of one person killed during the attack.

The Navy destroyer Ingersoll cruised silently through the placid harbor waters to the memorial, a gleaming white monument that spans the sunken hull of the battleship Arizona where 1,102 sailors remain entombed.

The Ingersoll’s crew was in dress whites lining the decks at attention and saluting. Before it glided silently past the memorial, the ship sounded one long blast of its whistle at 7:55 a.m. to mark the moment the attack began.

Silence then fell over the memorial, broken only by the sound of birds chirping on nearby Ford Island. A minute later, the air was filled with the roar of four Hawaii Air National Guard jets streaking over the memorial, one of them veering off in the “missing man” formation.

A seven-member Marine Corps rifle detail standing on the Arizona’s former mooring post next to the memorial fired three volleys into the air in a 21-gun salute.

The service concluded with the playing of echo taps, one bugler playing at the dock and echoed by another bugler in the enclosed shrine on the memorial.

Adm. David Jeremiah, Pacific Fleet commander, said in a speech that the attack serves as a reminder for eternal vigilence.

“The world today is greatly changed from 1941. Weapons of mass destruction are a reality,” Jeremiah said. “Deterrence of World War III is absolutely essential to the continued existence of the world as we know it. Deterrence is based on the belief that aggression will be met with immediate response in kind.